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I'd like to renew my objection to adaptive cruise control.
I further object to any car maker who can't make it an optional mode.
You are, in effect, selecting to follow (at a safe distance) anyone going slower than you are at their speed and not at the speed you've selected.
Smooth, silent and seamless are the watch-words so it will match speeds with the slower car ahead of you and you have to be really paying attention to notice.
So you end up with miles long lines of people going the same speed with, almost (but not quite), enough space between them to get in line with them.
Worse is when two of the benighted savages going four and five under, respectively, end up in both lanes with their computer controlled entourages trailing behind them.
Everyone on cruise, rolling road block.
Do you know how long it takes for a mile long line of cars to clear a vehicle in the other lane going 1 mph slower?
It's right in the name "mph".
That's right, Troubleshooter!
An hour!
Almost as fun is the person in mid pack who suddenly realizes they aren't going the selected five-over any more and decides to jump lanes right in front of you!
FUN!
Cue engineers who embrace chaos, designing jammers and spoofers for those nifty receivers which determine what the car ahead of you or behind you is doing.
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining someone jacking up the frequency and output to slam the brakes on the car behind them, or in the lanes on either side, where that rolling roadblock is clumped up.
Hilarity ensues.
Tech is always a game of Spy Vs. Spy.
Like radar detectors, jammers, license plate obscurants, etc., this one is just beginning, for exactly the reasons you point out.
States should ban that autopilot nonsense, and require drivers to pay full non-stop effing attention to WTH they're doing, 24/7/365.
Or else assume all legal and civil liability for what happens as a result, including every accident and injury.
Ran into this nanny extremism in Ireland in 2018. Had rented a VW Jetta from one of the large brand rental firms and noticed that when I wanted to accelerate to pass a slow moving car, I was not able to, the accelerator did little. This 1) scared me and 2) pissed me off to no end. Not only was the car slowing to the others in front, it was doing so a very long way back from the car in front.
ReplyDeleteI figured there was some fuckery going on, so on the next stop, let my wife go gawk at the scenery while I yanked the manual from the glovebox. Soon had the menu up on the screen and proceeded to shut off every fucking "safety" feature that the rental firm had placed to their maximum effectiveness, such as slowing when closer than 100' from car in front and super sensitivity on passing car detector etc.
From that point on, no more hassles and I could drive in my normal protective aggresive mode. And yes, here we are years later and my U>S. 2019 VW has features that I don't want, some could be turned off, and some not. For example, auto stop start, I hate that feature, it is dangerous when you need fast response. They eliminated the user select feature to turn off. Did some research and found a clever Chinese guy that was selling a plug in device that allows for user selection. 15 bucks delivered, installed and done. Works as desired.
Sadly, this trend is accelerating, the administrative state wants total control over your every move, the fuckery ain't over by a long shot. And folks ask why I keep a 1964 beater in the barn. Heh!
I rented a Toyota that wouldn't remember that I'd disabled those "features" and you had to go through the process of disabling them every time you started the car.
DeleteThere was no way to disable the adaptive cruise and I often found I was no longer overtaking slower traffic. Worse, the car was slow to remember the desired speed when you changed lanes. It required a tiring level of attention to maintain the speed I'd selected, defeating the entire purpose of the cruise control.
I absolutely HATE any nanny device on cars that can't be turned off or ignored. 2 of the 5 vehicles I have are old enough that they don't have any of these things, and one has a very minimal amount but it is becomming virtually impossible to buy newer vehicles which don't have these highly undesirable features. Worse, there are forces in the government driven by libtards that want to really put big-brotherism into cars, making them not respect the driver and even tattle on them.
ReplyDelete-swj