What happens when the latest ssssssssssaaaaaaafety systems are stymied by snow? Here’s a look!
Well, sort of.
I wasn’t able to get my camera rolling in time to show you the warning display that lit up in the gauge cluster of the VW GTI I’m driving this week. It lit up to warn me that the Forward Collision Assist system was offline . . . because of the snow that had accumulated all over the car’s exterior.
That’s where the cameras are mounted, you see. And when they can’t see, the system doesn’t work.
Of course, the lights – and buzzers – and other such do. They’ll pester you endlessly about what you already know. That the system isn’t working.
What happens when people become so dependent on all these “assists” that they can’t drive without them?
Stay home when it snows?
Outrageous! The same VW that gave us Fahrvergnuegen, the original GTI, the Scirocco, the Porsche 914 (yes, it was a VW), etc. etc. is reduced to this. Sa-a-a-a-fety crap that can’t be turned off and hoots incessantly at you. Well, Adolph might have liked it, but Heinz Nordhoff would not!
That stupid backup camera is completely worthless from October to April in Colorado.
Or anywhere anytime off paved roads. The backs of our vehicles always have a heavy coat of dust – except when they have a heavy coat of snow or ice or mud. I can wash the car and let it dry, then drive out to the highway and it is covered with dirt.
They become average drivers.