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The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

scobleizer.com

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Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#21

Post by CamperBob »

vlad wrote: post #9

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, electronic stability control is the most important technology since seat belts. Yet, as recently as a couple of years ago, the Volkswagen Rabbit (Golf) was the only car under $20,000 I could find with the option, other than Suzuki. As an example, the Honda Civic did not have it, and you had to buy an Accord or an SUV to get Honda's version of it. An electronic…

There are some really interesting risks associated with electronic stability control, though. One system used by GM on the Corvette works by comparing the input from an inertial yaw sensor to the current steering-wheel angle. Any disagreement results in selective application of braking at one or more wheels, as needed to make the two sensors agree.

Now: what happens when one of those sensors fails? http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-tech-performance/2336065-...

I wish I could find the video I saw earlier, where a Z06 doing about 90 MPH did a hard right turn into the wall at a drag strip for no apparent reason. I don't know with any certainty that the active-handling system was at fault in that incident, but it was enough to turn me off of the technology in a 500+ HP car.

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#22

Post by houseabsolute »

ugh wrote: post #18
jordanb wrote: post #12

The 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.

Absolutely. The moment we develop an autopilot that is safer than average human drivers by a statistically significant margin, it should be mandatory in all cars. I am hopeful that we will see this during our lifetimes.

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#23

Post by rms »

houseabsolute wrote: post #22
ugh wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Absolutely. The moment we develop an autopilot that is safer than average human drivers by a statistically significant margin, it should be mandatory in all cars. I am hopeful that we will see this during our lifetimes.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/01/gm-says-driverl/

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#24

Post by houseabsolute »

rms wrote: post #23
houseabsolute wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. The moment we develop an autopilot that is safer than average human drivers by a statistically significant margin, it should be mandatory in all cars. I am hopeful that we will see this during our lifetimes.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2008/01/gm-says-driverl/

Sure, but that's not the same thing as saying they will be proven statistically safer, which will be the bar you have to pass before you can mandate them for everyone. I figure that's another few years off. But I agree that it won't be long now.

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#25

Post by vijayshankar »

weaksauce wrote: post #17
teuobk wrote: post #13

There'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…

One more argument is that there is usually a time gap between one light turning red and the other turning green. This gap should allow most of mild red light runners to pass through safely. (At least in my city in India this is true, the time gap is as big as 5 to 8 seconds)

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#26

Post by mhartl »

Devilboy wrote: post #20

BMW 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://nextbigfutur…

N.B. saloon == sedan. (As with many of the Britishisms in my brain, I learned 'saloon' from The Economist.)

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#27

Post by mike_organon »

jordanb wrote: post #12

The 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…

Scoble's text is different from what the Ford guy says. Ford doesn't automatically hit the brakes, only preps them and when you hit the brakes, it automatically applies them 100%. Prius automatically applies the brakes and Scoble says he no longer instinctively hits them himself. I wonder if that loss of instinct is worth the benefit.

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#28

Post by Retric »

mjs wrote: post #6

"Ford’s version of radar prepares the brakes so that all you need to do is touch them to get full braking pressure if the car thinks it’s headed for a collision." That sounds like a really good way to get hit from behind. Does the system try to stop you as fast as possible, or as slow as possible while still avoiding the car in front? The second option is kinder to cars behind without such sophisticated safety system…

The goal is to minimize the force of a collision not to stop 10 feet behind the car in front of you. As a collision avoidance system, if you can stop with a reasonable distance from the car it's not going to start and if the other car is not stopping as fast as expected then it can relax some.

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#29

Post by nazgulnarsil »

Devilboy wrote: post #20

BMW 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://nextbigfutur…

how does that work if you're not right next to the shoulder?

Re: The most under-hyped, but most important, technology since seat belts

#30

Post by Retric »

ricree wrote: post #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.

They used could save not will save for that vary same reason. Most likely the net effect would be much like seat belts which transform many fatal accidents into non fatal accidents and many non fatal accidents into non accidents.

PS: Unlike airbags seat belts do help avoid accidents. But, it's rare to see people talk about that outside of drivers education.

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