After 16 years on this planet, the government feels that with a little training we have all the skills needed to drive a car. Seems fair, doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to turn a steering wheel, or how to tell which pedal is for gas and which one is for braking. The roads have already been laid out for us with painted lines, color coded lights and signs with pictures on them, all we need to do is stay in between the aforementioned lines, and try not to put our cars into the back seats of other cars. For several decades now, a driver’s only technological distraction was the radio. Getting from point A to point B has never been easier, in theory.
In reality, five and a quarter million car accidents (one every six seconds) occur each year in the US alone.
With startling numbers like this you’d expect the government to perhaps implement longer, more advanced training programs for new drivers, or stricter penalties for reckless road behaviour. Something, anything, to lower those numbers to let’s say, four million.
Nope. Rather than fix people’s driving, we’ve decided to fix the cars. Manufacturers are cramming all kinds of gadgets and technology into cars so as to make complicated manoeuvres like driving in a straight line and parking in between two lines more manageable.
The following are technological advancements designed to prevent accidents and to make the roads safer. But in the end, aren’t we just creating a new generation of crappier drivers? You can be the judge.
Intelligent Parking Assist System
Admittedly, parallel parking is one of the toughest things for a driver to learn. It requires a keen sense of your car’s space in relation to the curb and the two cars you’re trying to squeeze in between. Plus you’ve got the added pressure from the drivers behind you, making you feel as if they will burst into flames of pure rage if you take one more precious second. Well now there are cars that will do the parking for you.
In 2003, the Toyota Motor Corporation introduced their Intelligent Parking Assist System (APGS) for their Prius Hybrids and later for the Lexus. An onboard computer hooked up to cameras and sensors would evaluate the parking space and would reverse parallel park the car into the spot, with very little effort from the driver. Simply align your front seat with the front bumper of the adjacent car, throw that baby into reverse and the car will take care of the rest.
First of all, no computer system can recreate what spinning the steering wheel 12 times in both directions can accomplish to squeeze into tight spots. The IPAS will only park in a spot with 3 feet of clearance on each end, which for anyone who lives downtown knows, are about as easy to find as unicorns.
Secondly, the system is extremely slow, which will only cause spontaneous human combustion from the impatient drivers behind you. By the time you’ve aligned your car properly and engaged the IPAS, two scooters and a Smart Car have already taken your spot.
Lane-Keeping Assist System
On long road trips, a car’s cruise control feature can be extremely useful, freeing up those feet for more important tasks like heel clicking and hacky sacking. Well now, not only do you not have step on the gas pedal anymore, but thanks to the Lane-Keeping Assist System developed by the Honda Motor Company, you no longer have to worry about that annoying steering wheel. In order to help drivers avoid swerving, a camera installed inside the front window captures images of the lane the driver is in. If swerving occurs, the system makes the necessary corrections through the power steering wheel.
First of all, if you’re swerving out of your lane you are one of three things: incompetent; hammered; or asleep. If you are the first two you should have your license taken away. But if you happen to fall asleep, there should be a system in place to WAKE YOU UP should any swerving occur, and not an onboard Anti-Nap-Disturbance device.
Collision Mitigation Brake System (CMS)
Employing the same technology as the Intelligent Highway Cruise Control (IHCC…all these technologies are acronymed to spare people from saying so many words), the CMS uses a radar to detect any other vehicles within a 100 meter range. If cars get any closer, the driver will be alerted to the increase in danger, and if an accident is unavoidable, the system will tighten the seatbelts and will activate the brakes to soften the impact.
We seem to constantly be replacing our natural instincts with technology. When you turn your head for seemingly no reason, only to discover someone is staring at you, you are witnessing some of the last remnants of millions of years of survival instincts, warning us that a predator might be near. When we are on the road, all our senses should be about us and heightened to the max. If we are unable to realize that cars are getting too close, and that chances of a collision are rising, then perhaps we should not be on the road. Good drivers should be able to evaluate situations without the help of radars, assisted steering, or assisted braking.
Remote Touch Navigation Controller
The 2010 Lexus RX is stuffed to the rafters with technology. The interior looks more like a traveling entertainment centre than a luxury automobile. Taken from the Toyota.com pressroom, is the following passage which we will examine a little more closely:
“Both the Bluetooth AVP and the USB/iPod connector allow the driver to control their music by using the onboard audio controls found on the steering wheel, dashboard and on the navigation screen allowing the driver to focus more on the road ahead. The RX also features an available Dual-Screen, Rear Seat Entertainment system with a 12-speaker audio system.”
This sentence should read, “We’ve removed the Bluetooth AVP, the USB/iPod connector, the navigation screen, the dual-screen rear seat entertainment system, along with half a dozen speakers, allowing the driver to focus more on the road.”
An onboard GPS system is one thing, but a navigation system complete with a computer mouse-style joystick where you can move a cursor around the screen is getting a little out of hand. Laws are being implemented to prevent people from texting while driving, and yet Lexus is adding a dash-top computer for people to scroll through. By placing the screen high up on the dash, and by adding a navigation joystick next to the driver, Lexus feels they are “Freeing the eyes and mind for more important tasks.” Well, if you truly want to free the eyes and minds of drivers on the road then you should think about freeing the cars from computer screens and videogame controllers.
The truth is, driving is not very complicated or difficult, but as crash statistics indicate, driving just isn’t for everyone. So while onboard technology is certainly exciting for those who’ve mastered the pedals, the mirrors, and the steering wheel, perhaps we should be making sure this technology doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
amazing picture….
creating rumpus in mind…good stuff
somebody has to be the spelling nazi…’braking’, not ‘breaking’. ‘brakes’, not ‘breaks’.
Sorry – couldn’t resist.
There are just too many people on the roads and it is nearly impossible for everyone to be able to coordinate with everyone else all the time and this is why a majority of accidents occur. “longer, more advanced training programs for new drivers, or stricter penalties for reckless road behaviour” might help, but to SOLVE this problem we need to embrace technology not strip our vehicles of anything that might be distracting. We need to rely more on technology to operate vehicles for us because sadly human beings as a whole suck at driving and shouldn’t even be responsible for such a dangerous task. With a mixture of sensors, cameras, GPS technology, and fairly simple programming, humans could be removed from the equation completely. If we entrusted computers to do our driving for us traffic would move in a much safer, more efficient manner. Not to mention the time spent commuting could be used much more effectively (napping, reading the paper, watching a film…the possibilities are endless). Admittedly if such a system were implemented there would be problems initially with the changeover. We would still have people driving some cars while others are controlled by computers, and the original problem of unpredictable human driving would still undoubtedly cause accidents. However, once human directed cars became a thing of the past the roads would be a much safer place. Computers can easily figure out the quickest, most efficient route, they don’t road rage and they will unequivocally follow all traffic laws. No matter who you are, you can’t drive perfectly 100% of the time, a computer can.
Very interesting yet such a true post.
I totally agree with all these gadgets – people are becomming lazier in the way they drive which – YES – makes us Crappier drivers.
Urzay G.
George Carlin said: We don’t need safer cars, we need safer drivers.
Before we put more gadgets in cars, let’s get the ones we already have to work properly, starting with Toyota’s throttle control software.
For the device that keeps you from swerving off the road you mentioned that there are only three reasons for leaving your lane on a highway. I disagree. Imagine some horrific driver (or even a good driver having a horrific day) swerved into your lane of traffic. You’d definitely want to swerve into the shoulder to avoid a head on collision. You could die in such a situation if your car didn’t allow you to react instantly to an unpredictable situation.
I still believe that EVERY driver should learn how to drive a manual transmission, and should take defensive driving courses. It’s just too dangerous not to.
We certainly don’t need more gadgets trying to compensate for our pathetic inadequacy, we need more awareness, better education, and actual penalties for the sort of driving that causes accidents.
Some people just don’t have a feel for driving, that’s what public transport is for.
For the luckier half, there should be a car control part of licence tests.
Then we might even see an end to the evils of speed limits.
If it was for me to say, I wouldn’t allow drivers under 25 years old…but luckily, it’s not up to me.
AMEN!!! For Pete’s sake, people, you’re flinging a 4,000 lb + hunk of metal down the road …you can’t just turn the key and rely on your computery, wirey, self-guidey “car” to do it all for you! Being like any other man-made piece of machinery, it can and will fail…eventaully. And if you don’t know how to handle an emergency, like brake failure.. or sticking gas pedal…maybe driving ISN’T for you. No wonder we’ve become such a lazy, fat-ass bunch! I’ve been driving ( and i mean DRIVING) for 50 years and I still take it as seriously as i did when i started learning to drive in my dad’s ‘53 stick-shift Pontiac. And i stil occasionally drive my first car…a 1930 Model A Ford. Now that’s REAL driving!
Well, yes, in some perfect world where everyone is a perfect driver, there are no distractions, and nobody has any moment of weakness ever, then you are absolutely correct. However for the real world, aids like these would help mitigate the damage caused by all those drivers you look down upon. You should be happy about these technologies because they could mean that your life is safer from the people you don’t think should be driving anymore.