Car Safety System Could Anticipate Driver's Mistakes

Any real scientist should know that, since the beginning of time, only one thing has remained true....you can't prevent stupid.

It may be a while yet before we have cars that drive themselves, but in the near future your car may help you drive. In particular, it could warn you when you’re about to do something stupid.

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I bet this system doesn't work well with people who don't check over their shoulders.

just something else to go wrong and lower the value of used cars.
How well is all this garbage going to work 10 years down the road.

stormy1 said:

just something else to go wrong and lower the value of used cars.
How well is all this garbage going to work 10 years down the road.

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That was the same thing people said about fuel injection, air bags, navigation, etc.


Point:

More like new system to remove obligation of insurance companies by showing their insured driver was at fault and hence not covered.

I do wonder though why they did that test with someone with big fucking sunglasses on, I would think without the sunglasses they could actually track her eye movement and show where she was looking.

Sometimes you have to do the "wrong thing" to live.

Something tells me this isn't going to be a feature I want on any car I am going to buy.

I love how most of the previous posters are expecting this stuff to work poorly and break down

Reminds me of all that "your door is ajar" stuff from the early 90s. It was incredibly annoying and intrusive at first, but automakers soon found a workable balance.

So, what does the tech itself do? Does it turn the blinkers on for you when it detects you're changing lanes? That would actually be nice for everyone else on the road.

Also, why the hell is she looking over her shoulder to switch lanes? Doesn't she know how to position the side mirrors? Maybe the sicentits could device a system that correctly sets them (too many people place them so that half the mirror is looking at their own car and the other half overlaps with the rear-view mirror, instead of providing a wider coverage).

Kynnath said:

Maybe the sicentits could device a system that correctly sets them (too many people place them so that half the mirror is looking at their own car and the other half overlaps with the rear-view mirror, instead of providing a wider coverage).

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Having an auto setting to automatically adjust the mirrors? Now that would be a useful feature, especially for rental cars, or cars with multiple drivers.

nutzo said:

Having an auto setting to automatically adjust the mirrors? Now that would be a useful feature, especially for rental cars, or cars with multiple drivers.

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Except that most people probably don't know how mirrors are supposed to be set, and when the computer sets them "correctly" the driver isn't happy and overrides the system anyway.

That's the problem with this. You cannot fix stupid with technology. No matter how much you try to idiot proof things, the idiots WILL find a way around the safety measures. Your only real option is to replace human control with machine control. Either train the people how to drive properly or let the machines do all the driving and make humans passengers only. Good luck with either.

Kynnath said:

... Also, why the hell is she looking over her shoulder to switch lanes? Doesn't she know how to position the side mirrors? Maybe the sicentits could device a system that correctly sets them (too many people place them so that half the mirror is looking at their own car and the other half overlaps with the rear-view mirror, instead of providing a wider coverage).

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Some of us are taught to do a head check to avoid blind spots. Its not mandatory but I do it when I dont think the side mirrors are adequate.

I don't worry about how such systems will work on down the line, I worry about how they'll work in the immediate present. If human drivers start relying on computerized cues from their on-board computers to avoid doing dangerous things on the road, well, what happens when drivers experience software bugs--bugs that plague every computer system ever made at times..? If the driver is using his own far superior computer between his ears, and he's paying attention and he's alert--as he should be when he's driving--probably nothing will happen because the driver will ignore the very bad prompts he's getting from his on-board comp.

But what if the human driver is lazy and jerks the wheel to the right (or left) at the sound of an on-board proximity alert that goes off as the result of a software error or bug? (There are hundreds of "what if's" like that we could ask.) Chances then are pretty good that the human driver won't be around any more to ask such questions... Even today it's very strange that people don't clearly understand that computers are 100% "garbage in and garbage out" *programmed* devices that follow their programs religiously. They are not infallible, perfect devices--not even close...Computers don't think and they certainly don't "know" anything, and quite literally, a computer would as soon kill you as look at you--makes no difference to the computer, either way. Just like the light switch on your wall could care less if it's on or it's off. In the latest jet airliners, for instance, packed with mega-expensive computer navigation systems tied to GPS satellites, no airliner is going up without human pilots capable of overriding the computers at will--ever. Don't hold your breath waiting on computerized systems to drive your car for you...To me it's amazing that any sane person would even contemplate such a scenario with anticipation...brrrr-r-r-r-r-rrrrr...it's truly frightening.

jubbie said:

Some of us are taught to do a head check to avoid blind spots. Its not mandatory but I do it when I dont think the side mirrors are adequate.

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You guys sure do things different down there in the US.

If we don't shoulder check on our road test in Ontario, we fail.

KrS said:

You guys sure do things different down there in the US.

If we don't shoulder check on our road test in Ontario, we fail.

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If mirrors are adjusted correctly, there is no "technical need" to blind spot check. Just because somebody says "this is the right way to do something" and makes a law about it...doesn't make it "infallible".

DocSavage said:

I love how most of the previous posters are expecting this stuff to work poorly and break down

Reminds me of all that "your door is ajar" stuff from the early 90s. It was incredibly annoying and intrusive at first, but automakers soon found a workable balance.

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Problem is, your asking a machine to make a judgement call.

A few years ago I was driving home, Arizona, monsoon season, it had just rained pretty hard and was just letting up. I was driving home on automatic thinking more about what I wanted to do when I got home then on what I was doing.

"lcpiper sets the cruise control at 50MPH".

"lcpiper hits a deepish puddle of water with the left front tire"

"lcpiper's car goes berserk"

"lcpiper's car is trying to right itself and it's mostly ignoring his input to the solution"

Car and Driver are not one.

lcpiper no longer owns a BMW 325i

jubbie said:

Some of us are taught to do a head check to avoid blind spots. Its not mandatory but I do it when I dont think the side mirrors are adequate.

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Never drove a Dodge Challenger I see.

Some cars have blind spots that you can't check nor can you adjust mirrors for. That being said, the Challenger has some very nice proximity sensors and cross-path warning capability that come with the Driver Convenience Group. Now that I have it, I know I am so glad I insisted on this option group for mine. Add the backup camera and it's actually riskier to park the car forward into a parking spot then it is to back into it.

Trepidati0n said:

If mirrors are adjusted correctly, there is no "technical need" to blind spot check. Just because somebody says "this is the right way to do something" and makes a law about it...doesn't make it "infallible".

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I like to both use the mirror and turn my head. The human eye has a blind spot, and I like the confirmation of the lane being clear. Laziness isn't worth killing someone over.