This isnt based on facts, this is more of an opinion I guess, but I wanted to see everyones take on it.
I’ve noticed on TV a lot more car manufacturers are coming out with Driving aids, while they are good ideas I feel as though they take away from the enjoyment of driving and make people lazy and more dangerous then they are now.
For example, Mercedes, Nissan etc… are now advertising their cars that have blind spot warnings, automatic braking, backup cameras and automatic parallel parking, auto rev matching etc… While I can see these as being nice and a good AID while driving, I feel as thou many drivers will begin to get lazy and completely rely on these AIDS to do all the work. For instance, im sure we have all been on the thruway, had someone not pay attention and almost merge into our lanes or us ourselves have done it looking quickly and not seeing something in our blind spot. Now for instance say you had this car with a blind spot warning for say 5 years, its always worked well, and you could basically switch lanes without ever moving your eyes from whats in front of you, which I can see a lot of drivers doing. Suppose one day this stopped working, you go to change lanes, no warning beep/light and boom you hit a car… Why? Because your driving aid failed you? Or because you became lazy and dependent on a device which now no longer works?
Same can be said with many other of the aids, like the automatic braking Mercedes benz is offering… Im sure you can see where that could go wrong as well.
Just some though, I can see many drivers relying on these aids to do the work for them rather than using them as extra security if you will.
Oh hey I can look down and find my beer I dropped because my car tells me when im going out of my lane, brakes if im comming to close to something etc…
I agree with you. Its like anything though, some people will take these “aids” for granted and rely on them to drive, and others will use them for what they are, an AID. Theres of course pro’s and con’s to them just like anything else on the market. Best advice, watch your own ass while driving.
On my M, I have the rev-matching feature and I also have one of the best rear view cameras out there (shows me where my car is relative to objects AND where it’s going to end up - a little orange box that moves as I move the wheel).
I will admit that the rear cam has spoiled me. I had to make a business trip the other week and my company wouldn’t let me take my M, so I had to take some POS Chevy Malibu. When backing up the whole trip, I felt uncomfortable lol. I kept looking at the dash expecting to see my screen.
Same with my intelligent key. I’d unlock the Chevy with the fob then instinctively put the key back in my pocket (sometimes I unlock my M with the fob and sometimes with the button on the door handle) only to have to look for it again in order to start the car since it’s not push to start like my M.
Definitely making things a bit TOO easy, but I like the creature comforts. That’s why I got the M.
I do spend a LOT of time in Manual mode though and do my own gear work. So much that one time I forgot I was in regular D and went to push up on the shifter and ended up putting the car into N :rofl.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in 20yrs cars are driving themselves though. lol.
I was actually deciding between 06-07 M’s and 7-series when I was shopping. I absolutely LOVE the styling of most BMW cars (especially the 7-series), but I can’t stand anything else about them (mainly the interiors).
I can’t imagine if my M had all the packages (intelligent cruise control). I like the way my M is setup. Less electronics that can one day break on me.
These features are impressive, and i suppose, who wouldnt want them???
But they definitley will make drivers lazy, and ultimately roadways may even become more dangerous rather than safer.
Well the rev matching was more or less in manual cars and the thought of taking away from the enjoyment of driving and mastering the skill…
As far as teh backup camera goes, that was kind of my point, while its nice to have, what if it stopped working? Not necessarily saying you, but I know people now who near a panic attack when backing up in a tight spot or parallel parking, now with a backup camera making it easy and telling you when your about to fuck it up, the day it stops working well… what then?
Granted these things work flawlessly for the most part, and will probably always work for the duration these people own teh vehicle, but its more or less I feel a lot of the people with these types of vehicles will become extremely dependent on them, and well if they ever do fail, well… I see someone getting hurt
I agree with you 100%. I, and everyone else who is a car ‘enthusiast’ will most likely be okay as we typically know wtf we are doing, but those people who can’t drive for crap, who don’t know the first thing about their car (I know guys who don’t know even how to change their light bulbs)…yeah, those people will wreck havoc should their ‘aid’ fail on them.
Agree with you 100%. And being that I have a car equipped with some of these aids unlike many of the members on this forum, I can definitely vouch for your sentiment from a first hand/owners point of view.
I never really thought about it until I saw a commercial for a car with the blind spot warning system.
Immediately though of the plenty of woman that I have almost rubbed doors with because they either never even look over to see if anyones there, or just rely on their mirrors that are not even positioned correctly
Mirrors are actually a good example. To many people just look quickly into their side mirror, they dont look over their shoulder like they should.
Those aren’t driver aids, those are comfort aids. What would a Bentley be without all of that? A huge, overheated, brick that needs to be chauffeured by a bodybuilder.
Which one of the two do you have a problem with again? :lol
I’m not big on car comforts, but the more the better in the rest of my daily activities. I for one don’t feel like rubbing two sticks together to start a fire to cook food.
However being a car enthusiast driver comforts are something I’m willing to sacrifice to have a better driving experience or a car without any compromises, which is the reason power steering and AC have been pulled from the Miata, and the reason why I love bikes.