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Post by silverdragon on Jan 18, 2014 9:36:59 GMT
Disputed.
I can drive my own car without using the clutch between gears, its a lesson learnt from Trucks with bad syncro- mesh, you know how to play tunes on the engine... But you do need the clutch.
Going up from this, newer sports cars have more than one clutch, with a pre-select box, that makes note of what way you are driving, and puts the gear in place, then swaps clutch plates to engage the gear. (The way you are driving, above, accelerating, you probably want up a gear, slowing, you probably want down a gear).
I have found with the average car driven fast you need to be able to kick the clutch, as all this extra junk in the trunk adds weight to the engine, and a GOOD driver, NEVER misses a gear anyway?... KISS principle. Extra complicated electronics are just a way to employ an extra engineer to fix it.
All well and good for the multi-million pound teams looking for BTCC or equivalent championship, but the average enthusiast doing experience days or track weekends?... you run what you brung, mostly they are Road legal cars, they may have come on a trailer, but thats only in case they dont get to drive them home afterwards 'cos they broke them on the track...
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Post by the light works on Jan 18, 2014 14:34:52 GMT
Disputed. I can drive my own car without using the clutch between gears, its a lesson learnt from Trucks with bad syncro- mesh, you know how to play tunes on the engine... But you do need the clutch. Going up from this, newer sports cars have more than one clutch, with a pre-select box, that makes note of what way you are driving, and puts the gear in place, then swaps clutch plates to engage the gear. (The way you are driving, above, accelerating, you probably want up a gear, slowing, you probably want down a gear). I have found with the average car driven fast you need to be able to kick the clutch, as all this extra junk in the trunk adds weight to the engine, and a GOOD driver, NEVER misses a gear anyway?... KISS principle. Extra complicated electronics are just a way to employ an extra engineer to fix it. All well and good for the multi-million pound teams looking for BTCC or equivalent championship, but the average enthusiast doing experience days or track weekends?... you run what you brung, mostly they are Road legal cars, they may have come on a trailer, but thats only in case they dont get to drive them home afterwards 'cos they broke them on the track... for that matter, REAL touring cars do not race. they tour.
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Post by the light works on Jan 24, 2014 16:11:54 GMT
to continue a discussion on car features from this thread: citadelofmyths.freeforums.net/thread/824/stupid-tv-movie-edition-nit?page=5power locks - my truck automatically locks the doors when I shift into gear, or exceed 5 MPH after manually unlocking them. then it automatically unlocks the doors when I shift to Park. it seemed odd when I first got it, but I have found I like it quite a bit. it is not intrusive, except if I have a passenger who starts yanking on the door latch as soon as I get below 3 MPH, and there have been a few times I have had it be a pointed reminder to shift to park before I hop out to get the mail or newspaper. (this compares to my parents' minivan which locks the doors when you get over 5 MPH and doesn't unlock them when you stop) power mirrors are also a great invention. no more run around the car, tweak the mirror, run back to check it, repeat ad infinitum. especially great on the fire apparatus, where there is really only an in-out adjustment needed. a quick bump on the switch gives you the exact mirror picture you want. satnav: I am still mixed on this - negative because of the idiots who use it for an autopilot; but positive, because it is more reliable than some human navigators. ("oh, you were supposed to turn back there") RV style mirrors: worst mirrors, ever. you can't see to back up. you can't see to go around corners. I seriously believe a tank has a better field of view than these engines have.
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Post by freegan on Jan 24, 2014 23:01:35 GMT
I used to work and live in Abingdon where the MG factory was situated and I can testify that the major factor in the demise of the British motor industry was the requirements imposed by the USA in the 70's that all imported motors should conform to their new emissions legislation.
Adding the requisite components to the (until then) profitable export model MGBGT absolutely killed its performance and sank the company. (It didn't help that the British Leyland executives were predominantly Triumph men and wanted to promote their Spitfire over the MGBGT.)
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 26, 2014 10:50:03 GMT
If People can just get aside from thinking ..... well, like they are told to think?... Ok, now you have stopped, STOP thinking like you have been told to, and start thinking for yourself?... Jeremy is who he is, a tall overweight older comedic journalist with his own views on the world, he doesnt ever pretend to be anyone's "guru", he just tells it like it is, and isnt afraid to say what he thinks about that. But its only HIS view.... If you agree with him, thats your own fault. That fact that MANY people agree with him is what makes him continue. The fact that as many disagree with his is what makes him good. He will be controversial. But most of all, he will tell it like it is, and if that upsets people, thats because they dont want to hear the truth......
I am not "His greatest fan", mI just understand him, I understand why he has to say what he says, and I make sure every week I reach out and get his full page of a daily newspaper... he genuinely makes me laugh.
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 26, 2014 11:11:34 GMT
Daily Drivers and ESP.
Electronic Stability Program. If its on a smaller car, leave it the heck alone. Smaller car is the only-just-a-5-seater with just enough power to get a weeks shopping out of the car park... The kind of car the Kids will drive.
If its on the kind of Car I will drive, I want it in several stages.... I want a stage of ESP that I CAN NOT turn off, even with a sledge hammer, one that takes over when its absolutely certain I have "lost it", and keeps it on the road?... Thats the whole point of ESP, keeping it on the road when us Humans cant react that fast?... Therefore, I want a safety barrier, in the same way we all use ABS, to give us that stomp-and-steer when the brown stuff is in the air-con.....
I want a set of ESP for the "Average man" who cant ever have experienced what I have and therefore doent have the ability to react to a tail-waggle, a set of ESP's that will rescue him when sliding sideways on Ice around a 50mpg corner when he should only have been doing 30 because of the weather....and his lack of experience....
Seriously?... I can slide a three ton van around that corner "Rally style" on snow and ice in perfect control, because I have the experience, at 60 mph, I just wouldnt want your average motorist even TRYING to follow me, because he will be using the Armco at some point?..... So I want ESP available that will keep them on the road.
I also want a set of ESP that will keep the numpties wrapped in bubble wrap... the kind that does limit the amount of power you can use at any time, the kind that shouldnt actually be used [even by me] in any way in "!Town" driving, but will perhaps activate now and again as needed.
I say that the ESP should not actually not be able to be changed for the first few hundred miles of any new drive driving THAT car... juts until you get used to it?...
Get in your average low insurance cost car that is favoured by those who just passed the driving test, and you will feel its a little sluggish.... Get in MY car, with a warm engine, and after driving that slug around for a while, mine will glue your eyeballs to the back of your skull.... And its not even sold as anything more than a family saloon?...
Now let me take you to some of the things I gave driven, and some of the roads I have driven... Lets do the 100=dollar-bill test, with a slight change... you aint allowed to go for it unless I am doing over 40mph.... Some roads I know, if I goo full chatter in a medium sports car, you will NOT reach for the 100 dollar bill.
One of those tasty cars is a Subaru with ESP... its a test bed for systems in design for a rally sports team. I can actually drive faster with that ESP on, as it measures out and delivers power to all four corners better than any four wheel drive system I have ever driven?... Or driven YET, more accurately... And it does that at speed.
I say there is space for electronic systems.... Just not "Nanny state" ones for me please?... For my Kids?.. Until they are as good as me, I want as much electronic baby sitter as I can get in the car?......
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Post by c64 on Jan 26, 2014 12:55:04 GMT
Daily Drivers and ESP.Electronic Stability Program. If its on a smaller car, leave it the heck alone. Smaller car is the only-just-a-5-seater with just enough power to get a weeks shopping out of the car park... The kind of car the Kids will drive. If its on the kind of Car I will drive, I want it in several stages.... I want a stage of ESP that I CAN NOT turn off, even with a sledge hammer, one that takes over when its absolutely certain I have "lost it", and keeps it on the road?... Thats the whole point of ESP, keeping it on the road when us Humans cant react that fast?... Therefore, I want a safety barrier, in the same way we all use ABS, to give us that stomp-and-steer when the brown stuff is in the air-con..... Actually, this is the norm in Europe. First, the "off" switch had vanished. Then People started to pull the fuse to "have fun". Now all cars have an "off" switch again but this doesn't really disable the ESP, it just makes the ESP wait a bit longer to start helping. So you can still draw a doughnut on a parking lot or you think the car can really drift but it doesn't. I don't really like ABS/ESP. With my ordinary 90 HP car, I never had missed it! ESP modifies how the car acts out of a sudden so if you can keep the car from crashing by skill, ESP can and will interfere with your driving and then make you crash. Of course it depends on the situation and level of skill as well on the car. My car has a very long wheelbase and has a very good balance. When ESP would help you, you have done something seriously wrong, e.g. you drove way too fast! I had one case where we had to climb up a steep twisty road to attend to a funeral. My car and my dad's car (also no ESP, ABS only) were the only 2WD cars which made it up that road. The ESP cars all braked in a bad spot and lost momentum to manage the road. I guess if you could really turn the ESP off, some other cars would have managed the road. So the forest ranger with his (ESP) AWD vehicle and I had to drive this road 4 times to get everybody up. I also don't have ABS and never had crashed - except twice when an ABS car had kissed by trailer hook when I braked hard. I have a mechanical brake balance regulator and the skill to lock one or both front wheels without locking the rear wheels. So braking on snow with one locked front wheel in turns or both front wheels locked when braking straight makes my car stop faster than with ABS. Rain is different, but more safety distance is much more worth than ABS. Now with my car very worn out, I am looking for a new one - without ABS/ESP, no power steering if I can find one and no A/C.
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Post by c64 on Jan 26, 2014 12:57:00 GMT
Daily Drivers and ESP.Electronic Stability Program. If its on a smaller car, leave it the heck alone. Smaller car is the only-just-a-5-seater with just enough power to get a weeks shopping out of the car park... The kind of car the Kids will drive. If its on the kind of Car I will drive, I want it in several stages.... I want a stage of ESP that I CAN NOT turn off, even with a sledge hammer, one that takes over when its absolutely certain I have "lost it", and keeps it on the road?... Thats the whole point of ESP, keeping it on the road when us Humans cant react that fast?... Therefore, I want a safety barrier, in the same way we all use ABS, to give us that stomp-and-steer when the brown stuff is in the air-con..... Actually, this is the norm in Europe. First, the "off" switch had vanished. Then People started to pull the fuse to "have fun". Now all cars have an "off" switch again but this doesn't really disable the ESP, it just makes the ESP wait a bit longer to start helping. So you can still draw a doughnut on a parking lot or you think the car can really drift but it doesn't. I don't really like ABS/ESP. With my ordinary 90 HP car, I never had missed it! ESP modifies how the car acts out of a sudden so if you can keep the car from crashing by skill, ESP can and will interfere with your driving and then make you crash. Of course it depends on the situation and level of skill as well on the car. My car has a very long wheelbase and has a very good balance. When ESP would help you, you have done something seriously wrong, e.g. you drove way too fast! I had one case where we had to climb up a steep twisty road to attend to a funeral. My car and my dad's car (also no ESP, ABS only) were the only 2WD cars which made it up that road. The ESP cars all braked in a bad spot and lost momentum to manage the road. I guess if you could really turn the ESP off, some other cars would have managed the road. So the forest ranger with his (ESP) AWD vehicle and I had to drive this road 4 times to get everybody up. I also don't have ABS and never had crashed - except twice when an ABS car had kissed my trailer hook when I braked hard. I have a mechanical brake balance regulator and the skill to lock one or both front wheels without locking the rear wheels. So braking on snow with one locked front wheel in turns or both front wheels locked when braking straight makes my car stop faster than with ABS. Rain is different, but more safety distance is much more worth than ABS. Now with my car very worn out, I am looking for a new one - without ABS/ESP, no power steering if I can find one and no A/C.
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Post by the light works on Jan 26, 2014 15:14:47 GMT
If People can just get aside from thinking ..... well, like they are told to think?... Ok, now you have stopped, STOP thinking like you have been told to, and start thinking for yourself?... Jeremy is who he is, a tall overweight older comedic journalist with his own views on the world, he doesnt ever pretend to be anyone's "guru", he just tells it like it is, and isnt afraid to say what he thinks about that. But its only HIS view.... If you agree with him, thats your own fault. That fact that MANY people agree with him is what makes him continue. The fact that as many disagree with his is what makes him good. He will be controversial. But most of all, he will tell it like it is, and if that upsets people, thats because they dont want to hear the truth...... I am not "His greatest fan", mI just understand him, I understand why he has to say what he says, and I make sure every week I reach out and get his full page of a daily newspaper... he genuinely makes me laugh. like I said, "That's why we like him so much"
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Post by the light works on Jan 26, 2014 15:20:50 GMT
Daily Drivers and ESP.Electronic Stability Program. If its on a smaller car, leave it the heck alone. Smaller car is the only-just-a-5-seater with just enough power to get a weeks shopping out of the car park... The kind of car the Kids will drive. If its on the kind of Car I will drive, I want it in several stages.... I want a stage of ESP that I CAN NOT turn off, even with a sledge hammer, one that takes over when its absolutely certain I have "lost it", and keeps it on the road?... Thats the whole point of ESP, keeping it on the road when us Humans cant react that fast?... Therefore, I want a safety barrier, in the same way we all use ABS, to give us that stomp-and-steer when the brown stuff is in the air-con..... Actually, this is the norm in Europe. First, the "off" switch had vanished. Then People started to pull the fuse to "have fun". Now all cars have an "off" switch again but this doesn't really disable the ESP, it just makes the ESP wait a bit longer to start helping. So you can still draw a doughnut on a parking lot or you think the car can really drift but it doesn't. I don't really like ABS/ESP. With my ordinary 90 HP car, I never had missed it! ESP modifies how the car acts out of a sudden so if you can keep the car from crashing by skill, ESP can and will interfere with your driving and then make you crash. Of course it depends on the situation and level of skill as well on the car. My car has a very long wheelbase and has a very good balance. When ESP would help you, you have done something seriously wrong, e.g. you drove way too fast! I had one case where we had to climb up a steep twisty road to attend to a funeral. My car and my dad's car (also no ESP, ABS only) were the only 2WD cars which made it up that road. The ESP cars all braked in a bad spot and lost momentum to manage the road. I guess if you could really turn the ESP off, some other cars would have managed the road. So the forest ranger with his (ESP) AWD vehicle and I had to drive this road 4 times to get everybody up. I also don't have ABS and never had crashed - except twice when an ABS car had kissed by trailer hook when I braked hard. I have a mechanical brake balance regulator and the skill to lock one or both front wheels without locking the rear wheels. So braking on snow with one locked front wheel in turns or both front wheels locked when braking straight makes my car stop faster than with ABS. Rain is different, but more safety distance is much more worth than ABS. Now with my car very worn out, I am looking for a new one - without ABS/ESP, no power steering if I can find one and no A/C. I very much like the ABS systems I work with. and like I said; I don't have such a problem with the ESP in the fire engines as that it is set at "Driving instructor with a hangover" sensitivity. as it it WILL NOT allow you to pull out of an intersection, while making a turn, at above half throttle. probably at the second station I respond from, since you are turning uphill, it will not let you pull out above a quarter throttle. this is a driveway that we routinely pull the more topheavy apparatus out at flat-on-the-floor throttle.
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Post by silverdragon on Jan 27, 2014 7:42:24 GMT
[quote}I don't really like ABS/ESP. With my ordinary 90 HP car, I never had missed it![/quote]
I miss ESP on mine when I pull out of a "T" junction with a hard left or right, the inside wheel lifts, I get a little wheel spin and have to feather it a little to get traction.... I know, its the fact I have Front wheel drive, and front wheel drives are notoriously hard to get right on full throttle full lock standing starts... especially if you have the high range engine, no TC or ESP or fancy gear box...
ABS?.. Now I have got it I wont go without. Remember I say I chose my current care carefully... it was top of the range for safety when I bought it... ABS, It is always there, and I have got used to having it, yes, in certain circumstances you may be able to stop faster without, but the one I am currently driving, you would have to go to a LOT of effort to do that, 'cos its bloody intelligent....
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 27, 2014 10:03:06 GMT
The problem with safety equipment in cars is that it doesn't in fact make them safer. This is because people have a tendency to either misunderstand how such features work (ABS doesn't shorten stopping distances in most conditions for example). Or they overestimate how 'safe' it really makes the vehicle - Airbags or not hitting a tree at 90 mph is not something you are going to walk away from.
In fact studies have shown that the number of accidents has remained fairly stable over the years, as drivers of newer vehicles tend to drive more aggressively and faster than drivers of older vehicles. At lower speeds the safety equipment does make a difference, but at higher speeds the effectiveness of the features declines.
One thing I'm musing about in regards 'extra' features is the number of people who end up driving the vehicle. I was thinking about this in regards an above comment about powered mirrors. In that case if a vehicle only has a single driver then such a feature should be totally redundant. But if you have two or more regular drivers then this becomes a useful feature. Likewise automatic transmissions become more useful the more people you have who drive that vehicle, as the driver can concentrate more on getting use to the handling of the vehicle and less about shifting gears. Interesting to note that a lot of these 'redundant' features on cars seem to have originally appeared on much larger vehicles, such as buses, that are driven by a large number of individuals.
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Post by the light works on Jan 27, 2014 15:00:57 GMT
The problem with safety equipment in cars is that it doesn't in fact make them safer. This is because people have a tendency to either misunderstand how such features work (ABS doesn't shorten stopping distances in most conditions for example). Or they overestimate how 'safe' it really makes the vehicle - Airbags or not hitting a tree at 90 mph is not something you are going to walk away from. In fact studies have shown that the number of accidents has remained fairly stable over the years, as drivers of newer vehicles tend to drive more aggressively and faster than drivers of older vehicles. At lower speeds the safety equipment does make a difference, but at higher speeds the effectiveness of the features declines. One thing I'm musing about in regards 'extra' features is the number of people who end up driving the vehicle. I was thinking about this in regards an above comment about powered mirrors. In that case if a vehicle only has a single driver then such a feature should be totally redundant. But if you have two or more regular drivers then this becomes a useful feature. Likewise automatic transmissions become more useful the more people you have who drive that vehicle, as the driver can concentrate more on getting use to the handling of the vehicle and less about shifting gears. Interesting to note that a lot of these 'redundant' features on cars seem to have originally appeared on much larger vehicles, such as buses, that are driven by a large number of individuals. a more succinct way of putting it is that people drive more stupidly to compensate for the added safety equipment. I am not completely convinced that this is a valid connection. it could as easily be said that the safety equipment is barely keeping up with the increasing stupidity.
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Post by GTCGreg on Jan 27, 2014 15:02:23 GMT
ABS?.. Now I have got it I wont go without. Remember I say I chose my current care carefully... it was top of the range for safety when I bought it... ABS, It is always there, and I have got used to having it, yes, in certain circumstances you may be able to stop faster without, but the one I am currently driving, you would have to go to a LOT of effort to do that, 'cos its bloody intelligent.... I have an older (2000) GM mini-van that has ABS. It is so bad in winter that it makes the vehicle too unsafe to even use on snow or ice. After I got in a minor accident that never should have happened, I did some testing on snow covered roads with the ABS working and with it disabled. I found that the stopping distance can increase by a whopping 4X with the ABS active. I realize that all ABS is not created equal. I have a 2003 Ford that also has ABS and it differently helps stopping distance, even on snow and ice. The difference is that the Ford only applies ABS to the wheel that is slipping while the GM applies ABS to all wheels even if only one is slipping.
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Post by the light works on Jan 27, 2014 15:25:49 GMT
ABS?.. Now I have got it I wont go without. Remember I say I chose my current care carefully... it was top of the range for safety when I bought it... ABS, It is always there, and I have got used to having it, yes, in certain circumstances you may be able to stop faster without, but the one I am currently driving, you would have to go to a LOT of effort to do that, 'cos its bloody intelligent.... I have an older (2000) GM mini-van that has ABS. It is so bad in winter that it makes the vehicle too unsafe to even use on snow or ice. After I got in a minor accident that never should have happened, I did some testing on snow covered roads with the ABS working and with it disabled. I found that the stopping distance can increase by a whopping 4X with the ABS active. I realize that all ABS is not created equal. I have a 2003 Ford that also has ABS and it differently helps stopping distance, even on snow and ice. The difference is that the Ford only applies ABS to the wheel that is slipping while the GM applies ABS to all wheels even if only one is slipping. ABS has definitely changed and grown over the years. drove an old 80s work truck that basically had a linkage on the rear suspension - if the rear end started to lift, it reduced the bias to the back brakes - and they called it rear anti-lock.
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 27, 2014 16:57:58 GMT
The problem with safety equipment in cars is that it doesn't in fact make them safer. This is because people have a tendency to either misunderstand how such features work (ABS doesn't shorten stopping distances in most conditions for example). Or they overestimate how 'safe' it really makes the vehicle - Airbags or not hitting a tree at 90 mph is not something you are going to walk away from. In fact studies have shown that the number of accidents has remained fairly stable over the years, as drivers of newer vehicles tend to drive more aggressively and faster than drivers of older vehicles. At lower speeds the safety equipment does make a difference, but at higher speeds the effectiveness of the features declines. One thing I'm musing about in regards 'extra' features is the number of people who end up driving the vehicle. I was thinking about this in regards an above comment about powered mirrors. In that case if a vehicle only has a single driver then such a feature should be totally redundant. But if you have two or more regular drivers then this becomes a useful feature. Likewise automatic transmissions become more useful the more people you have who drive that vehicle, as the driver can concentrate more on getting use to the handling of the vehicle and less about shifting gears. Interesting to note that a lot of these 'redundant' features on cars seem to have originally appeared on much larger vehicles, such as buses, that are driven by a large number of individuals. a more succinct way of putting it is that people drive more stupidly to compensate for the added safety equipment. I am not completely convinced that this is a valid connection. it could as easily be said that the safety equipment is barely keeping up with the increasing stupidity. The connection between safety equipment and driving more dangerously has been proved through studies. Basically drivers subconsciously carry out a risk assessment of manoeuvres and driving styles. But driving newer cars with better safety equipment (or equipment that is seen as safe) screws up the mental calculations resulting in worse driving. A principal example is ABS, which a depressingly larger number of people think will magically shorten their stopping distance so they drive a little faster. This doesn't mean that all drivers are idiotic because of such devices, as everyone's personal risk factor will differ as will their view on driving in general - When I was driving I only broke the speed limit three times. Once when I was in a very bad mood and felt the need to vent - but this was on a road where I knew there was no traffic or kids playing. Once when I was trying to navigate back roads and missed the near vertical drop - although in this case my speeding was technically not speeding as I was below the legal limit for the road, just not the safe speed for that stretch of road. The last time was when I driving a mini and got passed by several tones of truck moving at 90 mph while going downhill. That brought me well above the speed limit, as well as nearly melting the poor engine. Other drivers I know actually drove better in newer cars, as the newer vehicles were larger and heavier. One lady I know used to drive a mini with...lets settle for reckless abandon. She never wore a seat belt*, did 90 mph on motorways and on one occasion chased a kid who'd thrown a brick at her car down the pavement. When she had to change to a new car she stopped doing such things, probably because it wasn't as nimble as the mini. (*To be fair every time she had been involved in a crash she had only been injured when wearing a seatbelt. Which explains her view on them.) In general idiot drivers will be idiot drivers regardless of what car they are in, and will take the same (assumed) risks in relation to how safe they think their ride is. So the chances of having an accident remain the same, what has changed is that you are more likely to survive crashes without major injuries unless you are moving at very high speeds.
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Post by GTCGreg on Jan 27, 2014 17:20:58 GMT
There is some concern with all the "smart" traction control, suspension, etc, that the driver no longer has the feedback to know that the vehicle is on the edge of loosing control. Everything seems to be OK because the car's computer is keeping it under control and not the driver. The vehicle ends up going from everything is fine to complete loss of control with little or no warning. Taking too much control (and feedback) away from the driver may be asking for trouble.
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Post by the light works on Jan 28, 2014 0:49:44 GMT
a more succinct way of putting it is that people drive more stupidly to compensate for the added safety equipment. I am not completely convinced that this is a valid connection. it could as easily be said that the safety equipment is barely keeping up with the increasing stupidity. The connection between safety equipment and driving more dangerously has been proved through studies. Basically drivers subconsciously carry out a risk assessment of manoeuvres and driving styles. But driving newer cars with better safety equipment (or equipment that is seen as safe) screws up the mental calculations resulting in worse driving. A principal example is ABS, which a depressingly larger number of people think will magically shorten their stopping distance so they drive a little faster. This doesn't mean that all drivers are idiotic because of such devices, as everyone's personal risk factor will differ as will their view on driving in general - When I was driving I only broke the speed limit three times. Once when I was in a very bad mood and felt the need to vent - but this was on a road where I knew there was no traffic or kids playing. Once when I was trying to navigate back roads and missed the near vertical drop - although in this case my speeding was technically not speeding as I was below the legal limit for the road, just not the safe speed for that stretch of road. The last time was when I driving a mini and got passed by several tones of truck moving at 90 mph while going downhill. That brought me well above the speed limit, as well as nearly melting the poor engine. Other drivers I know actually drove better in newer cars, as the newer vehicles were larger and heavier. One lady I know used to drive a mini with...lets settle for reckless abandon. She never wore a seat belt*, did 90 mph on motorways and on one occasion chased a kid who'd thrown a brick at her car down the pavement. When she had to change to a new car she stopped doing such things, probably because it wasn't as nimble as the mini. (*To be fair every time she had been involved in a crash she had only been injured when wearing a seatbelt. Which explains her view on them.) In general idiot drivers will be idiot drivers regardless of what car they are in, and will take the same (assumed) risks in relation to how safe they think their ride is. So the chances of having an accident remain the same, what has changed is that you are more likely to survive crashes without major injuries unless you are moving at very high speeds. well, in the Jeep wagoneer I learned to drive in, I have to say I never took it over 75 MPH; whereas my ABS equipped Acura hit 120 once. of course, the Jeep wouldn't go over 75, and the Acura was still accelerating when I backed off. overall, my driving was riskier when I was younger, than it is, now; even if it were not for the added safety equipment. This is mainly because I am more in touch with my own mortality.
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Post by the light works on Jan 28, 2014 0:52:00 GMT
There is some concern with all the "smart" traction control, suspension, etc, that the driver no longer has the feedback to know that the vehicle is on the edge of loosing control. Everything seems to be OK because the car's computer is keeping it under control and not the driver. The vehicle ends up going from everything is fine to complete loss of control with little or no warning. Taking too much control (and feedback) away from the driver may be asking for trouble. there is the same concern about firefighting safety gear. it has improved to the point where when it fails, it fails catastrophically; whereas older generations would fail progressively, giving the firefighter ample warning it was too hot where he was. but the ESP system on the engines yells at you while it is regulating your behavior, and I would guess a lot of carmakers' systems do as well.
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Post by Cybermortis on Jan 28, 2014 12:17:02 GMT
Yeah, younger drivers *tend* to take more risks. Partly because they don't have the same sense of mortality as older drivers and partly because they have less experience and as such don't always calculate the true risks well.
That said older drivers can be just as bad, if not worse as they tend to pick up bad habits - such as holding the wheel the wrong way or going too fast on the 'well this hasn't hurt me before' principle. The difference with older drivers being 'safer' may be connected to them having been more likely to have had an accident at some point, and having kids - both of which can bring mortality home to them and result in more defensive driving.
And as I said before idiots will continue to be idiots regardless of age or the car they are driving. Unless or until they have a wake up call, which often means ending up in hospital. And even then your real idiot will put the blame on someone else, refusing to accept that they were doing anything wrong. Police hear a lot of such excuses from those they have stopped for speeding.
Insurance companies hear even more from those claiming for damages. A British comedian called Jasper Carrot used to (and might still) collect insurance claim forms. Some of his favourites included;
I reversed out of the drive and hit the number 42 bus. The bus was five minutes early.
I drove into my neighbours drive and hit a tree I don't possess.
I saw this slow moving, sad faced pedestrian as he bounced off the hood of my car.
The man didn't know which way to turn, so I hit him.
The man tried to move out of the way, I had to swerve several times before I hit him.
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