Safe Speed Forums

I'm not posting the entire article; the reader should click some of the links within it:

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

Hmm... I think I'm in two minds about this.

On the one hand, advanced warning of hazards such as adverse weather, broken down vehicles etc can only be a good thing, but is it likely to encorage riskier driving practices and over-reliance on technology?

A couple of phrase from the report worry me though..

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

great untill you meet a pedestrian or a deer who forgot to wear thier RFID chip. or a car on tow automaticly applies its brakes as it is too close to the tow truck. or it tries to avoid traffic going over a bridge

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Yes, we have to be extremely careful about the knock on effects on drivers. It's not widely appreciated, although central to the Safe Speed case, that driver quality is central to practical road safety.

If the electronics makes drivers take less care or weaker at managing risk, then Houston, we have a problem.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Hmmmm...

I liked this bit;

"For example, if one driver switches on his fog lamp and slows down, the computer could interpret it as an anomaly. But if three or four cars follow suit, the computer could reasonably assume that there is a fog problem. "

In fact, who knows? Maybe after a while, even the DRIVER will realise that it's bl&%&*ing foggy!

I wonder how long it will be before there are legal requirements to implant similar transmitters into children (for their own safety of course!) so that cars will know when they're thinking of running out into the road.

What scares me about all this is that, combined with the rapidly growing "green" agenda, it will add considerable weight to the arguments for banning older cars from our roads. I mean, there's me trundling along in my old Austin 7 in a line of modern cars all equipped with this technology. Their drivers are suitably anaesthetised, having long since given up "driving" their cars because they don't "need" to anymore - the computers do all that for them. My treasured classic can't tell any of the cars around me that it's there - let alone where it's going!

vulnerable or what????!

On the plus side, I'm looking forward to the day when I can work from home and with all this technology I can send my car into work by itself without me having to be in it!


(P.S. that was just an example - I don't have an Austin 7)!

I reckon that it would all be too complex and unreliable.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

It would only have to go wrong "Once"!

The consequences of a major failure could produce the biggest Mway pileup in history!

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Makes me think this does.

Obviously theyll design in a fail-safe system whereby it reverts back to " driver control"? How ironic. They wont trust us to set our speeds at a safe state yet they expect us to take control and get their rotten control freak systems out of the klartz when a set of circumstances comes along that it " dont get"....doh.
Come that day, i shall just sit back and refuse to take control and keep gibbering "speed kills" when they cut me out of the mess their infallible " safety promise" system suddenley finds it cant deliver on!

If i wasnt of such an amenable nature right now id tell em to F*ck off with it. I feel we're outnumbered by dipshits, i really do.

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"Safety" Scamera Partnerships;
Profitting from death and misery since 1993.

Believe nothing- Question everything.

I seem to recall this being mooted (I could moot if a moot were needed) some time ago, by a car magazine, specifically to allow extremely high speed motorways (140mph plus). Single lanes with cars closely bunched together by computers.

I think the idea may have been that the new high speed roads would only be open to cars with the right capability, and the system would control the journey from entry to an exit lane (diverting the car off to a slip road for slowing down) where the driver would take over again.

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COAST Not just somewhere to keep a beach.

A young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law.

A computer will NEVER be able to take in to account what is happening at any given time and react accordingly.

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?

With Gixxer on this one. I know computer capacity has come on some in the last few years but I'm sure I once, back in the '90s, saw a computer boffin (woody word) on TV explaining that even the US military's biggest ICBM control computer couldn't handle the calculations needed to make a right turn at a busy T-junction.

Hal says 'don't do that Dave'.

Barkstar

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The difference between intelligence and stupidity is that intelligence has limits.

hmmm .. which is exactly what the latest DARPA urban challenge involves

All the DARPA research is related to getting to the Holy Grail of unmanned reconnaisance vehicles for warfare. It may spin off into road cars but what's the point really? Humans drive perfectly safely almost all the time.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

OK I won't. This damned technology business is getting seriously overdone IMHO. Driver aids can be good, but actual control should remain with the driver.

Best wishes all,
Ned L.

:yesyes: Things like airbags are great - they protect you in the inevitable. They do not make one take more risks on the road as a result.

Ditto ABS and traction control. These rarely if ever cut in on me, and certainly their presence has little or no bearing on my approach speed to hazards.

I'm not sure about a few of the later innovations though. The adaptive cruise control, white line steering "stiffner" and things like that are to me on a dangerous curve of driver complacencey.

Likewise.
Very great parallel to happenings on railways.
Years ago , someone on ground wants to attract attention - he stands waving something - very little chance driver will not see him - as driver would normally be looking at track in front of train to watch out for signals.

Nowadays ( and straight from NR rule book) - place three detonators on track, stand 30 yards on other side ( so that bits will miss you ) waving flag, or something ( why dets - so that driver's attention will move to track , he might be reading paper)-he doesent need to look for signals , he(she)' ll get an audible warning in the cab.

And don't forget about things like over speed and train stop warning systems.

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

It is often claimed that under the theory of risk homeostasis that the increased feeling of security engendered by these devices in fact encourages drivers to act in a more risky manner.

See, for example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation


Now I'm very doubtful about this, particularly as the average driver probably doesn't know whether his car has ABS, let alone how it works. However, it's something you're likely to encounter on C+ and similar forums.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Whatever happened to the word " responsibility"




My youngest kid had pal over for a homework project. I was amused by this child using a calculator to work out 10%. I think too much technology breeds laziness and a loss of basic common sense skills. For example, I can reckon up in my head. This means that when I have to pay a bill, or judge a speed or a distance, I can do so by virtue of having trained my mind to do such mental arithmetic and my old school teachers taught me the logic behind the calcualtions. They gave me the means to understand why 2 plus 2 makes 4.


The analogy perhaps is apt. If the device failed - then the drivers of tomorrow will not have the spatial awareness skills to determine the danger, nor understand the concept of speed of approach to them either

So by all means develop a tool. Teach people how to use the tool sensibly and as skilfully as any "tool of the trade"

But retain human skill and responsibility and instinct for danger and survival.

I think another reason to bring in some constant training if only to teach people how to use the toys in their shiny new cars. (Without testing them on a public highway )

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

With automated communication between conplex embedded systems it is ripe for virus infection by rogue systems. It has already been proved that RFID tags can be programmed to transmit viruses.

Also with one third of cars on the road over 10 years old it will be a L O N G time before it can be fully implemented.

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Speed camera policy Kills

Forget the cage, where exactly are you going to fit the requisite crap on my hardtailed, stripped down to basics, lowrider?
Even if they do find a space to fit the solid state electronics required, the shite tarmac will soon shake everything to bits.

On the other hand, we can solve that by simply outlawing custom bike building

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What makes you think I'm drunk officer, have I got a fat bird with me?