Do the car companies believe people are handicapped in some way? It seems that way. Why else would they outfit every car they sell with what they call “driver assistance” technology?
Who needs “assistance,” after all? Is it not the handicapped? A walker, for instance – for those who have difficulty walking without . . . assistance. Not – as Seinfeld used to say – that there is anything wrong with such assistance.
If you need it.
But it seems to be the general presumption as regards drivers. All of them. That is, all of us. Because otherwise, why would all of us need such “assistance” – now standard in every new car – if the car companies did not consider all of us to be handicapped drivers?
Have a look at the latest driver assistance technology. It is called Cornering Assistance or some similar derivation. It is of a piece with Lane Keep Assistance/Lane Centering Assistance/Steering Assist and all the other forms of “assistance” that have become standard in new cars.
It presumes the driver does not know to – or is unable to – reduce the speed of his vehicle prior to entering a curve and takes care of that for him, automatically. You have to feel it to believe it. The car slows down all on its own, as if the brakes were being applied and the throttle dialed back – which is exactly what’s happening only it’s not you who’s doing it. The system can (for now) be overridden by keeping on the gas – which people who know how to drive do when cornering (because it reduces the tendency of the lighter rear end of the car to want to come around) but it is nonetheless both awkward and insufferable.
It makes it more difficult to drive smoothly – a true irony – because smooth transitions from less brake to more throttle are interrupted and pre-empted, obliging the driver to make counter-corrections. Of a piece with the way Lane Keep Assistance will interrupt smooth lane changes – if you haven’t signaled your intent to change lanes first, which turns off the “assistance” – by trying to nudge the car back into the lane you’re in while you’re trying to change lanes. It does not matter whether you judge there’s no need to signal first – maybe because there are no other vehicles in the vicinity. If you don’t, the car will attempt to correct you.
There’s also automated emergency braking – another manifestation of assistance technology that is now standard equipment in every new vehicle – that applies the brakes when you’re trying to accelerate around/in-between slower-moving traffic – because the system thinks you’re too close for its comfort.
Reverse assistance is another one.
It slams on the brakes while you’re trying to back up if the system thinks you’re getting too close to something it thinks you might hit. Never mind that you know you still have a foot or more to go before the car hits anything. The system’s judgment takes precedence over your ability. Some of these systems have an additional feature. The stereo’s volume is either turned down or turned off entirely as soon as you select Reverse (it is the computer that actually puts the transmission into Reverse).
All of the above combines to make driving a new or late model vehicle equipped with this “assistance” annoying – in the same way and for essentially the same reason that would be annoying to have some Helpful Harry grab you unbidden by the elbow to “assist” you climbing a flight of stairs when you’re perfectly able to climb them yourself.
It’s also insulting.
But it’s something else, too – in that it does not require paranoia to discern what may well be and probably is the the ultimate purpose of all this “assistance.” All of it being predicated, remember, on the implicit idea that everyone who drives needs this “assistance.” The latter italics are there to emphasize something important to understand about all of this.’
What would we make of it if the government were to require that whenever anyone walks anywhere, they have to take a cane or a walker with them? Obviously, it would be insulting. But would it also not suggest the government believes people – all people – ought not to be allowed to walk unless they are . . . assisted?
If driver assistance tech were optional – i.e., available, for those who need it in the manner that walkers and canes are wheelchairs are available for those who need them – then it would hard to object to their being available. Who objects to people needing some help walking being able to buy canes, walkers and wheelchairs? Who objects to handicapped controls being available for people who need them?
But most of us aren’t handicapped and there are still some among us who have no use for driver assistance technology because we are capable of driving without it. Yet we are effectively forced to buy it. If we wish to buy any new vehicle – because all of them come standard now with a roster of such assistance technology.
Why?
More to the point, what for?
Is it possible that – bit-by-bit – we are to be “assisted” into the passenger seat? We may still be allowed to sit in the driver’s seat, but it will be like sitting in the driver’s seat of an amusement park ride. The car follows the tracks, irrespective of how you steer (or brake).
It is extremely likely that at some point in the near future, these assisted cars will preclude you from driving when conditions aren’t safe enough to allow it. As for instance when snow/ice or fog temporarily disable the assistance technology (by occluding the camera eyes these systems rely upon to assist you) because it follows that a driver who cannot be trusted to drive without the help of assistance technology cannot be permitted to drive when the technology is inoperative.
And there’s a degree of truth to that – in that a driver who has never learned to drive because he has always relied upon assistance technology is probably someone who ought not to be permitted to drive when the technology is inoperative. This encompasses the rising and prior generation of drivers – the Millennials and their kids – both of whom also grew up strapped in and so are preconditioned to the handicapped mentality.
It’s amazing more of them aren’t afraid to walk down the street unaided.
. . .
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Modern car-tech assistance apparatus is complete garbage. The overbearing crap makes it increasingly difficult do diagnose and/or repair even the simplest problems.
The only reason I can think of for the standardization of “driver ASS-istance”, is that the automakers KNOW the government is eventually going to mandate said technology, anyway. After all, new cars are already required to have backup cameras.
That’s my take as well, Bluegrey –
It’s all bit-by-bit until we’re right there. And we very nearly are, already.
To me the nose under the tent was antilock brakes. Now here we are with automated computer steering “assist”. No thanks.
My ‘79 Pontiac front disk rear drum power brakes still my favorite for braking. Stock rotors with “Titanium series” brake pads. Great progressive pedal feel and boy would it stop when you had to nail the brakes, surprised I didn’t launch the crankshaft thru the radiator. Daughter used it for a work car going to the mall job & one day a DWO (Driving While Oriental) pulled out in front of her. “Sure glad Old Yeller has such good brakes otherwise I would have hit her!”
Todays cars? Meh. Daughters Acura MDX mush pedal brakes. My 2018 Grand Cherokee a bit better but still, ehh. Last holdout for real brakes my 2003 Escape NO antilock how did I get so lucky!
maybe its for all the expected side effects from covid, its booster and other shots they hav given. like the elderly women who didnt see my 99 corolla with 80k miles on it. must hav been “vaccine” brain freeze. think of all the heart attacks (and other unknown medical emergencies) waiting to happen while driving under their influence.
Had a truck that would beep under 7 mph when I was close to stuff.
Guess what happened when there was ice frozen to the sensors.
That’s right, I turned the damn thing off, else I would have gone crazy.
I’m a millennial. I daily drive a standard shift ‘82 Chevy Silverado that I maintain myself. My other car is a ‘91 Ford van. My little boy, aged 3, asked to ride home today (a short distance on a rural road) in the little flatbed trailer I was pulling with 30” wooden sides. Many of us have our heads up our a**es, but not all. Probably a better determinant for whether someone is or isn’t a member of the safety cult, would be whether they are a city or country dweller.
The most dangerous element of Leviathan as it relates to cars is the forced computer braking. Don’t know how thats a good idea in places that don’t have street lights, are frequently curvy and icy, and contain lots of deer and elk. Sure seems like a dangerous combination to me.
“All of it being predicated, remember, on the implicit idea that everyone who drives needs this assistance,” Good point Eric. Maybe that was the idea behind insisting everyone was a super spreader back in the time of sniffles. Being presumed guilty of carrying the dreaded plague, even when having no symptoms, seems a little more nefarious now. Makes it easier to presume no one is competent to handle an automobile, when a large part of the population already accepted the basic premise [via masks and shit shots] in regards to their health..
Its almost as if everyone in the GovCo bureaucracy are schizophrenics. A non-sensical duality of objectives. That fits with conflicted control freaks posing as wannabe overlords. On the one hand, they act all concerned about our health/safety and sheeit. Every aspect of life that should be a personal choice, they have interfered with on some fundamental level.
On the other hand, there should be little doubt they want us all dead.. So many examples of their neurotic and psychopathic nature, it boggles the mind. More people would have come to realize this much quicker with the Ds in charge. And since the Rs couldn’t even bother to stop the election fraud, again, it seems like a missed opportunity.
“On the other hand, there should be little doubt they want us all dead..”
Worse. They want us all ALIVE as long as possible, so that we may SUFFER as long as possible.
Next up, government mandated helmets at all times when out of your home. You could trip and fall, retard!
Here’s a car with the latest “driver’s assistance” that killed 3 people:
https://carnewschina.com/2025/04/01/first-fatal-accident-involving-xiaomi-su7-claims-three-lives-on-chinese-highway/
People aren’t built to pay attention while not doing anything. Until these systems are so good that you can be reading a book or having a beer, they’re dangerous.
Who needs this crap other than a drunken pregnant russian lesbian?
We were promised Jetpacks and instead got this? I want a refund, this isnt the future I was promised!
Johnny Cab’s career at Starfleet Medical continues.
At some point this year, we will get a look at what he’s up to in the 31st century in the new “Starfleet Academy” series.
‘Is it possible that – bit-by-bit – we are to be “assisted” into the passenger seat?’ — eric
Why of course. We are to be assisted into the passenger seat, then the motorized scooter, and finally the Soylent Green euthanasia parlor … because Big Gov cares. /sarc
So, the Cornering Assistance algorithm has complications to deal with. Interstate highways and modern roads use spiral curves, which ease you into the turn on a l-o-o-o-o-n-g radius, then tighten up the radius toward the apex. But more primitive roads have constant-radius corners, because those are easier to lay out.
What is the dumb algorithm to assume as it approaches an unknown turn? Constant radius would be the more conservative rule, since it requires more slowing in advance. But then you’ll get inappropriate, unnecessary slowing on roads designed for high-speed cornering.
Al Gore Rhythms used to be just Looney Tunes jingles on the radio. Now they’ve taken over the damned vehicle. Welcome to Dystopia, my friends. It’s gonna be a bumpy road.
And that ain’t the hardest part
The hardest part is loving
A gov that cares for you so much
— Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, The Hardest Part
Yep…”assisted” into the passenger seat and right out the door onto the street.
For sure Jim. This crap is just another red-line for me.
I used to buy most of my vehicles sight unseen, especially repeat models.
But now, I’m going to have to test drive everything, arghhhhhhhhh.
Cute how the guy with the walker is wearing a face diaper. That said, I don’t remember Eric ever mentioning having tested a self driving car on snow and ice covered roads and I’m curious what would happen.
The problem we face is that risk mitigation in training inevitably results in a lower skill set. Traditionally men might have crashed more cars when they were young but became more skilled when they were older because they had learned what to do and what not to do and how to recover from skids and what have you.
Amen, Landru –
My buddy Graves and I were talking about this recently. We both ride – motorcycles – and have been riding for decades. We both think we are better drivers on account of having learned to ride and acquired the good habits that most riders develop, especially as regards time/distance relationships and situation awareness. My bet is that if people had to demonstrate proficiency as riders at 16 they’d be much better drivers at 40.
Riding for over 70 years. Had to take a beginners riding course to keep my ‘permission’ to ride on government roads laughably called public roads. Cost $300 each. You complain about insulting? Try that. Had to do that as well to get “permission’ to drive on a military base.
Three times I had to demonstrate (prove) my proficiency.
A note about the new captcha. I knew this was coming. Yes I use a VPN to protect ‘me’ from someone spamming or government spying on me which I find just far more insulting as these junk automotive ‘assist’ programs. Have had several sites refuse money from me for using a VPN
Big Smile! Gotta wonder……..
Amen, Ken – and thanks for your understanding! Hopefully, we’ve curb stomped the spammers, at least for a little while…
I tried to log in to comment this morning and got nowhere. It’s a damn shame to have to use this kind of defensive measures. This is one of very few places I comment, because it is one of very few left where a nom de plume cutout isnt a deal breaker.
Thanks, Ernie – It’s being looked into!
Hi Ernie,
My computer guy asks: “He tried logging in and got nowhere”, but yet don’t you have to be logged in to make a comment? Or is Ernie a guest writer and can’t login to do that? And if so what is he seeing? Is there an error message?
No, the login requirement is gone now??
I did nothing different, I went and checked the email repeatedly and no reply ever came through. Checked last night and it worked.
Hi Ernie,
We had to jump through some hoops – but if I’m understanding, it’s all working ok now?
Thanks for getting it all fixed. I was frozen out for a bit with the login requirement.
All of this digital control tech being forced upon us at ‘warp speed’ is some seriously creepy shit!
Is EP Autos the only outlet raising red flag concerns?
Did I miss a public referendum?
It is hard believe folks are actually rolling over and going along with this.
Vote with your dollars you say?
Those responsible for this electronic prison grid being erected also print the fiat money.. and have no need for ours.
Let that soak in a minute.
All is not lost, Eric. My ten year old grandson drove my 48 year old Massey-Ferguson yesterday for the first time. He can’t wait until he can reach the pedals of my ’92 Miata…crank windows and all…airbag removed, btw.