Interesting that it doesn't always perform in severe weather conditions as this seems like it could be when it was most useful, eg avoiding a pile-up in a whiteout. He mentions that you shouldn't be driving in such conditions but unfortunately Michigan is famous for rapid and surprising weather changes. Other than that it seems like very cool technology that hopefully becomes standard soon. It's nice to see that car manufacturers are willing to take things slow to avoid rejection because they think it is important as well.
The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
11–20 of 142 posts
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#12The thing about ABS is that it operates on the principle of least surprise: It takes what the user expect brakes to do (slow the car down) and makes it work even when traditional brakes would fail to perform that task.
So it took a technology that the user expected to work in a certain way, and made it work better in that way.
It made brake behavior less surprising to the user.
This technology seems to do the opposite (at least, the way Scoble described it). It massively changes the behavior of the car based on some sensors, and then expects the user of the car to deal with the different behavior of the systems, all in a high-stress situation with alarms going off.
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#13There's a lot of interesting automobile safety research going on in Silicon Valley. For example, Mercedes-Benz has a building in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto where they design next-generation safety systems. My former roommate works there, and, though I probably shouldn't give details, I can say that there are some neat safety systems under development.
One tidbit: a number of stoplights in Palo Alto and Redwood City broadcast information about when they are going to change. A properly equipped car can receive that information and decide whether to proceed as usual or begin braking, even before there is a visible change. As a corollary, if the red light is about to turn green, the car can decide not to slow down.
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#14I've had the radar-assist cruise control for two years (complete with braking) and everything, and I view it as a first step towards automated driving.
People aren't likely to accept automated driving (even if it's statistically safer than the average driver) but they will pretty readily accept driving aids that watch the car in front of you, and watch if you're in your lane, and what not. I expect those "aids" to continue to advance and expand with them being "aids" for a long time, until liability problems are solved.
And FWIW, I've had no issue when driving rental cars that don't have the radar/laser based cruise control. The experience of regular cruise control and radar/laser cruise control is sufficiently different that there's really no way to mix them up.
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#15The thing about ABS is that it operates on the principle of least surprise: It takes what the user expect brakes to do (slow the car down) and makes it work even when traditional brakes would fail to perform that task. So it took a technology that the user expected to work in a certain way, and made it work better in that way. It made brake behavior less surprising to the user. This technology seems to do the opposit…
In practice what it means is that if you're about to crash into something, and you hit the brakes, that it hits them 100% right off the bat, instead of the 50% or 80% that most people would go for.
I've not used the system in the Prius, but I've used a competing system and it's not at all surprising.
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#16It is so reliable I no longer impulsively reach for my brakes. Let’s say the car in front of me speeds up after slamming on its brakes. Hmm. That sounds pretty dangerous :(
I have a car equipped with a similar system, and have a similar reaction (my car will slow down to a stop if I let it).
I've had no issues thinking that rental cars were the same, because the driving experience with "standard" cruise control and radar/laser cruise control is very obviously different.
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#17There's a lot of interesting automobile safety research going on in Silicon Valley. For example, Mercedes-Benz has a building in the Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto where they design next-generation safety systems. My former roommate works there, and, though I probably shouldn't give details, I can say that there are some neat safety systems under development. One tidbit: a number of stoplights in Palo Alto and R…
The slowing down for a red is nice but the not slowing down because it is going to turn green is scary. My friend died in a car crash because he timed the light and saw that it was going to be green. A mild red light runner t-boned his car and that was that. I say mild red light runner because had he not timed the green perfectly he probably would still be alive.
Don't get me wrong this is promising technology but I would be hesitant to rely on it to do too much.
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#18The thing about ABS is that it operates on the principle of least surprise: It takes what the user expect brakes to do (slow the car down) and makes it work even when traditional brakes would fail to perform that task. So it took a technology that the user expected to work in a certain way, and made it work better in that way. It made brake behavior less surprising to the user. This technology seems to do the opposit…
Driving cars is very dangerous. The earlier we radically change how we use cars the earlier we can avoid deaths on the streets.
I want an autopilot for cars as soon as possible.
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#19"Think about that. If we could cut down on car crashes by even 5% we could save more than 2,000 lives!"
I don't know whether or not this is true, but the argument is fallacious. Without further evidence, it is a bit premature to assume that the fatal:nonfatal ratio in crashes prevented will be the same as that of crashes in general. It is possible, though unlikely, that a chance might only prevent nonfatal crashes.
Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts
#20BMW has a system in their top-end saloons that will safely pull your car over to the side of the road without crashing if the driver is suddenly incapacitated (e.g. a heart attack). These system are great and I hope we can overcome the social barriers eventually. Car accidents are still the #1 cause of preventable death worldwide.
EDIT: Here's another great system expected to start trials in 2011: http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/11/road-trains-and-modular-veh...
If you have a vehicle fitted with this system you'll be able to join 'road trains' where the front vehicle is driven by a professional driver (e.g. truck or bus driver) and the rest of the cars follow behind it - driven automatically.