cars Poll: Safety features on newer cars

[defcat4]

What do you guys think of the advanced safety features that are standard/available on most cars nowadays? Personally I think they're really cool, in addition to being a good gateway into the future, and they have probably already saved some lives, yet some still say it's only for noobs who don't really care that much about driving, and that it takes away from the sport. What do you folks think? I'm curious to hear your input.

[BingoFishy]

Safe = good

[sazrocks]

Yes..? I don't see how safety features "take away from the sport". What sport exactly? The sport of driving to work?

[The Sloth]

not exactly a topic, safety is good, hopefully, driveless cars can reduce accidents.  

[DildorTheDecent]

They are mostly for the commuting folk and city drivers. Quite useful to have.

 

But here in Northern Ireland (and to that greater extent, Ireland) you can go anywhere on B roads so I wouldn't really care for them. Plus traffic is never "too bad" that things like that would be required. 

 

Quite nice for the city. Quite useless for country roads. All the fun is in country roads. 

[Princess Luna]

I hate driving automatics, eww... I only drive cars with manual gear. So I put "mixed".

[EnergyEclipse]

As @BingoFishy states, anything to which will further increase the safety of a product is both rather obviously benefited from by the consumer, as with manafacturer.

 

If you shan't desire the modern driving experience of traction controls and powered steering I shall strongly recommend purchasing an older car without those features on the cheap and buy some private land to actually be able to drive it with the money saved from not buying a new car

[defcat4]

1 minute ago, sazrocks said:

Yes..? I don't see how safety features "take away from the sport". What sport exactly? The sport of driving to work?

The idea that a computer is doing the work for you (of, for example, monitoring your blind spot) is what many people believe as a very unnatural way of driving

[SirFido]

Cars kill lot of people = bad

Cars kill few people = good 

If you're gonna drive a car for the "sport" of it, then go to a race. Normal everyday driving is not a sport 

[sazrocks]

Just now, defcat4 said:

The idea that a computer is doing the work for you (of, for example, monitoring your blind spot) is what many people believe as a very unnatural way of driving

Well it is your blind spot... I don't understand why someone wouldn't want something to monitor that. If someone hates it that much they can just disable it, though once again I don't really see the point.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Mixed really. We'll see the same problems automation introduced in airplane cockpits, except the consequences will be more prevalent. People are going to rely on them so much, that once it fails, they will not know how to react. Which is why I hope all driver licensing agencies have regulations set that all vehicles must have these advanced safety features disabled during a road test (I'm talking about collision mitigation, blind spot monitoring, etc. Not things like airbags the inevitable troll would challenge.). 

 

The lessons learned in aircraft automation systems design should be implemented in advanced driver assist features. 

[EPENEX]

Absolutely not. I want to drive my car without needless "safety" features. Don't buy into the botnet.

[sazrocks]

1 minute ago, EPENEX said:

Absolutely not. I want to drive my car without needless "safety" features. Don't buy into the botnet.

Then do so and let the rest of us that want some extra help with our blind spot use the features.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Some things I'm perfectly fine with:

• Crumple zones
• Seat belts
• Airbags
• ABS
• Traction control.

Other things I'm not:

• Blind spot monitoring (You can adjust your mirrors to do this: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-adjust-your-mirrors-to-avoid-blind-spots)
• Lane drift warning
• Auto braking
• A wider A pillar (Is there any way to reduce the size of the thing? Because I'm really noticing it in my new car)
• Automatic cruise control adjustments

And some things I think are situational, depend on the vehicle, or in general need not be on every vehicle:

• Rear view cameras
• (and I could only come up with one thing)

[QuantumBit]

6 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

 

• Blind spot monitoring (You can adjust your mirrors to do this: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-adjust-your-mirrors-to-avoid-blind-spots)
• Lane drift warning
• Auto braking
• A wider A pillar (Is there any way to reduce the size of the thing? Because I'm really noticing it in my new car)
• Automatic cruise control adjustments

 

What makes you not like these things?

[Sors]

Driving in the street is NOT a sport.

 

If you want to test your skill, go do some laps in a circuit on the weekend, where a mistake won't affect others.

[Anjelllo]

In general, I think the new safety features are nice

[Mira Yurizaki]

48 minutes ago, QuantumBit said:

What makes you not like these things?

These may encourage complacent drivers to be even more complacent. Except the A pillar thing. That's a blindspot issue.

 

I take an all or nothing approach to automatic features in cars. Either the car drives itself or it doesn't.

 

EDIT: Before someone goes "But you said you liked ABS and Traction control!" Yes, because doing those "manually" require skills that are used in high stress, very infrequent situations, where try as I might be calm, will not likely successfully pull off. The other safety features I mentioned are there because you weren't being attentive enough in a situation where it was mostly under your control.

Edited July 28, 2017 by M.Yurizaki

[Drak3]

2 hours ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Some things I'm perfectly fine with:

• Crumple zones
• Seat belts
• Airbags
• ABS
• Traction control.

Other things I'm not:

• Blind spot monitoring (You can adjust your mirrors to do this: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/how-to-adjust-your-mirrors-to-avoid-blind-spots)
• Lane drift warning
• Auto braking
• A wider A pillar (Is there any way to reduce the size of the thing? Because I'm really noticing it in my new car)
• Automatic cruise control adjustments

And some things I think are situational, depend on the vehicle, or in general need not be on every vehicle:

• Rear view cameras
• (and I could only come up with one thing)

Agree, but one of the best safety features I've come across is specific to large trucks.

And that is: it's a large truck.

[Snadzies]

I have not driven a car with the various monitoring mechanisms but a few friends and family members own new cars with such things and they seem to find it annoying.

They say the car is constantly flashing or beeping at them and at first this was causing them to take their eyes off the road to look at what was beeping or flashing and after a while they got used to it and ignore the flashing and beeping.

They would comment that the car flashed, beeped or dinged so much and for so many things they have a hard time figuring out what the car is trying to tell them.

 

I feel like these monitoring devices are from a place of well meaning but not totally well thought out.

Already there is a lot for the average driver to keep track of  like the general flow of traffic, near by individual drivers, pedestrians, endless signs and road markings plus whatever we have going on in the car (music, passengers) with the addition of beeps, dings and flashes from your car I could see how it can be overwhelming and people may either get their focus taken away from where it needs to be to address what the car is telling them or they are going to ignore the car's warnings.

 

I have a feeling that by the time car manufacturers figure out the best way to filter the information the car is gathering for the driver that self driving cars will be just about ready for full scale use.

[Zodiark1593]

My 2013 Mazda comes with pretty much none of the aforementioned electronic monitoring equipment (except for stability control, ABS, etc) nor backup cameras, bluetooth or USB, and is a manual transmission to boot. The safety equipment is whatever little skill I happen to posses in keeping the car on the road and out of the local ditches or from the sides and rears of the other drivers on the road.

[captain_to_fire]

Just a tip: Do not buy suction cup dash cams. 

[vetali]

No, not really. They're mostly useless if not annoying "features" to sell a premium or tech package. I also don't like the idea of a car braking or manipulating steering from sensors that could give false positive. If the sensors malfunction, they are extremely expensive and have to be calibrated / programmed.