I'm quite impressed how quickly my truck stops for near 2.5 tons - and supposedly the new version has more effective brakes again.
EDIT: Though for a rapid but deliberately controlled, not emergency stop, from ~45MPH it isn't far off the official guidelines - going by Google maps it was ~82 feet.
It does if you have all the auto stuff turned on. On mine it keeps the right distance to the car in front, slows downs for bends coming up (I am sometimes mightily shocked at the say 49mph it intends to take an upcoming bend on small country lanes though!)
Like others have said, the problem is we have a mix of cars with all the auto and AI stuff and cars been driven by people who then drive too close and cant react as fast as the AI systems do.
They are way out of date in the highway code and based on some old car. however, it is stated that the thinking time is vastly underestimated in the HC
So in reality the actually braking distances are too long but the thinking distances too short so overall they are probably still right.
That doesnt mean to say some drivers in high performance cars with ceramic brakes and who have lightening fast reaction times can beat the HC by a huge margin but thats not "normal" drivers.
there are currently 400,000 rear end accidents per year on the UK roads accounting for 1 in 4 of all accidents. Thats a lot of people driving either too close or not paying attention. Once everybody has AI cars then this could be cut to a few 1000 per annum or even zero.
SkodaMart
SkodaMart
OP
@Greebo Yes it does if I’ve got radar cruise control on.
Which I won’t have in a 30 zone
Which I won’t have in a 30 zone
Mine auto drives up to 35mph and even stops and switches off the engine and starts again as traffic starts flowing. It always keeps a safe distance from the car in front.
Thinking distance is quite a varied one as well - I had one the other day with 2 sets of lights where the second set started changing as I was glancing back to see what traffic behind me was doing - so I missed the actual light change itself which is the thing you react fastest to and took me a good half second to realise the lights were now on amber and not green - then I had to think about whether it was safe to stop rapidly or not and/or whether the point at which I reached them whether it would have been acceptable to continue through, etc.
An interesting learning experience though as in those circumstances in the future probably a good idea to delay changing lanes, even though nothing prohibiting it at that point, until past the 2nd set of lights so as to be able to focus more attention on what was happening in front. I tend to be a little anxious to get back to the left due to the number of people who will happily creep up on you in the left hand lane leaving you in a bad position - even if indicating to come in.
SkodaMart
SkodaMart
OP
What car is it?
My i3 does this all the time when on ACC and it's deeply frustrating.
Once I had a Mazda 6 loan car and it slammed on the brakes as I was slowing for traffic lights ahead because a car was slightly over into my lane sticking out of a filter lane. Poor bugger behind me in his Disco Sport ran straight into me. It was his fault, unfortunately. He told me the same thing had happened to him in his Land Rover..
Once I had a Mazda 6 loan car and it slammed on the brakes as I was slowing for traffic lights ahead because a car was slightly over into my lane sticking out of a filter lane. Poor bugger behind me in his Disco Sport ran straight into me. It was his fault, unfortunately. He told me the same thing had happened to him in his Land Rover..
VW Touareg
It's an interesting topic - in carwow's recent 911 GT3 review, he brake tested it and it did 70-0 in 41m - considerably shorter than the 75m quoted in the HC (without thinking time) but that's a car that's up there as probably one of the best braking cars you could buy. I think it would probably surprise people how little improvement there actually is for normal cars, especially as cars have become heavier and heavier.
And if the thinking time figures are understated as claimed then at 70mph there will be an extra 25m thinking distance so overall the HC will only be out by 9m.
Soldato
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- 11 Sep 2013
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I can appreciate the automatic elements being optional, but I do find people get very inattentive and lazy about their driving once you start automating things. They don't always work as well as intended though, especially for those not inside that particular vehicle.
Maybe it is better if humans are removed from the entire system... though how it'd work when I drive down unmarked or off-road routes to our sites I'm not entirely sure.
I've known people stall automatics. I kinda know how they managed it, but I haven't been able to replicate it myself, yet.
This is not a new thing, either:
My A4 B9 does the same....
Depends a lot on the attitude of the person driving - lazy person in the first place it probably facilitates them being even less attentive (I know for definite it does with some as mentioned in a recent post hah), someone who pays attention it may free up to pay more attention where it matters the most.
There are some ways to stall [modern] automatics in theory - but a competent driver should be able to avoid it outside of really rare freak occurrences and an incompetent driver would probably stall a manual as well so :s
Soldato
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- 9 Dec 2009
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- 5,498
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- Bristol
Thank goodness I drive an old car, this thread terrifies me.
Airbags scare me slightly after reading about how they can just randomly go off. Or go off and completely mess you up in a low speed bump where you wouldn't have been injured. Regulators accept the risk on our behalf...
It might break your nose, knock your jaw in to your brain, smash your ribs through your lungs. But it did well on the crash test dummy, 5 star NCAP.
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I always think when I see someone driving with one hand on the top of the steering wheel, you're going to regret that if the airbag goes off.
Yep he will punch himself in the face at 200mph.