Driving tests and vehicle features

Vertigo · 7 Jan 2013 at 16:24

Was thinking the other day and discussing in the office today...

As far as I know, the driving test still includes a hill start test, which ensures you can pull away cleanly on an incline by blending out the handbrake as you feed in the power.

What if the car has an electromechanical handbrake? Obviously such a test can't be undertaken so are you even allowed to take a test in a car so equipped?

This widened into a further discussion on vehicle aids in general. What about parking sensors? When being tested on parking manoeuvres, are you allowed to make use of the parking sensors or are you expected to turn them off, if that's even possible? That might seem like an extreme example and the sensors aren't giving you too much assistance but then some cars have self-parking features whereby you control the accelerator and brake whilst the car steers for you and I doubt anyone would contend that such a feature could be used during a driving test.

So where's the line when it comes to such features? What is allowed to be used and what isn't? Should some cars not be permitted on driving tests due to certain equipment?

Just curious

Vertigo · 7 Jan 2013 at 16:35

Interesting. Personally I don't see why you should be allowed to take a test in such a car. Yes, you still have to observe and so on but a key skill of blending out the handbrake as you feed in the power isn't being tested at all.

Vertigo · 7 Jan 2013 at 16:35

Danny091 said:
Never had to do a hill start on my test a couple of years ago.

Have they abandoned it, or is it one of those things they might test but aren't guaranteed to? Been over 23 years since I took my test so I've lost track

Vertigo · 7 Jan 2013 at 16:37

Lashout_UK said:
6.12 HILL ASSIST
Many new vehicles are being fitted with a 'hill assist' device as standard. This system allows a driver, when moving off on an uphill or downhill gradient, a couple of seconds to move their foot from the footbrake to the accelerator before the device releases the footbrake automatically. If this device is fitted drivers still have to coordinate the controls and take the correct observation when moving off; consequently vehicles fitted with such a device are suitable for the the practical driving test.

In mine, you can either do this, not using the handbrake at all, or you can apply the handbrake and then just pull away, at which point the system will release the handbrake when there's enough power to move off without rolling back.

If you used this latter system, it'd require even less "coordination".

Vertigo · 7 Jan 2013 at 17:26

rodenal said:
Not sure I agree - all you're doing on a hill start is making sure you've got the car balanced on the clutch when releasing the handbrake, not sure where blending comes into it? All a handbrake is is a manual way of applying pad pressure - you would t half release the handbeake for any reason. For.me.it makes little difference whether you've got to manually release the handbrake or have pressed the button for it to let you apply a little bit of power to release it - either way the driver needs to be able to move off up the hill, the pedal work doesn't really change

Well yeah ok, it's not a question of blending out the handbrake as such but you still need to control the clutch and accelerator to provide just enough accelerative force that you don't roll back but not too much so it's straining hard against the handbrake. It's a test of clutch/accelerator control more than handbrake control really, the point is that, with an electromechanical handbrake, these skills aren't really tested, you just apply continually increasing power until the system releases the handbrake for you.

I guess that, in a manual car at least, they figure that changing gear provides enough of a test of clutch/accelerator control already but then, if that's the case, why bother will a hill start test at all?