It’s a legal warning - one to ensure the manufacturer is absolved of liability. A bit like clicking through screens telling you to wear a helmet and observe the laws before you can hire an e-bike/scooter.
If you have to be alert enough to drive, you might as well be driving.
It would be better if this was pitched as helping the driver (so that the perception is that the driver is still ultimately responsible), and the automated functions are to ‘help’ the driver. Basically just extending the existing help functions such as lane departure, blind spot monitoring, braking, etc.
Think driverless vehicles are part of the future wether you like them or not. Eventually I believe they’ll reduce fatalities and possibly traffic jams as they’ll be better equipped and connected to make sure things move easier.
Most new vehicles have some kind of autonomous features anyway these are preparing you for the inevitable.
However I’m not sure what governments are going to do they love the revenue from traffic infringements.
That used to annoy me also, now i view it as just part of the hassles of sharing the road and chill. Maybe its the luxury of not needing to be in a rush to get somewhere anymore. Automation could result in a standardisation of driving behaviour or exaggerate them with different manufacturers deploying AI styles to go with their brand marketing.
All good points and I’m in two minds as well, but some of this sounds a bit like the smart motorway arguments - basically OK if everything goes well and all drivers drive well (i.e. not just the ones in the automated cars). Any transition period is going to be difficult I think, whatever the long term benefits (long term we are all dead!) but it’s going to be interesting to see how this pans out.
Absolutely. People can complain but it will come and be a defacto reality anyway.
Like manual transmissions. Just 20 years back, in the UK or most of Europe for that matter, the joke was that cars had a manual gearbox. Everything else was a go-kart. Or, if you aren’t capable of concentrating and being coordinated enough to handle a manual transmission, you probably just shouldn’t be behind the wheel.
With the widespread adoption of hybrid cars or electric, that whole manual versus automatic war became moot. The realities of the technology made manual largely redundant and most people moved on. My petrolhead “automatics are for people who can’t drive” friends can barely remember what it’s like to have a gear stick and a clutch.
Autonomous will come for most regions where it’s possible and the argument for or against will be decided for us. Those of us in exceptionally challenging climates will become the oddity.
No need to use crossings, just walk into the road and the cars stop automatically - wait until the kids start playing that game. Then one day, BANG…surprise!!!
Interesting reading seeing the various viewpoints on driverless automation. Just to throw in my two-penny-worth. Last year I bought a new Porsche 718 4.0 GTS which had been specced by the dealer. Included in the spec was the Porsche automatic cruise control (aka adaptive cruise control) which will follow the vehicle in front, at a set distance, up to the maximum speed set. It is also capable of coming to a complete stop if the vehicle in front stops. How many times have I used this technology, not once! Perhaps I am a control freak, but when driving I like to be in full control! Something tells me driverless cars are not for me
In 100 years time people will say “you did what? You drove round in a vehicle with inflammable liquid in the back and put it in your garage at night, and you controlled it manually with your hands and feet”.
My wife’s late 2021 BMW i3 electric car has this same adaptive cruise technology. Whereas I find a conventional cruise control and a conventional speed limiter, as fitted to my own BMW useful, the adaptive control control on the i3 is very weird to drive.
I think it being an electric car doesn’t help as you don’t use the footbrake much on an electric car, as regenerative braking does most of the braking that you need, just by taking your foot off the accelerator.
So poor design on the i3 - but it’s probably that this is what the then current Bosch chipset (probably the same cruise control chip as your Porsche) offered.
Good to see you have taken the brave step and tried your adaptive cruise control. I must try and do the same, perhaps on a quiet Sunday morning with just limited traffic about…I must be brave!!
Self parking is another gizmo my car has, used it once for novelty. Very strange feeling seeing the steering wheel turn all under its own guidance. You are still in control of speed, brakes and reverse selection but uncomfortable not being in control of direction. Another issue is you need to creep through the car park for it to know you want to park and in very slow moving traffic it keeps offering up the park option.
The model for driverless cars isn’t going to be individual ownership, the utilisation of private cars is too low and individual users are too unpredictable. This is part of a system-level technology with an AI controlling the whole network not just the individual nodes, in something that is more akin to an organism in practice.
Once I took the plunge to trust the adaptive cruise on my EV6 I have not gone back. It seems to be very effective, and I feel extremely safe using it. It is adjustable for vehicle distance etc.
Although the car has various autonomous/semi-autonomous features the same as the Ford Mach-e the difference is that if you don’t hold or slightly nudge the steering wheel every minute or so it prompts you, and will ultimately switch off the assist systems with a further warning if you don’t show you are in control. I think Ford have effectively managed to persuade the authorities to lose that last bit of control in certain situations on their vehicle.
We use ours all the time on Mrs Petes car however the trouble is my car has the bog standard and I have to keep reminding myself that it won’t stop without my input.
I’ve had 3 cars with self parking and never used it.
I have ignored the self-park option in my BMW, but I was grateful for it once when I was about to embark on a very tricky parking manoeuvre into a space where a car parked opposite made it hard to get my car to the right approach angle. My car suddenly announced “Driver information: There is no possible manoeuvre that will allow you to park in this space without a collision.”
So I believed it and went to the next car park 1km away which had loads of empty spaces and turning room in it.
It’s all about what you are used to. In the i3, when I approach a red traffic light, I take my foot off the accelerator and let the regenerative braking bring me to a stop. I may use the actual foot brake as I am about to stop, but I’m barely moving by then.
But with the adaptive cruise control on, the car just powers on at cruising speed regardless of your accelerator foot and regardless of the red traffic light.
In an ICE car, I probably wouldn’t have a problem with it.
