Foot on the brake

[Lord Tyrion]

Has anyone asked in the development meetings one very simple question. "Is there an appetite for driverless cars?" Mfrs are ploughing in to these but I don't hear motorists asking for them. All very clever but not so clever if not enough people want to buy them.

 

[GreiginFife]

Has anyone asked in the development meetings one very simple question. "Is there an appetite for driverless cars?" Mfrs are ploughing in to these but I don't hear motorists asking for them. All very clever but not so clever if not enough people want to buy them.

Not sure that's not a reasons not to make something. How many customers probably "wanted" a smartphone or a touchscreen laptop or tablet 10 years ago. Manufacturers are becoming more adept at creating demand that no one even realised existed.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

In this case we already have cars. They are not a new product. They seem to be ploughing a lot of money into something that I'm not sure has a viable market yet or in the forseeable future. I've no doubt they will come in but early developers are going to lose a lot of money.

 

[guest100718]

Ide love a car I that I could switch to driveless mode.

 

[chrisd]

In this case we already have cars. They are not a new product. They seem to be ploughing a lot of money into something that I'm not sure has a viable market yet or in the forseeable future. I've no doubt they will come in but early developers are going to lose a lot of money.

But when computers came out we had them, but I'd rather have had a 10" tablet like I do now

 

[GreiginFife]

In this case we already have cars. They are not a new product. They seem to be ploughing a lot of money into something that I'm not sure has a viable market yet or in the forseeable future. I've no doubt they will come in but early developers are going to lose a lot of money.

We already had phones, we already had TVs and they convinced us we needed HD, Then 3D, then 4K... Or hundreds of channels. Products evolve. I worked for an organisation that designed products that people would buy and use, it wasn't based on ANY market research that said there was demand for them. Creating the product created the demand. It wasn't anything new either, just an evolution on something that was widely used every day by billions of people.

 

[drdel]

Manufacturers want auto-driving cars because they are in control of it maintenance and costs; so as more and more cars are bought on finance deals they can charge by the mile.

Governments like auto-driving cars because they can increase road capacity, reduce accidents/injuries, reduce road policing, enable monitoring and crime prevention plus it enable tax/charges for road use.

Insurance companies like auto-driving cars because they can still charge high premiums with less risk, reduce their overheads on assessing whose to blame, monitor your driving and how many miles you do and when so they can charge accordingly.

As for you and me we'll just have to suck up the additional costs: however it'll take at least 20 -25 years before virtually all of the car population will be equipped with robotic/auto-driving capabilities.

Big brother's not only watching you - he's on his way to being in-control.

 

[Golfmmad]

I went on a forum for the car, and everyone said it couldn't be turned off. Will check further.

What car do you have Richard, and is it manual or automatic?

Mine is a manual Fiesta and can definitely be turned off, although not on an automatic.

I just have to go into menu - vehicle settings - and switch off.

It really is a useful feature and couldn't be easier to use, plus, it will not be causing extra wear on the clutch.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Well, you lot are the first people I have come across that are positive about driverless cars. It will be interesting to see how they develop.

 

[GreiginFife]

Well, you lot are the first people I have come across that are positive about driverless cars. It will be interesting to see how they develop.

Sorry my Lord, I misrepresented myself there. Not in favour at all, I love driving and would never want the car to do it for me.
Only pointing it that these days people don't know what they really want until the manufacturers make the things we didn't know we wanted.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Ha ha. I see where you are coming from though.

 

[richart]

What car do you have Richard, and is it manual or automatic?

Mine is a manual Fiesta and can definitely be turned off, although not on an automatic.

I just have to go into menu - vehicle settings - and switch off.

It really is a useful feature and couldn't be easier to use, plus, it will not be causing extra wear on the clutch.

Smiffy has checked for me, and it can not be turned off. My drive is on a steepish hill, and when I back out of the garage, and down the drive, the hill assist comes on just as I am about to move forward to turn. It is as if it knows the exact moment to come on when I least expect it.:angry:

 

[clubchamp98]

Sorry my Lord, I misrepresented myself there. Not in favour at all, I love driving and would never want the car to do it for me.
Only pointing it that these days people don't know what they really want until the manufacturers make the things we didn't know we wanted.

if I had a £200k Ferrari or McLaren I would want to drive it myself .
I have Adaptive cruise control on mine all you have to do is steer it .
It is very unnerving and I don't trust it.
Machines go wrong all the time.

 

[GreiginFife]

if I had a £200k Ferrari or McLaren I would want to drive it myself .
I have Adaptive cruise control on mine all you have to do is steer it .
It is very unnerving and I don't trust it.
Machines go wrong all the time.

I only have the enrty level C Class AMG, the C43 but its still great fun. Would hate having a computer take all the control away from me.

 

[TonyN]

Having been the front car of a 4 car shunt where the offending car went into the car (stationary) in front of him, writing his off, the car he initially hit as well as severly damaging the car in front of that that was then pushed into me, I can testify that although yes its normal practice to claim off the veihicle that goes into the back of you (especially when youre stationary) the insurance companies will pass the costs down the line so in the end you are no fault, and the the car that was the instigator or the whole event is the one that carries the can. The guy that caused mine ended up having all 4 cars costs against his poilicy, which was 2 write offs (1 being his own) plus 2 repairs.

Thats a good news storey. Be great if it was the norm!

 

[Smiffy]

Well, you lot are the first people I have come across that are positive about driverless cars. It will be interesting to see how they develop.

We have a new Micra being launched in March. Lovely looking car, not your typical Micra at all, and a big departure from the current pile of poo!
A lot of our cars now have "lane departure warning" which if switched on emits a loud(ish) beep if you happen to go over white lines without indicating. This can be switched off by the way, otherwise it would drive you mad around town or if you were travelling down a very narrow, twisting road. But it could save your life in certain situations, of that I have no doubt. So this is good technology. Like I say, it can be switched off, but if left on it won't go off if you are indicating.
The new Micra has "improved" on this even further...apparently, if the lane assist goes off, not only will it bleep at you, but it will also make small adjustments to the steering to put you back within the white lines.
The new car isn't launched yet, so I've yet to see this in action, but it sounds a very good idea.
Lane departure warning could have saved my life (and that of my daughters) a couple of years ago on our way back from holiday in France. I was driving back to Calais and tiredness was creeping up on me. Like an idiot, I carried on driving, my daughter was asleep in the passenger seat. Suddenly I was alerted by the bleeping of the lane departure warning, so I pulled in at the next available service area for a coffee, and a stretch of the legs. My friend, who had been following in his car, confirmed that I had been veering towards the hard shoulder and he wondered what the hell I had been up to. I had dozed off. I have no excuse, it was stupid of me for continuing to drive in that state. God knows how I could have lived with myself afterwards had something happened with my daughter in the car.
Very recently a friend of mine has written his car off because he fell asleep at the wheel while driving back from holiday. Luckily he didn't hit anybody else, he went off the road and hit a tree. He is fine, but has sworn that the next car he buys will have lane departure warning. Not all new technology is a bad thing, and car manufacturers need to be applauded for introducing some things we didn't even know we needed.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Smiffy - I drive a Volvo and that has all sorts of technological gubbins that will make the world a safer place, well for drivers and pedestrians anyway. Some of the options boxes I ticked, some I didn't, some were standard. Volvo are going for this advancement through stealth so that one day Volvo drivers will suddenly realise that most of the driver aids they have are only one step below driverless cars.

Massive progress has been made to make driving safer and I applaud that. I can see the clear safety implications and ability to move larger volumes of cars around with driverless cars but I don't see yet the public wanting to make that extra leap. In evolutionary terms some mfrs are looking to jump a couple of steps rather than evolve in a way that people will accept. In my eyes those making the jump will burn, the leap is just too big. I can see driverless being the future but we need to make baby steps to get there.

 

[USER1999]

I like the idea of driverless cars, i could sit in the back, and be driven home from the pub.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

We have a new Micra being launched in March. Lovely looking car, not your typical Micra at all, and a big departure from the current pile of poo!
A lot of our cars now have "lane departure warning" which if switched on emits a loud(ish) beep if you happen to go over white lines without indicating. This can be switched off by the way, otherwise it would drive you mad around town or if you were travelling down a very narrow, twisting road. But it could save your life in certain situations, of that I have no doubt. So this is good technology. Like I say, it can be switched off, but if left on it won't go off if you are indicating.
The new Micra has "improved" on this even further...apparently, if the lane assist goes off, not only will it bleep at you, but it will also make small adjustments to the steering to put you back within the white lines.
The new car isn't launched yet, so I've yet to see this in action, but it sounds a very good idea.
Lane departure warning could have saved my life (and that of my daughters) a couple of years ago on our way back from holiday in France. I was driving back to Calais and tiredness was creeping up on me. Like an idiot, I carried on driving, my daughter was asleep in the passenger seat. Suddenly I was alerted by the bleeping of the lane departure warning, so I pulled in at the next available service area for a coffee, and a stretch of the legs. My friend, who had been following in his car, confirmed that I had been veering towards the hard shoulder and he wondered what the hell I had been up to. I had dozed off. I have no excuse, it was stupid of me for continuing to drive in that state. God knows how I could have lived with myself afterwards had something happened with my daughter in the car.
Very recently a friend of mine has written his car off because he fell asleep at the wheel while driving back from holiday. Luckily he didn't hit anybody else, he went off the road and hit a tree. He is fine, but has sworn that the next car he buys will have lane departure warning. Not all new technology is a bad thing, and car manufacturers need to be applauded for introducing some things we didn't even know we needed.

I quite like the lane detector warning but have it switched off in town driving. I also like the sensor that warns me if it detects that I am closing on the vehicle in front too quickly.

 

[Region3]

The new Micra has "improved" on this even further...apparently, if the lane assist goes off, not only will it bleep at you, but it will also make small adjustments to the steering to put you back within the white lines.

Does the steering 'hint' at you to get back in the lane, or actually force you to?

Just wondering what it would do if you try to swerve to miss something in the road.