Rather than use cars to parent drivers, why not encourage drivers to learn how to drive competently – so that they are not in need of parenting?
Of course, we have the reverse. Have had it – for decades – and it shows. All you have to do to see it is go for a drive. It is almost as common as seeing “masked” people was a couple of years ago to see people wandering all over the road – Lane Keep Assistance “technology” notwithstanding. To find yourself behind someone who drives below the speed limit – then speeds up and drives faster than the limit – alternating between the two at random.
Who needs a prod – from “assistance technology” to notice the “car ahead is pulling away” because the light has turned green.
Yes, really.
How about the driver who practically comes to a complete stop in the travel lane before turning off the travel lane – forcing you to come to a near-stop? Good thing there’s Automatic Emergency Braking “technology.”
The correlation between worsening driving behavior and the increasing parenting of drivers seems clear (more in support of that contention follows below). Probably because it stands to reason. The less that is expected of people, the less you get from most people.
Ask any employer. Ask any teacher.
A kid who isn’t challenged is often a kid who never learns. Imagine teaching a kid – so to speak – to rely on chat GTP to compose an essay. Or handed a calculator to obtain the results of 2+2. Such a kid will forever be dependent upon his calculator for even the simplest addition – and unable to compose a coherent, grammatically correct sentence on his own. To cripple a kid in this way could very fairly be characterized as child abuse.
Is it really all that different when it comes to crippling drivers – by not expected them to be able to? By making them dependent upon “technology” to do what every driver worthy of the title ought to be able to do?
Like back-up (and curbside park) a car without the “assistance” of “technology.”
These two basic competencies were once taught – and expected – of anyone seeking to obtain a license to drive. The underlying assumption being that anyone not able to back-up a car without the “assistance” of “technology” – or curbside park – was probably not someone who ought to be behind the wheel of a moving object operating at road speeds.
Applicants for a driver’s license once had to demonstrate they could competently perform these basic low-speed maneuvers before they were licensed to drive at faster-than-walking speed, for the obvious reasons.
Similarly, it was once assumed that if you could not reverse a trailer towed behind your vehicle without the “assistance” of “technology” (e.g., Ford’s appallingly misnamed Back-Up Pro “technology”) then you had no more business pulling a trailer than a man who can’t swim has diving into the deep end of the pool.
Life jackets, of course, will prevent such a man from drowning. But wouldn’t it be better if he leaned how to swim? Wouldn’t it be preferable if he didn’t need to walk around wearing a life jacket because he might fall into the pool? And what happens if he forgets to wear his life jacket – or it doesn’t work for some reason – and he falls into the pool?
“Technology” works like that when it doesn’t work – and the driver has become dependent on it. Imagine the driver of a truck pulling a trailer who never learned how to back up with a trailer hitched to his truck – who depends on “Pro” assistance “technology” to take care of that – and then one day, the “technology” glitches. Or the cameras that see what’s behind the truck that the truck’s “technology” needs to back itself up when those cameras are fogged up or covered up by ice?
What then?
You have a dangerous driver who is out of his depth behind the wheel of a truck with a trailer hitched to the back of it.
It is almost axiomatic – and there is evidence to support this axiom. Tesla drivers are the most accident-prone drivers, according to data aggregated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) covering model years 2018-2022. Here is one of the key findings – with the implications following:
“Two Teslas, the Model Y and Model S, make the most dangerous cars list despite Tesla’s advanced driver-assist technology.”
Italics added.
You’d think they’d crash less often, given all of their “advanced driver-assist technology.” But – as initially counter-intuitive as it may seem – it appears the more a driver is “assisted,” the more danger he is in as a consequence of his own diminished driving ability.
This makes a lot of sense when you think about it for a little bit. Would it strengthen the muscles you use to walk – to run, if you do that – if you used them less? If you had a wheelchair to “assist” you down the street?
Babies have to learn to walk and – more to the point – they must develop the muscles and the automatic coordination necessary to walking unassisted. Driving is not dissimilar in that it is also a learned skill that has to be developed – and maintained, by actually doing it. If you stop walking – or let the car do the driving – your ability to walk (and drive competently) diminishes.
And that’s why it makes the sense that the most likely to crash drivers are the ones who drive cars with more “driver assist technology” parenting them.
Maybe it’d be safer for them – and us – if they just learned how to drive.
. . .
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
If you like items like the Baaaaaa! baseball cap pictured below, you can find that and more at the EPautos store!
Why am I not surprised that I am reading that Tesla’s are the most crash prone cars on EPAutos, and nowhere else? Total silent on the electric car cheerleading sites of course, where even if reported, the fanboys would do their best to defend.
Between the not ready for prime time tech and true believers thinking they have a self driving car already is a combo that should surprise nobody……. Tesla for the most part has replaced BMW for the most a##hat drivers.
Talking about parenting I just caught my daughter making a fake ID 🤣🤣🤣. It was for a roblox account to play games ranked for older kids which need age verification…. while the libertarian in me was very proud that she wasnt giving up her details and not letting “the authorities” stop her doing what she wanted, i did worry that this is the world that now they want an ID to play a video games online !!!
This grinds my gears.
if you could not reverse a trailer towed behind your vehicle without the “assistance” of “technology” (e.g., Ford’s appallingly misnamed Back-Up Pro “technology”) then you had no more business pulling a trailer than a man who can’t swim has diving into the deep end of the pool.
I have watched some very good trailer backers and some jokers, but at least the jokers were doing it themselves. Probably learned how to do it eventually.
This whole letting the computer do it for you floors me.
What else can’t you do? Navigate a gas station, safely change lanes, or know your stopping distance?
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/sean-duffy-dot-chief
“Trump Chooses Former Congressman Sean Duffy for DOT Chief”
Because he’s “Pro-trucking”.
Color me unconvinced.
Orange Man too often is still following the practice of appointing the unknown, untested and likely unprincipled (though likely well-connected) to these positions.
US Secretary of Transportation Eric Peters would’ve given the DOT the Maglight-to-the-throat that it desperately needed. Of course, then we’d wake up.
‘Duffy co-hosts “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business and contributes to Fox News, where he has criticized current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
‘Duffy’s selection, along with Trump’s choice of Pete Hegseth for defense secretary, adds to a growing group of Fox News personalities in the incoming administration who have used their media platforms to promote policies aligned with the president-elect’s vision.’
Fox News is an incubator for neocons. Hegseth is even more of a flake than Duffy.
Kill your TeeVee.
Ah, Fox News. Great. I’m certain that policy will undergo a tectonic shift. :/
Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. It’s the dumb sheeple who believe his lying words who think that he’s somehow on their side and will somehow fix ‘Murica. Like they believe he will fix the inflation which he started…..or that RFK will somehow ‘punish’ the drug cartel, when he himself is a proponent of vaccines. (He just wants “safe” vaccines).
I’m hoping that the stupidity of the regulatory cartel is becoming more obvious to people. If there is a real effort to scale back the Feds it’s a perfect place.
Cars have definitely become too easy to drive and the first casualty is situational awareness. Shit happens and you have no chance if you are always daydreaming or buried in a screen.
“(e.g., Ford’s appallingly misnamed Back-Up Pro “technology”)”
Haha!
My F150 has that “assistance” thing. Never even set it up although now I’m kind of curious about it. I assumed most people didn’t even bother with it.
Here in WA, during winter mountain pass travel might as well call all this “ditch plant and rollover assist”. Pass has already been closed at least once not for weather but the moron drivers. Unfortunately the truck driver skill set is now lacking, the latest closure was a jackknifed semi.
The Soviet of Washington also requires ALL vehicles carry chains even AWD/4WD. Not that many can actually install them but by golly they better be on board!
“ Fines: Drivers who fail to carry or install tire chains when required may face fines starting at $500.”
They still allow studded tires here then wonder why the pavement is constantly destroyed. 1968 called, they want their tire tech back. Jeebus, get some modern winter tires with the mountain symbol on them – sometimes Europe does know better.
“Studded tires” aren’t the reason the “pavement is constantly destroyed”.
Our roads suck ass because of the nonsense people learn in college. 2,000 years ago, the Romans were able to build roads that last STILL TO THIS DAY. But along come a college “educated” engineer and we can’t make a road that lasts 2 years.
Something is seriously wrong somewhere. And we are being SERIOUSLY lied to by a great number of people. If they can build the pyramids out of concrete that lasts for 5,000 years, we should be able to do the same for roads TODAY.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that ox carts weigh a whole lot less & travel a whole lot more slowly than 18-wheelers. Much less stress on the equipment. Also, it’s less that we can’t design a road to last 2000 years, it’s that we can’t possibly afford to build anything like that.
Hell, we’ve got 11 million undocumented migrants. Let ’em build roads like the Romans did, with end-laid stones 3 feet deep.
That number is a remarkable fiction, like the 30 year old claim that there is 300 million guns in private hands. In fact there are probably closer to 35 million illegal aliens and a billion guns.
I think you may be under-estimating the impact of 30,000 Roman soldiers on a road. 😉
The secret of secrets in the construction world would be to re-discover ancient concrete. Every place in the world, from the Inca and Mayan and Aztecs, to the Egyptian pyramids, and beyond, that there are “stone blocks that are carved with impossible precision” and joints that you “can’t fit a piece of paper between”?
Those are all POURED CONCRETE. You know why all those super-precise and complicated joints deemed impossible to reproduce by today’s standards? Because they were impossible to produce by yesterday’s standards, too. They aren’t carved stone. Very few ancient monolithic structures like the Egyptian pyramids are actually carved stone. By matter of fact, to imagine that the pyramids are somehow made of giant stone blocks that were dragged across the desert by slaves is frankly preposterous. No whip could sting hard enough to convince slaves to spend their years dragging stones across the desert. Every slave in that situation would throw down their “rock draggin rope” and say “You know what? Fuck this. I’m done. Kill me.” NOBODY would endure a lifetime of dragging stone blocks across the desert. The entire “theory” is a conspiracy theory of a ridiculous nature. You have to be able to believe some absolute bull shit to believe the pyramids (and similar structures) are anything BUT poured concrete.
Whoever re-discovers the secret of Egyptian concrete? Will have wealth that makes Bill Gates look poor.
The REAL reason that roads only last 2 years has little to do with engineers or materials. It is a system of perverse incentives, where there is always tax money do do things in a cheap way rather than spending the right amount for long term quality, and along with that the incredible graft of politically connected road construction companies.
My small town has crumbling asphalt roads, several years ago we were quoted $75000 to repair 3/4 of a block. The entire city budget is around $200k/ year.
This, right here. The “blacktop grift” exists IN UBIQUITY across this stupid country. It’s something that hard-core needs to be done away with.
Well, Perdue study linked here. I do agree, the lack of roadbed quality and the increase in GVW for the 18 wheelers ain’t helping either. State of WA refuses to ban studded tires. The modern winter ice tires really are dandy time to ban those &*#$ studded tires.
https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2958&context=roadschool
Here in WA road design = WA contractors full employment act. Build a freeway overpass, run the asphalt road right up to the edge of the overpass concrete panel, this junction right over the undercut of the berms of the road running underneath. After about a year the asphalt sinks making a great tire strike at the concrete panel. After three years and many complaints build a bypass while you fix the piss poor design of the overpass panel to roadbed interface. Add reinforcements under the junction and build out a 40 foot long concrete panel back into the roadbed where there is enough meat to support. Rinse repeat for every failed overpass in the state, at about two a year. At this rate the sun will super nova before they’re halfway done.
There is no money in things that last forever or cures. In the 1980s I was yard manager for a Christmas tree exporter. a semi arrived and i informed him he needed to back the rig between two building to get near the baled tree pile, he told me he could not accomplish the feat. I responded he could do it or i would back it into position. The trucker responded to the challenge.
PS Dodge trucks,suburus and VW drivers statistically worse than teslas in incidents .
ps II when you hire people based on box checking i.e. gender, race or sexual preferences you may not be selecting the best candidate for said position.
Ps III i will be raising a glass of Irish Whiskey on the weekend to you mom, my gram and youself Eric.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if they applied some of the requirements to obtain a private pilot certificate:
1) take an approved ground course and pass a non-open book test.
2) take lessons from a certified flight instructor to the tune of $12 grand or so
3) pass a check ride with a qualified flight examiner that includes an oral examination and practical demonstration of routine and emergency maneuvers.
4) only allowed to take passengers after you pass the check ride and get your certificate.
5) Periodic check rides thereafter to maintain your certificate.
Medical examinations to get your initial student pilot license and periodic exams thereafter.
Take anti-depressants? Fail
Take ADD/ADHD or any other kind of amphetamines? Fail
Cardiovascular event or stroke? Fail, but may be able to get an exemption with very extensive/expensive hoops to jump through.
Mental health issues? Fail
Alcohol or drug issues? Fail
Generally too retarded to operate the plane? Fail
I bet applying the above to the average car driver would make the roads much safer than all of the safety gizmos currently in place/planned.
Of course based on my observations, perhaps 10-15 % of the driving population could meet such requirements.
It would be fun though to set up check rides – Okay Anon, my name is Eric and I will be your check ride examiner. First on the list of emergency maneuvers for you to demonstrate will be a blowout of the right front tire at 80mph on a wet road with abs/traction control/lane keeping disabled. Go! Of course, you will also have to change the flat tire afterwards as part of the evaluation.
Brownie points for doing a bootlegger turn at speed.
Anon
Yep. If I was in charge of the DMV about 5% of the applicants would end up with a legal license.
The main reason why a PPL is so comprehensive is because you can fly over real estate. When they fall out of the sky even a small plane can cause a lot of collateral damage.
https://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-howard-hughes-injured-in-1946-plane-crash-20180918-htmlstory.html
Hey why wait for a license, just go “koo koo for Cocoa Puffs” and play Sky King for an hour. Apparently did some fancy flying before he suicided into an island in Puget Sound:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Horizon_Air_Q400_incident
Umm
I don’t think you realize this but you definitely *want* people to be on ADHD meds and antidepressants, if they have those conditions. Especially the ADHD ones, their (our) unmedicated driving records speak for themselves.
There’s reasons why they’re on them. Their (our) brains actually don’t work the same as a normal person’s, they are physically different which is why they don’t function well, which is why they take stuff to make themselves function better. And why their brains don’t quite respond the same way to low doses of amphetamines.
It’s not like getting hopped up on truckstop crank, if you actually have the condition. Believe me, it’s not recreational.
Unless “low mood,” “no motivation” “executive dysfunction” and “unable to hold focus unless actually interested in which case all the focus — but only on random stuff, never on anything that’s actually useful” is somehow now a good thing?
Pogo was Right
I got a problem with stick shift driving academy. Or atleast a friend does, who only teaches people to drive stick. The Academy caught wind of a review one customer left him, and the academy turns out only wants people to shift from 1st to second gear. No public roads, no above 30MPH.
Mainly insurance reasons, but perhaps they get off on infantalizing people. That was so screwed up so he would do the first hour like that with them, and the customer would refund their hours and hire him privatly to continue learning.
So of course stick shift driving academy is not sending him any more work. He maintains that teaching someone to drive stick and not letting them get to third gear while moving is totally retarded. Most of it is fear-breaking.
The naming of these ADAS features now follow the naming strategy of legislation.
That’s to say, its name is the opposite of its intent.
Pro Trailer Backup Assist and the newest Pro Trailer Hitch Assist are the epitome of this naming.
“Pro” Hitch assist being a feature designed to help the driver line up the hitch ball with the trailer so it can be coupled.
This feature is slower and harder to use than simply using the rear backup camera that vehicles are now mandated to have. The feature is needlessly complicated to use, and takes far longer than a novice that has been properly coached about how to couple a trailer using the rear camera. No “pro” will ever use this feature. Worse yet, the feature can’t even help a novice perform like a pro.
Needless technology for the sake of technology!
It all started when calculators became affordable. Nowadays a good chunk of both young & old are unable to make change without the register. Or do simple math without a calculator.
It’s painful to admit, but maybe Ted Kaczinski had many valid points including:
“Another reason why technology is such a powerful social force is that, within the context of a given society, technological progress marches in only one direction; it can never be reversed. Once a technical innovation has been introduced, people usually become dependent on it, so that they can never again do without it, unless it is replaced by some still more advanced innovation.””
I’m glad I grew up in a more normal era. Now of course we are living in the movie “Idiocracy” and it’s not as funny as watching the movie was.
If what they say about the “Titler Cycle’ is true the next generation should be better, it can’t get much worse.
If people don’t need nannies, what ever will we do with the Nanny State?
Burn it down? Salt the fields? Put up signs Sic Semper Tyrannous?
‘You’d think they’d crash less often, given all of their “advanced driver-assist technology.”’ — eric
And even more dangerous, debilitating technology is incoming:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has finalized a rule that requires all newly manufactured vehicles to have automatic emergency braking (AEB) as of September 1, 2029.
They KNOW that AEB will cause more rear-end collisions. Quite possibly, disastrous chain-reaction crashes. Human drivers will be blamed when an AEB vehicle in front of them stops suddenly.
NHTSA was founded in 1970. More than half a century later, it has outlived its usefulness. Shut the sucker down. Then implode the building to make it doesn’t come back.
Absolutely. I was just reading the Wikipedia article on it. It’s quite revealing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Highway_Traffic_Safety_Administration
My favorite line from the article:” Audits by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Inspector General in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2021 have concluded that NHTSA is ineffectual”
It sure is. The US fatality rate has flatlined and risen as a result of the latest revisions to FMVSS 204 (and 208) which have institutionalized vehicles with poor outward visibility, pushing the pedestrian fatality numbers from 4600 anually in the 2000-2009 time period to over 8000 today.
Agreed close down, implode and burn the regulations along with it.
Isnt the NHTSA in charge of CAFE these days? All the more reason to throw it in the trash.
It is. and yes. Burn it to the ground.
True of most government agencies, and especially NATO. Hoping Orange Man can drive a stake through the heart of bureaucracy but won’t be surprised if he fails. Nothing has eternal life like a government agency.
“Human drivers will be blamed when an AEB vehicle in front of them stops suddenly.”
Rightly so.
Today’s drivers follow too closely, don’t pay attention, and don’t know how to brake to the vehicles capability.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a huge fan of AEV and it has glaring flaws.
But to blame AEB for rear
“Human drivers will be blamed when an AEB vehicle in front of them stops suddenly.”
Rightly so.
Today’s drivers follow too closely, don’t pay attention, and don’t know how to emergency brake to the vehicles capability.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a huge fan of AEB and it has glaring flaws that NHTSA is willfully ignoring.
But to blame the driver behind the AEB vehicle for failing to stop is misguided.