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Transportation Technology

Most Drivers Don't Understand Limitations of Car Safety Systems, AAA Finds (usatoday.com) 262

A new study by AAA found that most drivers don't understand the limitations of advanced safety technology installed on their new vehicles. "The study indicates that drivers overestimate the capabilities of features such as blind-spot monitoring systems, automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control," reports USA Today. "The findings raise questions about whether Americans are ready to adapt to partially self-driving vehicles, which typically require drivers to remain alert and ready to take over the steering wheel if the car can't handle the conditions it encounters." Here are the problem spots flagged by AAA: - Blind-spot monitoring: Nearly 80 percent of drivers don't understand the limitations or thought that the system had greater capability to detect fast-approaching vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. Relying too much on blind-spot monitoring, about 25 percent don't look for oncoming vehicles when they change lanes.

- Forward-collision warning and automatic emergency braking: Many drivers confuse the two. One is a warning system, while the other takes action. More than 40 percent of drivers don't know these limitations.

- Adaptive cruise control: About 29 percent of drivers who use this system, which accelerates and brakes on its own, are sometimes comfortable "engaging in other activities" while the system is activated, according to the study.
The researchers did note that these safety features can prevent about 40 percent of crashes and 30 percent of crash deaths.
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Most Drivers Don't Understand Limitations of Car Safety Systems, AAA Finds

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  • by PopeRatzzo ( 5467360 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @08:29PM (#57382070)
    No matter how you look at it, having a human in the loop is a setup for failure. Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

    Hire a well-paid, attentive train driver, hold him to the flame, and be done with it.
    • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @08:40PM (#57382106)

      Try taking a train in the US. It's seriously fucked up.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by JustNiz ( 692889 )

      > Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

      Baloney. I love driving, especially offroad in the desert. show me a viable public transport alternative.

      Until a train or bus can immediately pick me up right from home on my schedule not theirs, and drop me right at the door of wherever I personally want to go just as fast as I can drive there, public transport can never be as good as owning a car.

      • by CaffeinatedBacon ( 5363221 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @09:18PM (#57382254)

        public transport can never be as good as owning a car.

        Traffic jam vs subway.

        • It's a false dichotomy. Relying entirely on public transit is never as good as also owning a car. But car owners may sometimes choose to use public transit in certain circumstances -- for instance, traveling to the downtown area of a large city without having to worry about traffic or paying for parking.

          • Relying entirely on one car is never as good as owning 2 or 10. Car owners may sometimes choose to use one car in certain circumstances.

            I was responding to the never part, which is clearly wrong. Showing examples where a car is better - is it too much of a stretch to call that a strawman?

          • by Chrisq ( 894406 )

            It's a false dichotomy. Relying entirely on public transit is never as good as also owning a car..

            That depends on a lot. If you include costs then owning and parking a car in a lot of cities that have good public transport infrastructure doesn't make sense. The cost of a parking space could exceed that of [businessinsider.com] many long taxi journeys and hiring a car for a holiday. Add to that the cost of car purchase and maintenance and not owning a car could well be a better option.

            • That depends on a lot. If you include costs then owning and parking a car in a lot of cities that have good public transport infrastructure doesn't make sense. The cost of a parking space could exceed that of [businessinsider.com] many long taxi journeys and hiring a car for a holiday. Add to that the cost of car purchase and maintenance and not owning a car could well be a better option.

              MOST of the US is not super urban with the population piled onto of each other like NYC, nor the glut that is Los Angele

          • This. Whenever I go to a concert in Downtown LA or Hollywood, I just drive down to the Park & Ride and take the subway out. Less hassle and way cheaper. Also there is no way to get home on public transit at 1am when trying to get home.
          • by doom ( 14564 )

            Relying entirely on public transit is never as good as also owning a car.

            Yes, it's very important to fuss with registration, make insurance payments, and live with a vehicle taking up space and outgassing pollutants even when it's not in motion.

            The alternative of planning your life entirely around public transit, biking and walking has absolutely no downsides, except for increasing your expected lifespan by years.

        • public transport can never be as good as owning a car.

          Traffic jam vs subway.

          Traffic jams in my city show up about once a month and cost me maybe 10 minutes on a half hour trip. No subway where I am. Busses only come within three or four miles of my house, even ignoring that the bus route requires switching busses in mid trip, walking a mile to the connector and waiting an hour for the next bus.

          Personally I'd love to ride the bus to work and use the time to get some work done, but in the past 15 years, public transportation here has not improved in the slightest.

          • The biggest change I've seen in public transportation is when they removed a bunch of stops, so you have even farther to walk to the bus stop.

          • Traffic jams in my city show up about once a month and cost me maybe 10 minutes on a half hour trip. No subway where I am. Busses only come within three or four miles of my house, even ignoring that the bus route requires switching busses in mid trip, walking a mile to the connector and waiting an hour for the next bus.

            Personally I'd love to ride the bus to work and use the time to get some work done, but in the past 15 years, public transportation here has not improved in the slightest.

            I tried taking the local Public transit buses. There was a stop right outside of my office, and I live 2 miles from work. Coupled with a stop right in front of my house, this should be great. But the timing was that I had to either leave work a half hour early, or wait a half hour for the next bus. Then the bus took a grand tour around campus and town before heading to the burbs. Then a shopping center, then tour of the neighborhood next to mine.

            finally, I was frustrated and got off and walked the last

      • If you're driving offroad you're probably not going to be confused about blind spot monitoring features.

        • And lane keeping is less of a priority if there are no lanes.

        • If you're driving offroad you're probably not going to be confused about blind spot monitoring features.

          Though I've found a backup camera to be a real lifesaver.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        You might as well have said, fuck everything I want to burn the planet, America fuck yeah, like it actually means something.

        More constructive to the discussion, with those car safety systems, with the level of reliance people are attempting, those system when they fail for what ever reason, the car should stop moving. What are the fault detection methods for those vehicles, how reliable are they, will they detect failures in the system, will they detect inaccurate readings, how reliable and durable are the

        • by raymorris ( 2726007 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @10:01PM (#57382374) Journal

          > the car should stop moving.

          FYI, that's one of the more dangerous things you can do. You're quite likely to get rear-ended or T-boned. Some people's default reaction of stomping on the brakes whenever something unexpected happens is a leading cause of accidents.

          • by bondsbw ( 888959 )

            This is an area where we are already seeing improvements. Vehicles are being developed and equipped with automatic braking to prevent collisions. They don't always prevent collisions (particularly over rated speeds) but they tremendously reduce the impact velocity, and thus serious injuries/deaths.

        • I don't know, if active comma avoidance is, available for your vehicle but if, it is you, should get it.

        • many people do not like to travel in close company with many other people of unknown quality and nature.

          Particularly sick people. Nothing like getting on a bus with people sneezing and hacking away in confined quarters.

        • by nasch ( 598556 )

          when they fail for what ever reason, the car should stop moving.

          Hell no. I don't want to have pull over on whatever road I'm on whether there is a shoulder or not and call a tow truck because a lane departure warning system had a hiccup. Or if the car continues but then won't restart after it's turned off, maybe I won't be stuck on the side of the road but it's still an enormous inconvenience and possibly very expensive for a system I might not even care about. We don't even make cars fail to run when the seat belts aren't buckled, and that is far more important than

      • Baloney. I love driving, especially offroad in the desert, show me a viable public transport alternative.

        That is an entirely different class of situations. Here you're not considering "driving" as a mean of transportation to get from point A to point B, but as a hobby.
        That's beyond the point of this discussion.

        BTW: horse-riding is probably an example of a type of hobby where you enjoy getting around scenery, while offloading part of the driving to some (natural, non-artificial) intelligence.

        Now back to track:

        Until a train or bus can immediately pick me up right from home on my schedule not theirs, and drop me right at the door of wherever I personally want to go just as fast as I can drive there, public transport can never be as good as owning a car.

        This has been extensively developed in some countries (e.g.: Switzerland) and has some fancy name like

      • Hi Snowflake, We dont care about your personal needs. We don't owe you anything.

        Right now big corporations make money selling you personal vehicle and convince you with billion dollar ad budgets that this is the best option for you. Things could change in a jiffy.

        Public transportation is funded using tax dollars by local municipalities. They can sign unvoidable 100 year contracts. They have the authority to collect taxes to pay for their obligations. Their elections have very low turn out. If the biggie

        • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

          Cool and in the meantime I am going to work hard to make sure that leaches like you don't get a chance make these changes. People who don't pay taxes and are not educated should not be voting. With a few more SCOTUS appointments maybe we can make that happen.

          You probably do pay taxes are are qualified to vote but that does not matter without the rabble you won't win.

          • I pay lot of taxes.

            And I don't resent it.

            It is the price we pay for having a civil society.

            My view on taxes: The Government is the largest venture capitalist. Only it has the deep pockets to invest very widely and wait for it to bear fruit. It invests in ALL the citizens, it invests in the entire country's infrastructure. It does not know who is going to hit a home run and become a super duper billionaire. It does not know which company can take advantage of the infrastructure of roads, bridges, netwo

      • wherever I personally want to go just as fast as I can drive there, public transport can never be as good as owning a car.
        Public transport is usually not affected by traffic yams, and depending where you actually want to go to: 3 times faster. E.g. My town Karlsruhe to Paris ... or Frankfurt.

        Living in a 3rd world country with a 3rd world attitude about cars and public transport simply makes you forever stuck in your self fulfilling prophecy.

      • > Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of.

        Baloney. I love driving, especially offroad in the desert. show me a viable public transport alternative.

        True enough - I've yet to find public transportation as entertainment on my 4 wheeling adventures.

        But now I have these ideas of all-terrain buses.....

      • by hey! ( 33014 )

        You're quibbling. Nobody is suggesting public transportation as an alternative for 4x4 offroading.

        We humans are creatures of habit; we automatically compare the best case for the way we habitually do things to the worst case when we contemplate doing something differently.

        Of course under ideal conditions for driving it's better to drive. If you're driving from your house to your reserved parking space twenty minutes away on uncongested roads, it's going to be impossible to even imagine a more convenient p

        • But an ultra-dense urban city core is the ideal scenario for public transit.

          I could not STAND to live in an ultra dense city core...ugh.

          I prefer having a non-attached home, with a back yard so I can do fun things like have crawfish boils for friends, have my smoker for BBQ, even set up targets for my crossbow, raise a garden, etc.

          I can't stand to live stacked up on top of each other.....and sharing walls where I'd annoy someone when I turn my stereo up to enjoy.

          Nope, I'll take my suburban life and the c

    • by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @08:56PM (#57382172)

      > having a human in the loop is a setup for failure.

      No, having a BAD DRIVER in the loop is a setup for failure.
      The problem at least in the USA is that the driving test is pretty much only focussed on your ability to follow road signs and laws. it does almost nothing to test your actual ability to properly control the vehicle itself, especially in loss of traction type situations.

      • No, having a BAD DRIVER in the loop is a setup for failure.

        No. Humans are fallible and non-deterministic. Good drivers are also a setup for failure.

        • by mjwx ( 966435 )

          No, having a BAD DRIVER in the loop is a setup for failure.

          No. Humans are fallible and non-deterministic. Good drivers are also a setup for failure.

          And machines are peferct and godlike.

          To err is human, to really fuck up requires a computer, as the old cliche goes.

          As recent tests, including this article, show is that computers are not as good as a decent human driver... not a good one, just a mediocre one. This is because computers cant handle fuzzy logic, to put all the "intuition" things that drivers do instinctively into absolutes that computers are good at dealing with would require computers that might fit onto a small articulated lorry. Not

      • I suspect every driver is a bad driver on occasion. Humans aren't machines, even the best-trained professionals make the occasional mistake. I know I do, despite several advanced driving courses and a rigorous attitude to driving (no distractions, etc.).

        • by mjwx ( 966435 )

          I suspect every driver is a bad driver on occasion. Humans aren't machines, even the best-trained professionals make the occasional mistake. I know I do, despite several advanced driving courses and a rigorous attitude to driving (no distractions, etc.).

          I don't believe there are bad drivers. "bad" implies that its somehow not their fault and cant be improved, nothing could be further from the truth.

          What we have are lazy and/or arrogant drivers. These are drivers who could do better, but wont bother and are completely unwilling to change.

          Whilst I agree that every driver has bad moments, bits where our attention falters. However the differences between a good driver and a lazy or arrogant driver is:
          1. A good driver makes mistakes infrequently.
          2. A go

          • by nasch ( 598556 )

            I don't believe there are bad drivers.... Lazy, arrogant drivers will never admit to making a mistake and as a result, will make the same mistake with alarming regularity.

            That sounds like bad drivers to me.

      • by bigpat ( 158134 )

        > having a human in the loop is a setup for failure.

        No, having a BAD DRIVER in the loop is a setup for failure.
        The problem at least in the USA is that the driving test is pretty much only focussed on your ability to follow road signs and laws. it does almost nothing to test your actual ability to properly control the vehicle itself, especially in loss of traction type situations.

        That's the problem? You speak as if you can test for a bad driver? How many times do people drive and not get enough sleep, or are sick, or have a heart attack mid trip with little or no warning... oh and how do you account for the learning process of either becoming a better driver or learning bad habits?

        You can probably envision a world with far fewer and just the most capable drivers on the road. I can envision a much better and safer system where people are not driving at all.

    • by 0100010001010011 ( 652467 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @09:39PM (#57382308)

      I both work in this industry and own a vehicle made by someone we don't compete with.

      People think it's like a Movie or TV show they watched.

      Where is the repository to submit an issue? As someone that deals with CANape and ADAS systems all day long, where can I get the .a2l file for my car? Without me cracking it open to see, what embedded chipset(s) are you using? What ADAS level are these? What ASIL level is your entire stack? Can I see a basic block diagram (Simulink) of the system?

      If anyone at Subaru is reading. The 2019 Outback with EyeSight adaptive cruise control doesn't detect a stopped vehicle as a 'vehicle' ahead of it.

      Also, stop treating the 'keep your lane' feature like a bang bang controller. Estimate a dead center path and keep it centered on that. You'd also probably subconsciously train the drivers to keep it in the middle of the road instead of bouncing from side to side.

      Most of these complaints would probably be addressed by giving product demos. At some point I'm going to string up a tarp and see exactly how braking acts. I've pushed it to my "Holy shit stop" limit already.

      Also, the icons are confusing as shit. I know some UX team spent years on those, give me a better way to know you see the car in front of me than some blinking light. Half the people on the road would drive with an oil light on, and do.

      They also need to standardize on some name. Every company has a cutesy marketing term for what their product does.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      No matter how you look at it, having a human in the loop is a setup for failure. Public transportation yet again solves this problem in addition to just about every other problem you can think of..

      I can think of a problem it doesn't solve right off the bat: people loathe it. A car takes you where you want to go when you want to go there. Public transportation takes you only where it goes when the schedule says it will. People hate that.

      • People loathe public transit (in the US) because, for the most part, we refuse to do it well. Where we do it well, people love it. The New York Subway is a great microcosm of this: it has been run well, and it has been run poorly. When it is run well, New Yorkers swear by it, despite the drawbacks inherent to putting a mass of humanity in a tube underground. When it's run poorly (like right now), people swear at it.

        We've gotten this idea that things just happen without effort, so if something takes e
    • by 4im ( 181450 )

      What makes you say a "professional" driver is any better? From my sole visit to the USofA back in 1991, I distinctly recall a bus driver who couldn't handle the buses stick shift. Seriously? Any youth having passed the (automobile, not bus) driving test home (in Europe) would've fared better, if not legally. And this guy could legally have had a bus full of people killed.

      I'm quite convinced that the more tech you build into the cars/buses/trucks/whatever, the less the driver will actually retain competence

    • Whether the transportation is public or private is entirely orthogonal to whether or not there's an [attentive] human in the loop.

      (Were you trying to be funny, Pope, or did you just get ahold of some bad weed??)

  • and generally only the higher end cars have these features anyway. This is a first world problem for the top 10-20%.

    I will say this, I got caught on the freeway in the rain once. Real rain, the kind where you just get the f*** off the road and wait it out because you can only see 5 feet in front of you. I kept having numbnuts in Audis and BMWs pass me at 70 mph because the had driver assist features that kept them in the lane. I did manage to get off the freeway without getting creamed, but those shmuck
    • The Lane-keep Assist can't see through pouring rain either. Those Audi and BMW drivers are endangering themselves and others.

      Of course, this isn't really a problem with just new cars. Even in old cars, my fellow Californians drive in mountaintop snow as if it's still a sunny day! Coming from the snowy northeast, I think it's insance to see people doing 80 mpg when it's snowing, but Californians don't know any better.

      - In all of these cases, they just have no clue that they should "slow down" in dangerous conditions. Some don't even turn-on their headlights when it's raining & hard to see. Probably a lack of thinking.

    • by balsy2001 ( 941953 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @09:16PM (#57382246)
      I watch a TED talk by the head of googles driverless car project. He said in the talk that you cant partially automate a car for exactly this reason. Has to be all or nothing. Google new this years ago. See here https://www.ted.com/talks/chri... [ted.com]
      • by JD-1027 ( 726234 )
        I have a hard time believing that partial automation isn't a net win.

        I would imagine that these "driver assist" technologies are helping reduce accidents or their severity. Or are we meant to believe these car companies are adding these features that are causing more accidents?

        Partial automation only has to slightly decrease accidents for it to be a win.

        So if any single one of these driver assist technologies saves one single accident from happening (total net accidents), he's been proven wrong.
    • You can barely see the line markers in light rain especially as it starts getting dark, I'm surprised it would work in heavy rain at all.

      As for first-world problems, I do remember some cars where you actively had to fight the steering wheel because it would randomly jerk left or right by itself.

      • Having to fight the steering wheel on dodgy road surfaces is called "tramlining"
        It's a combination of wheels, tires and suspension geometry that causes it. The front wheels follow cracks in the road surface.

    • by necro81 ( 917438 )

      Average age of a car in America is 11.5 years and generally only the higher end cars have these features anyway. This is a first world problem for the top 10-20%.

      These kinds of higher-end features have a way of making it down into less expensive models over time. Hell, many of them, like airbags and ABS, have become mandated equipment. So being aware of this as a problem, even a "first world problem" now, and understanding how to mitigate it, will become more important over time.

      It is already happen

  • by oldgraybeard ( 2939809 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @08:50PM (#57382150)
    the individuals are not even bothering to check behind them, or check their side mirrors, etc.because the safety devices in the cars would warn them. The industry has been dumbing down driving. I have always seen this as a problem. You tell individuals buy our car and you won't need to worry about something they won't.
    Also if the safety devices may be perfect, How are driver less cars to work at this point in the development cycle. I believe in driver less cars but feel they are further in our future than most think.

    Note the Tesla driver putting his car on auto pilot and then watching a movie before his wreak. Can't say that was really Tesla's fault! They say your supposed to be poised with your hands hovering over the wheel and aware of the situation and be ready to take control. In that case I would just be doing the driving to help me stay aware and awake.

    Just my 2 cents ;)
    • Missed a word
      "Also if the safety devices may be perfect"
      should be
      "Also if the safety devices may not be perfect"
    • by JustNiz ( 692889 )

      > Note the Tesla driver putting his car on auto pilot and then watching a movie before his wreak. Can't say that was really Tesla's fault!

      I call that natural selection. If anything we need much more of it.

    • by gl4ss ( 559668 )

      driverless cars work in limited, pre arranged pre setup pre programmed stretches of travel where nobody decides to fuck with them with traffic cones or whatever.

      Anyhow, generic self driving has been hyped through the moon, not least due to tesla using it to raise funding(oh our cars are "ready" for it!)..

      assists are relatively simple to code. braking assist is useful. but if people are so fucking stupid as to not look at a road, I think they would read the newspaper while driving even without assists.

      howeve

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Cars have been getting easier to drive ("dumber" as you say) for decades. Automatic choke, automatic gearbox, traction control, ABS, auto-dimming mirrors. It's generally not a problem if it is done right.

      • It's generally not a problem if it is done right.

        They do it wrong so often, though. All of those things, in fact, including the choke which was replaced by the air bypass system, and more recently by throttle by wire. Those things fail all the time. Most ABS sucks rocks in gravel, which is especially sad because it's not that hard to make it work properly. Traction control is usually garbage, it can make you lag hard when trying to pull into traffic across a little bit of dirt in the gutter, creating a dangerous situation in traffic. And auto-dimming mirr

  • The problem with this stuff is that the interaction with the tech is too vague unlike say Cruise-control. The operation of cruise control is very straight forward, arm it, set your speed, and brake or cancel when you want to stop. These other systems provide little in the way for you to understand the limits of the tech and get a feel for them. The manufacturers want some of these systems to function similar to air-bags or anti-lock brakes, but people want to rely on them more actively than this.

    I believe H

    • And Google home is generally very capable of working in that way. It will tell you if it can't work your sprinklers or that it can. I have noticed that it sometimes fails to recognize a command for turning on devices if the word order is wrong. "(OK Google, turn the living room lights on" vs. "OK Google turn on the living room lights.") but other times it has no problem at all ("OK Google turn off the lights" and "OK Google urn the lights off" both seem to work.)

      In many ways Google assistant/home is suppose

  • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @09:25PM (#57382270) Journal

    "WARNING: This device has a 30% chance of getting your dick torn off if used improperly."

    Politicians and marketers learned you have to be short, blunt, dramatic, and over-simplistic to get anybody's attention these days.

    • "WARNING: This device has a 30% chance of getting your dick torn off if used improperly."

      That'll just encourage women and especially MTF transgenders to use it improperly.

  • Another Problem (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The assistive technologies increase the average response times of the drivers according to German research. The response time can be as long 6 to 8 seconds, with 90% drivers taking 12 to 15 seconds to check mirrors and become fully aware of the traffic. The out of sync brains need to re-synchronize with the speed of traffic, probably. Maybe an automatically administered UN-forbidden stimulant with some repeating electric shocks could help? Everything for safety is the word on the street, after all.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Disclaimer: Opinions follow

    1. Technology is magic - Joe consumer doesn't seem to understand just how far apart technologies are. "Hey Alexa order more toilet paper" is just as magical to them as self driving cars.

    2. The tech industry - to hear them tell it we've entered the AI age, machine learning, buzzword buzzword buzzword. But most of what is being called AI is really just really clever data analysis

    3. The media - the media makes my previous points worse by playing up the buzzwords and "technology is

  • Control groups? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RhettLivingston ( 544140 ) on Wednesday September 26, 2018 @09:40PM (#57382310) Journal

    Some of these numbers seem about like what I've observed of drivers who probably don't have these technologies. Within the past week I've had at least 4 drivers I can remember, including a bus driver and a truck driver, switch lanes while I was beside them. I doubt I drove more than about 80 miles total during that time - all in city traffic. I don't think the vehicles I remember were new enough to have blind spot monitoring or that I was really in a blind spot. Also, I drive about the same speed as the other traffic, so I was not approaching fast or anything that could have caused the issue. None of them looked.

    Also, I've seen people going down the interstate reading newspapers, reading books, shaving, etc. most of my life. They were likely using plain old-fashioned non-adaptive cruise control. I don't know that 29% feeling comfortable doing other things while using their adaptive cruise control is a significant increase over regular cruise control without seeing the control group data.

    AAA is all about changing people's behaviors. Even if these technologies show no increase in problems, they would still publish this story because they see a potential for improvement if people change. And they would always leave out the control group because they want to shock people.

    In general, if a technology requires driver education to be effective, forget it in this country. The only question that matters is whether the statistics indicate there is a reduction in accidents with the technology. If there is, use the technology. The fact that some get killed who might not have without it is irrelevant. Only the average matters when looking for societal progress.

    • AAA is all about changing people's behaviors.

      They certainly changed my behavior recently. Been a customer for 20 years and got stuck on the side of the road in a hazardous location. They claimed they had dispatched someone and they would be there within an hour, when they in fact had not even found anyone who was willing to come and get me. Luckily the problem was heat-related, and I was able to make it home and cancel my AAA membership.

      • The AAA lobbies for road building (as opposed to public transit, bike/pedestrian facilities, etc), claiming that it's large membership is behind them. If you don't want to support their lobbying efforts and are just looking for road service, there are other organizations out there...

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Lane departure warnings should improve drivers who don't indicate a bit. At least they will get some feedback every time they do it.

      Of course every car I've seen that has it lets you turn it off.

    • I bought a Volvo with blindspot warnings about 10 years ago. I've never found it helpful mostly because I spent 25 or so years driving cars without blindspot avoidance. I've basically ingrained blindspot checking into my driving behavior and retraining myself to rely on the technology and drop manual checks seems hard, and by itself it doesn't add much to manual blindspot checking.

      It could also be a function of the implementation. Mine uses orange lights in the car near the region where you look at side

  • lack of rules, proper education and loads of stupid people, and this is not only car safety problem. why can i drive 230+ km/h (~140 in retard units) with my old shitty golf5 on the autobahn? better and stricter rules and lots of mandatory driving lessons for everyone.
  • And that include my family and friend. Most drive very aggressively, as much above the limit they can get away with, many ignore stops and crossing lamp at night, think they are the king of the road and two wheeler should just fuck off (bicycle, bike, moped) and that right of way or stop dont exists if the other road has a bike only. Everyday there us at least 20% if the driver bypassing me at less than a foot between us. I love truck driver on the other hand. So far in decades i had only one monkey too muc
  • by Hognoxious ( 631665 ) on Thursday September 27, 2018 @02:24AM (#57382862) Homepage Journal

    Most drivers can't drive.

  • Drivers are not technically minded and they don't know all the ways that a system could fail. Should we be surprised that they judge the system from the way it behaves when it appears to work and not by the way it could disastrously fail?

    And that's a problem that extends into self driving cars or cars with semi-autonomous functions. The car appears to do more or less the right thing for the most part and naturally the driver becomes less and less attentive. The problem is that even the smartest automated

  • Which is why it needs to be all or nothing. Either fully automate everything, or else keep the human actively responsible for everything.

    We humans are not good at partial attention. At least most of us aren't.

  • Most drivers probably don't understand how anything in their cars work.
  • I have a relative who works as an actuary for an insurance company. She constantly goes on how these new "safety" features are unreliable and are the reason why premiums are going up around the country.

    They're the first safety add-ons that truly make driving more dangerous for the 1 out of 10 times it doesn't work. The same argument does not apply to power steering, antilock brakes, and stability control. Why? Because these systems provide a consistent experience each time they engage.

    The newer ones? Not so

  • Go back to 100% manual everything and force drivers to DRIVE THE DAMN CAR!

    Going up hill downshift.

    Stop sign, stop and back to First Gear and smoothly release the clutch.

    So easy even you grandmother could do it.

  • It's a pretty well-known effect-- or at least, it's a commonly strongly suspected effect-- that safety equipment can perversely encourage accidents by providing a false sense of security and encouraging risky behavior. Clearly we need a name for this effect in order to encourage discussion of this possibility (and, of course, intimidate people who haven't learned the name yet). As far as I can tell, it hasn't been named yet, so if anyone has a good, catchy idea, the glory may be yours.

    A friend of mine arg

  • Is the ONLY automated system I use. Heck, I won't even own automatic transmission, which is becoming harder to find. All these "creature comforts" are taking away your attention on the road. Add distracted driving from eating, messing with a radio/phone and it's a wonder we don't have as many accidents as we do. I'm still one of those ones that keeps BOTH hands on the wheel, when not shifting gears. Driving these days, takes MORE attention, not less, and, relying on "technology" can get you in trouble, ES

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