How do you know its working?

[Pinepig]

I've had the warning go off many time, usually when the traffic suddenly slows...but I'm always in the middle of lane change to avoid the brake stomp...so I'm not sure if this thing works or not as the brakes has never been activated in my situations...maybe I should try closing my eyes and see what happens? ?

Pretty much the same, I've never had the brakes applied but I've had it go off several time while accelerating through a lane change where I'd been fairly close to the car I'm passing. My wife and I laugh when it goes off now.

You might think I may drive like a complete asshole but I assure you it's part and parcel driving in California to be half asshole even attempting to be as courteous as possible.

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[JACKSMYDOG]

Where in Ontario would one find this @JACKSMYDOG character

Halidimand County, ~3 hours from Detroit. Why for you ask?

"Just because you are a character, does not mean you have character." - Winston Wolf

 

[Marpater]

I lived in London for about 5 years in the early 90's, did a bunch of work at DDM plastics (built the spray booths) in Tillsonberg. Nice area of the province to live in.
The collision warning system has gone off on mine a few times now, when someone is turning right in front of you (like 4-6 lengths) and I am not braking, the gap closes and I guess the system thinks that I am unaware of the closing distance.
As for the lane keeping, I have that off, I find that it tends to make the steering more stiff on the highway, I don't like the assist when I am intentionally riding either of the lines. We purchased a Corsair Lincoln which has lane centering, which is a world apart from the lane keeping system, that will steer the vehicle very well, just have to have a light grip of the wheel, otherwise the system tells you to put your hands back on the steering wheel.

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

Good luck with that. He's part of the Special Forces and moves around all the time. Why do you think he has a dog for his avatar? He's untraceable.

Dog?

 

[JesseS]

Not being in the military is my biggest regret. I love the life I had, but I think I could have enjoyed a military life as well.

Although I would have loved to kick around Europe in my youth, I do not regret not having to drive a Cab-over. I had one for a few days and hated it.

Early in grade 12, I was accepted to college on a sponsored mechanics program. It wasn't conditional on completing 12, so I pretty much quit that day, and played more pool. I got a job at a dealership, which was going to work around my return to school. College started but I quit and went to the dealer full time again.

At 42 I wrote my GED.

I'd still be doing pool table work, but it was too hard on the knees.

I got my GED from the Army at 22, sent it to my HS with the scores, along with Military experience credit they sent me a deploma, actually dated the year I would have graduated had I stayed, and added me to the school rolls for that year, which I thanked them for. I attended the University of Maryland extension campus in Germany and along with remote work and CLEP I got my 2 year in Human Resources Management, something the military likes, and helps with advancement. I loved Germany and stayed 10 years holding many jobs, some good, some bad, one of the best was NCOIC of a Golf Course (really) in Stuttgart, got that job because I speak German, learned it from a secession of girlfriends. I was lucky, being one of 9 from a poor family from the woods I managed to do alright, mainly from the Army kicking me in the ass enough times . I retired at 38, too young to not do something, so I applied for and got into the Police Academy for the State Police, went back to school for another BA, this time in AJ, then retired again at 57, all in all a great life. Oh, and I know what you mean about the cab-over, no choice it was an Army truck.

 

[ControlNode]

So because people are used to it, it should remain a bad design? Safety warning systems shoud default to the warning mode when defective, not safe mode. If the light fails, it represents as safe to change lanes, which is un-safe.

It's a bad design in your opinion. I think the way it works is in line with how most people expect it to work. And the light is only an aid, the driver should still be manually checking lanes before changing, failing that regardless of the blind spot indicator state is still on the driver.

Active braking activated on my truck for obstacle in adjacent lanes. It slammed the brakes on so hard, if I had been on any type of slick surface I would have been out of control. That's unacceptable IMO.

I can't speak to how well ABS may or may not help on a slick surface under that example, but if surface is so slick should likely be going slower.

Your other example of not seeing a car passing you, I'm not sure of your point.

Was noting that I think there is an audio warning in addition to the light, so as long as the rest of the system is working as indented (should be confirmed by the lack of an error message on the dash) and the light failed, when the signal is turned on there should still be an alert.

Replies in bold.

 

[JACKSMYDOG]

Replies in bold.

You are missing the point on the on/off mirror light. It's not about what people are used to. We've only had those lights for a decade or so, on a small % of cars. Fix it and people will get used to a safer system. If safer is the goal, we should be using the safest system to start.

Yes, slow down for slippery conditions, I never thought of that. Still at the appropriate pace, with unexpected and unnecessary brake applications at or approaching maximum force, it's going to be problematic.

The light and alarm came on, when you failed to see a passing car. Did it drop from the sky, or did you fail to see it with your multi-step checking regiment? Again the point is, with proper driving skills and attentiveness, that wouldn't happen.

Here's an example of what these systems do to drivers:

Traffic lights started out that when the red light came on for north/south traffic, the green light came on simultaneously for east/west traffic. Because of collisions with people running reds, and other people timing greens, the resolution was to add a delay between the red going on and the green coming on. This is very effective at reducing collisions at intersections for a time, but invariably the collision rate increases back to where, and it increases collisions at intersections which don't add the delay. The reasoning is that people adjust their driving habits unconsciously. They know there is a delay, they try to use it.

This is the effect I see from most enhanced systems. The end result is what we are witnessing with increasing automated drivers, and that will only increase. 10-20 years from now, you will get in your car and have no control over anything. Everyone will be a passenger at the control of the central traffic system.

 

[ControlNode]

The light and alarm came on, when you failed to see a passing car. Did it drop from the sky, or did you fail to see it with your multi-step checking regiment? Again the point is, with proper driving skills and attentiveness, that wouldn't happen.

The second check did work, I saw the car on my second look as the light came on and the alarm sounded, it was not there on my first look. I was in the right light of a 3 lane road and the truck I had pasted in the center lane was slower, I was already in the right but coming on on more slow traffic in the right and was moving center once I was clear of the slower truck there. The small car was going much faster than the rest of traffic (reckless difference in speed) and moved from the left lane to the center lane. I could not see the car on first look as it was on the other side of the truck at that time, likely just came into view as I put the signal on before my second check.

Again my point was that if the light is out I think that audio alert is a good backup safety.

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