Electronic driving aids - love, hate or indifferent?

[SpokeyDokey]

Is that a sim you have to pay for?

No -it comes with the car and is also part of the emergency call alert system.

 

[Jenkins]

Electric seats that retract when the engine is switched off to allow for easier exit from the car and then reset to the last position when the electrics are next switched on. Fine if there's just one driver, but we have Hyundai pool cars with this function and if the previous driver is on the shorter side and the next driver is taller (like myself) you find the seat taking you worryingly close to the wheel and have to wait until it stops before you can move it back.

These are the same cars with tiny back windows with limited rear visibility AND no rear windscreen wiper - the rear screen only clears of water if driven at higher speeds for a few minutes.

 

[cougie uk]

Your handbrake shouldn't illuminate the brake lights, mine doesn't (Skoda Superb). I pull up at lights using the footbrake, pull the handbrake switch, release the footbrake, and I can see the brake light glow extinguish behind me.
It annoys me too when people in front stand on the brakes for 3 full minutes, burning your retinas out. And that's pretty much ubiquitous, I'd say over 80% of drivers can't be bothered with a handbrake now.

I love my EV for that - no need to mess round with the handbrake or clutch for hill starts - just foot off the accelerator and done. So simple.

 

[gbb]

I disagree, it still has cables going from the unit to the brakes.

In the main the most sophisticated computer in the car is the one in the drivers seat, we all know how bad & unreliable they are so there's no hope for the plethora of other computers dotted around the car. Personally I think there are far too many gadgets on the cars these days, they are far too safe, take them all away & make them dangerous again, that way people will engage with them again instead of allowing the mind to wander off to other stuff whilst the car does it for them.

Back in the day when you had your 1.3 Escort doing 70mph you knew you were doing 70mph & had to have your wits about you, now a 1L shopping trolly does 90mph with ease & no drama.

Actually in a way you're right but its design/car dependant (I didn't realise it at the time of my answer). Some have motors integrated into the caliper,some have a motor operating a cable/cables.So actually, the original post my post was directed at, asking do the brake cables fail...actually on some cars...yes. but on some cars...no

 

[slowmotion]

DRLs. Shame there isnt an over ride that stops people driving at night with no rear lights as the DRL and dash is lit. See this all the time. This is where clever tech is beaten by idiots.

Sat nav, love it, but its another tech beaten by idiots.

If clever tech can be beaten by idiots, it's not clever tech, is it?

 

[Deleted member 1258]

If clever tech can be beaten by idiots, it's not clever tech, is it?

He designed it to be idiot proof then someone invented a better idiot.

 

[neil_merseyside]

That's how I discovered that my new company car had lane assistance.

Coming off the top of the A686 from where the cafe used to be, and going towards Penrith, I decided to see how the car would handle.

For anyone who doesn't know that road it's steep and twisty at that point, but it drops in front of you in such a way that you can see a long way in to the distance and use the whole road if you want to.

After a minute I was beginning to think that my wheels weren't balanced due to the juddering from the steering wheel, then after a while I noticed a little picture of a car with two dotted lines either side of it on the dash. 😂

Wouldn't that be in the manual?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Wouldn't that be in the manual?

My manual is 681 pages long, lots of diagrams and only around A6. But it's still easy to miss some things.

 

[classic33]

My manual is 681 pages long, lots of diagrams and only around A6. But it's still easy to miss some things.

Have you read it fully yet?

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Electric seats that retract when the engine is switched off to allow for easier exit from the car and then reset to the last position when the electrics are next switched on. Fine if there's just one driver, but we have Hyundai pool cars with this function and if the previous driver is on the shorter side and the next driver is taller (like myself) you find the seat taking you worryingly close to the wheel and have to wait until it stops before you can move it back.

These are the same cars with tiny back windows with limited rear visibility AND no rear windscreen wiper - the rear screen only clears of water if driven at higher speeds for a few minutes.

Once had to moved the Boss's wife's Mercedes, that she was 5'2" I'm 6', I got in it, switched it on & it proceeded to move the seat forward even switching it off didn't stop it, it got quite painful

 

[gbb]

Its not just cars of course. I work in fruit packing. 20 years ago, 3 generations of machines ago, a typical netting machine could squeeze out 52 packs per minute. Very mechanical, simple circuit board, push button controls and robust pneumatic systems.
2 generations of machine later, they're still mechanical, incredibly complex and costly electronics, HMI screen controls, more fragile pneumatic systems....they do do a few things differently but at the end of the day....struggle to get anywhere near 52 packs per minute.

It does the same job (plus a couple options we never use anyway)...but is so incredibly complex compared to 20years ago

Technology and progress eh?

 

[tyred]

I admire all the technology that goes into a modern car from an engineering point of view but I'd prefer my own car to be simple. A lot is just over-complication which may be fine when the car is new but is added hassle and expenses as it ages. It also isolates you from the driving experience.

I hope to get my Peugeot 205 welded back together in the new year or else get some other modern classic. My current Skoda Fabia is so bland, horrible to drive, always seems to have something wrong with it, is less economical and is considerably bigger on the outside but has much less space inside. I don't consider it progress.

 

[slowmotion]

I'm beginning to suspect that Elon Musk has sent out a fanatical army of influencers with the mission of persuading the populace that self-driving cars are the dogs bollocks. Is Twitter going tits up that badly?

 

[stephec]

Wouldn't that be in the manual?

It'll be in there somewhere.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Electric seats that retract when the engine is switched off to allow for easier exit from the car and then reset to the last position when the electrics are next switched on. Fine if there's just one driver, but we have Hyundai pool cars with this function and if the previous driver is on the shorter side and the next driver is taller (like myself) you find the seat taking you worryingly close to the wheel and have to wait until it stops before you can move it back.

These are the same cars with tiny back windows with limited rear visibility AND no rear windscreen wiper - the rear screen only clears of water if driven at higher speeds for a few minutes.

Can’t it be the seat settings (& other electronic functions; door mirrors?) be allotted to different keys?


Agree on small rear-windows
Wife had a Toyota C-HR, & that was appalling