{"id":2510,"date":"2013-02-19T14:22:57","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T04:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.privatefleet.com.au\/?p=2510"},"modified":"2020-06-20T01:40:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:40:04","slug":"modern-safety-technology-does-it-make-drivers-lazy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/blog-home\/modern-safety-technology-does-it-make-drivers-lazy\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern safety technology: Does it make drivers lazy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Driving along in a new Mitsubishi Outlander Aspire, I was enjoying the sound quality of the Rockford Fosgate stereo as I sat in climate controlled comfort. Suddenly, the dash lit up with a panicked \u2018Brake!\u2019 and an accompanying beep. There was a turning vehicle several metres up ahead that I had already slowed for and was preparing to move around. The reality was that if I had to, I could have stopped comfortably within the space between the Outlander and the car ahead. For me, the Forward Collision Mitigation (FCM) system was a jumpy (and pre-emptive) distraction to something I had already seen\u2026but I can\u2019t talk for everyone, or indeed for every situation.<\/p>\n

At advanced driver training courses, the first thing you are taught is to look far ahead so you can make such avoidance manoeuvres with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately, this is not always related to those learning to drive, but that is a story for another day.<\/p>\n

Manufacturers, to their credit, are trying to add safety to their products, to save lives and sell more cars. The advancement in active safety measures has been impressive these last few years and though it\u2019s apparent that not all of these new technologies can claim a definitive \u2018number of lives saved\u2019 they are obviously doing their bit in the fight against any incident ranging from a simple accident to a vehicle-related death. But are these systems sometimes too smart for their own good?<\/p>\n

Take the FCM system. At its extreme, you could suggest that people will no longer care to look too far ahead, \u2018safe\u2019 in the knowledge that the car will tell them when they need to start paying attention.<\/p>\n

I also wonder if cars that reverse-park themselves will render that driving skill obsolete\u2026and how much damage will be caused a) if the technology fails and b) if the driver has to do it for themselves! The same goes for cars which use FCM and\/or sonar to adjust vehicle speed automatically (and in extremes perform an emergency brake with no driver input). The intent is to avoid upcoming dangers but it can go wrong (search \u2018Volvo Brake Test Fail\u2019 on YouTube to see an example).<\/p>\n

A rear-facing camera can also embed a sense of dependency on what the camera shows when reversing. I\u2019ve done it myself when in a hurry: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing on the screen and the parking sensors aren\u2019t beeping, so I should be right.\u201d It\u2019s usually then that a pedestrian appears from the side, or a stationary object in your blind-spot suddenly greets your bodywork.<\/p>\n

More broadly, Automatic Stability Control (ASC) systems do a wonderful job in assisting safety- just watch a driver training demonstration video for proof of that. In my opinion, however, it can lead to complacency behind the wheel and a lack of understanding as to what caused the ASC to trigger in the first place. In my mind, ASC and indeed these other technologies can be seen as cures, but developing your awareness by taking a defensive or advanced driver training course can prevent a potential accident from occurring in the first place. Such courses will also aid in your understanding of these systems and show you how to work with them rather than rely on them completely.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> http:\/\/credit-n.ru\/kurs-cb.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driving along in a new Mitsubishi Outlander Aspire, I was enjoying the sound quality of the Rockford Fosgate stereo as I sat in climate controlled comfort. Suddenly, the dash lit up with a panicked \u2018Brake!\u2019 and an accompanying beep. There was a turning vehicle several metres up ahead that I had already slowed for and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2510"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12217,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2510\/revisions\/12217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}