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| Thread ID: 135051 | 2013-09-19 03:42:00 | Electronic stability on new cars! | mzee (3324) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1353873 | 2013-09-19 03:42:00 | So we are now producing a generation of drivers who do not have to know how to control a car in an emergency, skid, corners etc. One day the automatic stability fails and they kill themselves and others. Or they borrow a car without the stability, go round a corner at their normal excessive speed and come unstuck! All these gadgets encourage speeding and lack of control, they are not reliable. Recently in Australia I hired a new car with stability control and electronic throttle. The throttle had no feel to it and was very soft, took a while to get used to, took off like a startled rabbit! The steering was dead, no feel whatsoever. Give me my 18 year old Honda any day. | mzee (3324) | ||
| 1353874 | 2013-09-19 04:47:00 | The throttle had no feel to it and was very soft, took a while to get used to, took off like a startled rabbit! The steering was dead, no feel whatsoever. Give me my 18 year old Honda any day. This is simply a familiarity issue, not an actual safety issue, imo. You can get drastically different throttle, steering, braking etc feedback even between different cars of the current model year. Being familiar with a specific vehicle obviously makes things easier. In terms of the electronic aids, yes, unfortunately some use them as an excuse to go a bit overboard, but at the same time, there are a number of other advancements that contribute to the safety factor. Having recently compared (on a closed track) a couple of newish (07+) vehicles with their older (early 90s) equivalents, even with most/all of the driving aids off, there is a noticeable and significant improvement in handling, stability and control in the newer cars. Lowered centres of gravity, wider stances, weight distribution and all sorts of other factors play a role. Of course, this may not be true for *all* newer cars, as the sample size I am using is quite small at only 3 models. |
inphinity (7274) | ||
| 1353875 | 2013-09-19 06:24:00 | SWMBO and I were having a similar discussion the other day about manual compared to Automatics. We both reckon a person should learn to drive in a manual. Reason -- If you can drive a manual you can drive an auto. BUT the other way around, the person is lost as to what to do. Modern cars make a person lazy. Theres several people at her work who have had to drive manuals, and dont have a clue how to drive one without the bunny hops, stalls all over the place. :D |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1353876 | 2013-09-19 06:43:00 | People can drive or their cant. To be perfectly honest I would prefer to have these driver aids. Without them a lot of drivers still don't know what to do even if been driving for 20 plus years. | plod (107) | ||
| 1353877 | 2013-09-19 06:55:00 | This is simply a familiarity issue, not an actual safety issue, imo. You can get drastically different throttle, steering, braking etc feedback even between different cars of the current model year. Being familiar with a specific vehicle obviously makes things easier. :+1:. It works going the other way as well: I'm quite happy driving my '95 Suzuki around but once I get into our Jeep (with its electronic gizmos) it's a little daunting. It feels like driving the USS Enterprise :lol: |
pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 1353878 | 2013-09-19 07:23:00 | Like everything else. We have all these gizmo's even with our smartphones, tablets. I'll put my hand up, I was taught in auto trans, never had accessed to a manual car. My own car has been in the garage with the regro put on hold for 3yrs now. I just borrow someone's car to get to the supermarket and I take the bus to the city. Dad has his car, but this car averages 10L/week on fuel. When our AA Smartfuel expires at the end of the 2nd month, we put in 50L as it's the max for discount, last us 5 or 6 weeks. I'm still using a manual camera that's as in one that doesn't need a battery. When the battery die or when it's too cold and it stops, I can keep going .... I've just got into darkroom processing too. |
Nomad (952) | ||
| 1353879 | 2013-09-19 10:56:00 | So we are now producing a generation of drivers who do not have to know how to control a car in an emergency, skid, corners etc. One day the automatic stability fails and they kill themselves and others. Or they borrow a car without the stability, go round a corner at their normal excessive speed and come unstuck! All these gadgets encourage speeding and lack of control, they are not reliable. Recently in Australia I hired a new car with stability control and electronic throttle. The throttle had no feel to it and was very soft, took a while to get used to, took off like a startled rabbit! The steering was dead, no feel whatsoever. Give me my 18 year old Honda any day. yes/no a bit here. everyone makes mistakes and even good drivers can't recover fast enough to avoid crashing. stability controls generally work at the limits. you generally know your pushing the limits by the cars behavior anyway. safety devices making worse drivers is not a new argument, it really started over ABS. at the end of the day the devices reduce crashes and the related injuries/death etc. as far as the systems failing and they kill themselves, its a very remote possibility and many of the systems now won't let the engine run if they are not working (major pain for 4x4'ers). people simply don't drive older cars slower than new ones. they don't drive unsafe vehicles any slower/better than a higher safety car. the fear of death or injury is a minor factor. people are far far more scared of getting a slap on the wrist by a cop than dieing in a car crash. a lot of drivers have poor technical skill so they have big problems driving a different vehicle. kinda of a interesting thread considering i was first on scene to a car accident today. a driver lost it on a corner, 360 it into a bank and flipped onto its side. going by traffic at the mo silly season is in full swing.the amount of high/drunk/agro drivers out at the mo is huge. the problem is not the cars but the people. be safe out there. |
tweak'e (69) | ||
| 1353880 | 2013-09-19 20:09:00 | LOL! Years ago husband and I decided all teens should learn to drive in our Austin Cambridge. No power steering, no take off power, manual, heavy as.... Teaches you patience, no boot it out into traffic - you'd never make it....heavy and solid so that if you did hit something, it didn't disintegrate.... Required effort to steer, effort to brake. No electronic anything - including windows. After we got more modern cars...I noticed it for ages....brake with your little toe, steer with a finger - wind windows up and dead silence - no traffic noise. It was quite alarming for a while how incredibly easy it was to drive - and how oblivious you could be other other cars... I like the (relative) power of my old Toyota, it's longer lasting parts - engine especially, but I do miss the old tank for it's solidness. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1353881 | 2013-09-19 20:46:00 | The old "solid" cars were good if your mission was demolition on a repeat basis. What they hit stayed hit. However, they were almost as good at incapacitating their occupants as they were at immobilising themselves. (They were great for garage owners and parts dealers though.) Your Austin's greatest safety feature was it's Lucas substitute for an electrical system that kept it off the road a lot of the time. ;) | R2x1 (4628) | ||
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