Safety standards coupled with electronics. My 02 RAV4 was 2800 for an SUV and I’m surprised it didn’t kill me. Moderate crosswinds would have me fighting the wheel constantly.
I definitely agree there. I’ve long been for an advocate of increasing the difficulty of getting a license. Public transport will have to significantly improve before that becomes feasible though.
The basic Newtonian law of inertia makes this very relevant when the vehicle is now half a ton heavier than needed, plus waiting on processing lag through some AI system.
When you’re driving around a huge box of safety equipment, you must not even trust yourself behind the wheel.
Ain’t that just fantastic? We live in a world where people are led to believe that driving around an extra thousand pounds or so of hardware is somehow more energy efficient?
When exactly did people get so fucking stupid? Lighter vehicles require less energy to drive, and are also much easier and quicker to maneuver around.
That’s just raw science for you. If you take a 2000 pound car and add another 1000 pounds of hardware to it, that’s less energy efficient, regardless of the source of energy.
The discussion was about tire wear and now you’re bringing up efficiency into the mix.
Safety equipment is mostly about protecting the people inside the car (but also people outside the car), a motorcycle is much lighter than a car, would you rather get t-boned on a motorcycle than a modern car? Or a Model T instead of a 2025 Ford?
Brakes are better so braking distances aren’t any worse.
If even Ayrton Senna could make mistakes, I would rather all the idiots on the road have some tools to assist them and make them safer and seeing how you’re unable to keep up with your own conversation, I would rather see you having tools to make sure you don’t crash if you get distracted.
Ok but that wasn’t possible with the 80s car either, the difference is that with assist your car might brake before you can react and with safety equipment you might survive the crash.
Again, go ride a motorcycle if no safety equipment and light weight is so important to you, just be careful because braking distance is even longer because of the small contact patch with the ground!
Yeah! And real airline pilots fly the whole time by the seat of their pants!
Sarcasm aside, antilock brakes, traction control, and driver assistance features are fantastic if/when used correctly. Sure the chip may not be smarter than you, but the chip will always be faster than you. In the time it takes your brain to realize that something has gone wrong where the rubber meets the road, your car’s computers have already started mitigating the issue. What needs to change is the driver’s response to those systems. If they come on, then the driver has gone beyond the driving parameters that the road, weather, and their own skill set will allow, and they need to immediately slow down and reevaluate the conditions.
That’s not always true. I had a situation where a car backed out in front of me, only like 15 feet in front of me. If I (or the car itself) had hit the brakes, the inertia wouldn’t have allowed the car to stop in time, and I would have plowed into the side of his vehicle.
There simply wasn’t enough time to bring the vehicle to a complete stop at that moment, but sure enough that’s what the automated stuff would have done.
I responded within less than a tenth of a second by realizing that an impact was inevitable, and I didn’t want to slam into the side of the idiot’s car, so I did the seemingly counterintuitive thing. I didn’t hit the brakes (no point by then), instead I jerked my steering wheel to the left to avoid a side impact.
Results: Instead of screeching brakes and slamming into the side of his car, I just clipped his back bumper. Much damage avoided, by my own reactions and not relying on some chip that would have just defaulted to brakes that wouldn’t have been able to stop the vehicle in time.
did the seemingly counterintuitive thing. I didn’t hit the brakes (no point by then), instead I jerked my steering wheel to the left to avoid a side impact.
Results: Instead of screeching brakes and slamming into the side of his car, I just clipped his back bumper.
Yes. If you’re going the speed limit of 25mph on a service road, in broad daylight, and some idiot backs out in front of you when you’re only about 15 feet away from them, then there’s no way in hell that you’ll be able to stop the car in time.
Dude had absolutely no excuse for that either, it was a perfectly clear line of sight, dude just didn’t look.
Why don’t you try stopping a car going 25mph within 15 feet of distance? It’s not possible in such a short distance.
Safety standards coupled with electronics. My 02 RAV4 was 2800 for an SUV and I’m surprised it didn’t kill me. Moderate crosswinds would have me fighting the wheel constantly.
People that feel a chip is somehow smarter and safer than them shouldn’t have a license in the first place.
You’re either a skilled and aware driver, or you’re not.
I definitely agree there. I’ve long been for an advocate of increasing the difficulty of getting a license. Public transport will have to significantly improve before that becomes feasible though.
Ok… Doesn’t change the fact that safety equipment that makes the car safer in case of an accident is heavier than not having it.
The basic Newtonian law of inertia makes this very relevant when the vehicle is now half a ton heavier than needed, plus waiting on processing lag through some AI system.
When you’re driving around a huge box of safety equipment, you must not even trust yourself behind the wheel.
Ain’t that just fantastic? We live in a world where people are led to believe that driving around an extra thousand pounds or so of hardware is somehow more energy efficient?
When exactly did people get so fucking stupid? Lighter vehicles require less energy to drive, and are also much easier and quicker to maneuver around.
That’s just raw science for you. If you take a 2000 pound car and add another 1000 pounds of hardware to it, that’s less energy efficient, regardless of the source of energy.
The discussion was about tire wear and now you’re bringing up efficiency into the mix.
Safety equipment is mostly about protecting the people inside the car (but also people outside the car), a motorcycle is much lighter than a car, would you rather get t-boned on a motorcycle than a modern car? Or a Model T instead of a 2025 Ford?
Brakes are better so braking distances aren’t any worse.
If even Ayrton Senna could make mistakes, I would rather all the idiots on the road have some tools to assist them and make them safer and seeing how you’re unable to keep up with your own conversation, I would rather see you having tools to make sure you don’t crash if you get distracted.
The heavier the vehicle is, the worse the braking distance will be. That’s just raw science, inertia is a thing ya know.
With the same brakes and tires, which have both improved a lot even in the past 20 years.
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/performance-trends-mustang-comparison/
124ft braking distance for a stock 1996 Mustang GT
2024? 99ft
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2024-ford-mustang-gt-performance-package-manual-first-test-review/
Okay. Read my other comments, try braking within 15ft distance because some dumbfuck backed out in front of you.
Still not possible, not even close to possible.
Ok but that wasn’t possible with the 80s car either, the difference is that with assist your car might brake before you can react and with safety equipment you might survive the crash.
Again, go ride a motorcycle if no safety equipment and light weight is so important to you, just be careful because braking distance is even longer because of the small contact patch with the ground!
Yeah! And real airline pilots fly the whole time by the seat of their pants!
Sarcasm aside, antilock brakes, traction control, and driver assistance features are fantastic if/when used correctly. Sure the chip may not be smarter than you, but the chip will always be faster than you. In the time it takes your brain to realize that something has gone wrong where the rubber meets the road, your car’s computers have already started mitigating the issue. What needs to change is the driver’s response to those systems. If they come on, then the driver has gone beyond the driving parameters that the road, weather, and their own skill set will allow, and they need to immediately slow down and reevaluate the conditions.
That’s not always true. I had a situation where a car backed out in front of me, only like 15 feet in front of me. If I (or the car itself) had hit the brakes, the inertia wouldn’t have allowed the car to stop in time, and I would have plowed into the side of his vehicle.
There simply wasn’t enough time to bring the vehicle to a complete stop at that moment, but sure enough that’s what the automated stuff would have done.
I responded within less than a tenth of a second by realizing that an impact was inevitable, and I didn’t want to slam into the side of the idiot’s car, so I did the seemingly counterintuitive thing. I didn’t hit the brakes (no point by then), instead I jerked my steering wheel to the left to avoid a side impact.
Results: Instead of screeching brakes and slamming into the side of his car, I just clipped his back bumper. Much damage avoided, by my own reactions and not relying on some chip that would have just defaulted to brakes that wouldn’t have been able to stop the vehicle in time.
So what I’m hearing is, you swerved without checking your mirror and still got into an accident with the other car?
Wrong. Totally wrong.
The other dude backed out in front of me, he was the one that didn’t check his mirrors or even turn his head to just fucking look.
Try keeping up will ya, I thought I explained fairly well.
Matter of fact, try re-reading the second sentence of the comment you responded to. I literally said dude backed out in front of me.
I think you need to re-read what you wrote…
Yes. If you’re going the speed limit of 25mph on a service road, in broad daylight, and some idiot backs out in front of you when you’re only about 15 feet away from them, then there’s no way in hell that you’ll be able to stop the car in time.
Dude had absolutely no excuse for that either, it was a perfectly clear line of sight, dude just didn’t look.
Why don’t you try stopping a car going 25mph within 15 feet of distance? It’s not possible in such a short distance.
It’s called inertia, look it up.
Ah, see, you’re making a straw man here. I did not say anything about being able to stop the vehicle in time.
What I did say is that you swerved your car, without checking that the next lane over was clear.
And that you still had an accident.
Let me know if you need more clarification on what you wrote.