Print

[Grandadrob]

Just read a piece which said that some cars with anti collision equipment will do an emergency stop if passing over a cattle grid.... Well it made me smile anyway !

[diffwhine]

I once had an interesting problem with a tractor fitted with automatic draft control whereby a scanner scanned to terrain and automatically adjusted the depth of the plough accordingly to prevent wheel slip and drag. It was a new demonstrator. The demo driver started his first cut and happened to go over a puddle. The computer saw that as a major incident and lifted the plough so quickly that it put part of it through the cab back window... Oh how we laughed...

Hopefully anybody going over a cattle grid will be doing it slowly, so would hope that under a certain speed such features don't activate. If they do, presumably the emergency stop wouldn't be too traumatic.

So much for modern technology...

[Supercal2007]

Yes indeed. I've never had the anti collision go off over a cattle grid, but it scared the life out of me the first time it went off whilst approaching a middle lane cruiser. It's now switched off along with EVERYTHING else.

[kev]

There was briefly a Volvo at work.
Two people were out in it, and I think, they tried to squeeze it through a gap, the car thought there was going to be an impact, and nearly strangled them by tightening up the seatbelts...

...Oh how I laughed.

[Wittsend]

The city stop on my car only works at sub 30 mph and it works on recognising number plates - not sure if it works on the old B&W plates and I'm not prepared to test it out.
Been over cattle grids with no probs.

IIRC Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame drove a car with "collision tech" at a hedge, at speed and it didn't stop   

...and then I guess it depends what make of car as I suspect there's no international spec for these - yet.


 

[diffwhine]

The city stop on my car only works at sub 30 mph and it works on recognising number plates - not sure if it works on the old B&W plates and I'm not prepared to test it out.
Been over cattle grids with no probs.

IIRC Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame drove a car with "collision tech" at a hedge, at speed and it didn't stop   

...and then I guess it depends what make of car as I suspect there's no international spec for these - yet.


 

The reason for that is that most car manufacturers have a specific software setting which knows when Jeremy Clarkson is driving their cars and automatically turns off all life saving features. Unfortunately nobody has quite succeeded in their dastardly plan.

[Matt Reeves]

This just gives me another reason to hate modern cars even more

It's bad enough already with many drivers seeming to believe they are indestructible cocooned within their moulded blob that does everything except drive itself....

[alchad]

My previous car was a BMW X3 and it was fitted with anti collision, several times ( no fool like an old fool) I tried accelerating towards the car in front. Every time I chickened out and hit the brakes before the car had a chance😀

My present car -Audi Q3 - also has it. The system has an annoying habit of squawking at you when you pass a car in front which has just gone round a corner. However, re the cattle grids, our farm track has several cattle grids one of which is in a hollow. If I approach it at a anything over a few mph, the anti collision slams on the rakes and tightens, I mean really tightens, the seat belt. I think it is a result of the dip in the track which the car senses the ground as being a close object and acts accordingly, rather than the metal if the cattle grid as it doesn't happen with the other two. First time it happened scared the out if me, still catches me out occasionally.

[agg221]

Back in those far off days when we used to be able to go anywhere, I travelled on business a fair amount. Corporate policy does not allow use of your own car so when the pool cars ran out I would get a hire car. The pool cars are Skoda Octavias and the latest set have lane adjustment which tries to pull you back in lane when you are pulling off a dual carriageway onto a slip road. It is annoying enough that I turn it off when I remember to. The single most dangerous one though was a Kia Sportage. Some of the roads between work and home do not have a white line up the middle and it was determined to find something to call the middle of the road, usually the kerb or the hedge on one side, resulting in alarms continuously sounding as it tried to drag me into the hedge on the opposite side. I fought it all the way to the school to pick up the children and it is the only car I have had where I then had to get out the handbook and figure out how to turn everything off. It was still horrible and gutless, but at least it was no longer actively trying to kill me!

Alec

[Wittsend]

..... and they think driverless cars is the way to go 

[TimV]

A Toyota Prius was the only car where I needed the instruction book to start it. A work pool car. Then I found a laminated sheet with a set of instructions.

No other car in my experience needed such things.

And as for the driving experience ... It handled like a mattress at sea. By using it frugally I got 50mpg out of it. But my own car ( a For diesel) got 56mpg with ordinary driving.

[Grandadrob]

So, if it works on cattle grids, and cars in front, are we saying it reacts to metal objects. Can someone try ramming a plastic car and see if it works then, just for my satisfaction. 

[oddjob]

I hired a huge 4x4 in America that had that thing that tries to steer you back into your lane. Very weird feeling until I worked out what it was doing. Like you were trying to steer out of tramlines.
On empty roads I used it as a self driving mode where it would travel gently bumping off the left and right white lines.
Only snag was my wife would freak out and shout at me to hold the wheel. It did make you feel a bit seasick.

 

[Dopey]

Kick the bumper hard enough on some cars, and the doors unlock.....

[Formerlyjeremy]

Isn't the apparently insuperable problem with driverless cars that they (quite rightly) are programmed to avoid pedestrians.  All well and good except that any joker can stop the thing by simply stepping into the road.