Hmm, perhaps you could also mandate better braking systems in trains while you're at it. :-)
Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
351–360 of 512 posts
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that isn't a problem with numbers. That is a problem with letting your imagination run things. The scenarios and questions you ask are easy to explore in the data. If the number of crashes goes down, contrived scenarios don't really impact things. If they stay flat or go up, then you have to answer why. To emphasize, for your imagination here to be relevant, the number has to do one of those. If the number goes d…
I disagree. I've been a licensed driver for over 40 years. I had one minor fender-bender at 16 years old, learned my lesson, and haven't had another accident since. I'm an exceptionally good driver as evidenced by this, plus the fact that I've taken performance driving classes, simulators, and so forth. I, personally, am a much lower risk than the typical driver. Putting a drivers' aid device in my car may well incre…
Every person on the planet believes they’re an above average driver. No one thinks they need these types of safety features in their car because they’re a safe driver and the problem is every other driver.
It terrifies me that people are so oblivious to their own flaws that they would willingly disable features such as AEB if they could. I’m extremely thankful for regulations that prevent such life-saving safety features from being disabled.
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#353Periodic re-testing to keep your license should become mandatory. 50% of federal transportation funding going to transit and related projects should become mandatory. Getting as many cars off the road as possible in the coming years should become mandatory. Reduced speed limits in cities across the country should become mandatory.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7126a1.htm
If pedestrian detection "doesn't work very well" as the linked article* says, we need to take the simple, practical approaches that we know will have an impact, and stop sacrificing lives to the altar of convenience and the "American Dream".
* https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/10/aaa-finds-your-new-car-...
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#354There is a lot of concern about incorrect actuations in this thread. One way to address this is to dictate that the car AEB status prior to each accident was made known to everyone involved, and to hold the manufacturer directly liable whenever AEB contributed to a collision. After making that change, they could circulate the draft bill, and let the car manufacturer lobbyists kill it.
I was probably lobbyists driving the push to make them mandatory in the first place
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm baffled by this comment. For one thing, this is literally not how vehicle regulation has worked in any western country for at least half a century, probably longer. There are already legally mandated systems that take away driver control in certain circumstances, notably ABS. For another, the NPRM being discussed assumes that essentially 100% of new vehicles will eventually come with AEB systems in the near futur…
Huh? ABS doesn't take away my control, it improves my control by preventing conditions that would reduce traction. This system is always engaged by brake pedal input from my foot. It's not something that cars just do out of nowhere. The emergency braking system will automatically stop the car without your input whenever it wants. Judging from this thread, that could be due to anything. False positives have been repor…
> People should absolutely be able to turn this thing off if they don't trust it.
Absolutely not. There are other people on the road. Families. You don’t get to kill other people in a preventable accident because you believe you’re an above-average human who can outperform a computer.
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#356This almost got me into a serious accident, twice. Definitely would not recommend and I switched cars because of it. The last thing I need is buggy software with the capability of instantly changing the trajectory of my vehicle (slippery surfaces, cornering). A brand car as well (MB) so really, really disappointed, what should have been a safety feature actually was the opposite. Dealer said everything was fine so th…
Add to that the ability to stop and rob cars with a roll of foil. Thanks, but no thanks.
How would you stop a car with a roll of foil?
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#357This almost got me into a serious accident, twice. Definitely would not recommend and I switched cars because of it. The last thing I need is buggy software with the capability of instantly changing the trajectory of my vehicle (slippery surfaces, cornering). A brand car as well (MB) so really, really disappointed, what should have been a safety feature actually was the opposite. Dealer said everything was fine so th…
I wrote up a long comment that got scrapped by my focus filter but I feel the need to voice strong agreement here. I have a recent Mazda which in almost all ways is my perfect car except for the newfangled safety features all new cars seem to have. Lane correction and emergency braking, even set to the lowest sensitivity levels, are bad to outright dangerous in city (and some country) driving. In NYC it's common to h…
Oh, the Mazda lane assist and lateral collision thing from the side mirrors I found very weird. We rented a MX-30 at one point and were driving on the highway, used the signal to change lanes and mysteriously it decided that there is a car on the other lane (there wasn't) - warning in side mirror, and nudged the wheel and refused to change lanes. It was so weird having the car not allow me to do something because of a "ghost" it saw. Even with our current car, which is not a Mazda, had 2 small incidents in 3 years. One at night while it was raining the front collision warning started beeping, no break though (nothing in front, except rain) and then again, which was a bit dangerous, on the highway on a sunny day, no one in front, somehow I suspect the camera system thought the shadow of an overpass was a car maybe and decided to break all of the sudden (with ACC on), luckily there was no one behind us, but still, was a bit scarry.
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#358I confess that I find a dark humor in how many self professed "great drivers" find these features a nuisance. All the while so many people are completely unaware that they have these, as they have never activated. Hard for me to square those pegs in a favorable way. Which, yes, being a great driver means you may be pushing close to limits while still be completely under control a lot. I just don't have a strong prior…
Nuisance or not is a false dichotomy. Mandating it rather than simply offering it makes cars even more expensive, by making cheap cars even more unprofitable to sell. Imagine if car ownership becomes increasingly unaffordable, like what homeownership has become.
What is the raw cost of AEB to the manufacturer? You need some sensors, a computer, and a way to actuate the brakes. Doesn’t seem like it would represent a significant fraction of the cost of even a cheap car.
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#359This feature once saved me from what would have otherwise been a very nasty crash, many years ago. I was driving too fast in a borrowed car over a small hill and hadn't realized that traffic had stopped just out of my sight until too late. I heard a beep and saw flashing on my dash and I started braking but a moment later the emergency braking system kicked in, braking much harder than I would have been able to. The…
> the emergency braking system kicked in, braking much harder than I would have been able to
So this is completely not true. You can brake as hard as any system can, there's no magic to it. Just press on the brake pedal hard, in any ABS car.
Surprisingly, this is something people often don't do. I am an instructor at car control clinics, one of the exercises is panic braking. All you need to do it press on the brake pedal. Easily 50%+ of students struggle with this. Just press hard. That's it.
Also, please take car control clinic. It will save your life and those around you.
Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seatbelt tensioners are life savers. They're a little explosive charge under the chair near the seatbelt attachment point that yanks hard on the belt to squeeze you against the chair while the car comes to a stop. They're super powerful and you don't want to mess with them unless you know exactly what you're doing (see also: airbags).
So do you have to replace the explosive even if you don't end up crashing?
If it's an explosive one, yeah.