rik wrote:
I fear for the future of personal transport (more on that at the end) due to the level of 'toys' now being fitted. Some are more than just a distraction, some are downright bloody dangerous. A good friend is a motoring journo and gets to test all the latest cars as he is on the 'Car of the Year' jury. Have a read up on 'collision mitigation systems' and the reality is even worse than what you fear, eg driving down a country road your vehicle 'sees' a bit of hedge sticking out and takes over the steering... steers you away from the verge, towards the crown of the road.... straight into the oncoming SUV. This silly nonsense is in order to gain a better EU NCAP rating, the more difficult it is to deactivate (ie how deep in the sub menus it is buried) the better the NCAP. And of course it defaults back to 'on' each and every time you start it. But the sinister truth behind all these 'advances', these 'driver aids', these 'safety measures'
is that they are the proving grounds for the killjoys' ultimate goal of driver-less cars... and 'we' are hastening that day by unquestioningly accepting them. Even when you 'tick each box that contains a traffic light' to prove that you are 'not a robot' you are contributing to A.I. reasearch into human cognitive skills...
Give me a simple car or bike that I am in total control of please, not one that slavishly obeys another's algorithm.
Peter Wheeler, onetime owner of TVR, refused to incorporate ABS, TC, airbags etc into his cars as he believed the absence of such made drivers concentrate harder. Of course, to do that, you have to be aware that you are vulnerable first, and judging by the way SUVs are driven around here, they all think they're invincible, so the battle may already be lost. And I may be talking myself around in one giant circle to where driverless cars appear as the solution!
I agree, the latest HGV`s are bedecked with overly sensitive and unreliable electronics that remove most functions from the driver and in my experience and opinion are the more dangerous for them, as they encourage the drivers to FB, Text etc....Humans need something to stimulate the mind and will find it, the obvious concern is that not all HGV`s have the same equipment and you may have collision avoidance on yesterdays motor, but not on todays and if you turn them off, are you culpable in the event of an incident?
Last Merc I drove had screens on the door pillars as exterior mirrors, I got on OK with them, but most said they could not gauge depth perspective reversing, this in itself is not good, nor are the headaches some drivers get because they are constantly looking at monitors, this vehicle also did everything coming up to a junction, slowing itself, braking and even putting the park brake on once at the required distance from the vehicle in front...Now, I was sitting at traffic lights behind a vehicle with the lorry having done all the work, when all of a sudden it decided to go
Only the car in front was still stopped at the red light, nigh on shit mysen I can tell you, especially since I was 44tons!
Once back to the yard I refused to take it out again and told them about the incident at the traffic lights, apparently it had also happened to the regular driver!!! Yet is was still being used, it was only a month old.....Pile of German shite that it was.
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a couple of screw drivers , plug spanner and fag paper to re set points was all you needed 
and you go back a few more years and it was drum brakes 
, if you were posh a car with LW / MW radio .
That was a bit worrying, but luckily it happened just after the road widened with an overtaking lane. Bloody stupid device that any experienced van driver does not need. 
