<VV> Safety

Hugo Miller hugo at aruncoaches.co.uk
Wed Aug 12 03:25:16 EDT 2020


Depends how you define 'safety'. I suppose in terms of protection in a 
collision, moern cars offer more in that department. But they are also 
full of gadgets, gizmos, and other distractions. The lost lethal, in my 
view, is the fashion for 'touch-screens' in cars. On most cars of the 
50's or 60's, you can put your hand on any of the essential controls 
(lights, wipers etc) by feel alone, because you know where the knobs & 
switches are located on the dash. On modern cars such as the Tesla, 
however, everything is controlled by touch-screen - and there are a LOT 
of functions to control. This necessitates not only taking one's eyes 
off the road, but re-focussing one's eyes, which takes longer as you get 
older.
Talking of Teslas, don't foget that Tesla in autonomous mode that 
"didn't see" a white truck & ploughed right into it, killing its 
'driver'. I guess it's a case of "When machines fight back".
And I haven't even mentioned Sat-navs (GPS for Colonial readers).
But by far the biggest safety device is located between the ears of the 
driver. When I was a kid, we could only afford to run old wrecks that 
were held together with string and wire (zip-ties weren't invented then) 
& things like brakes were a luxury. You had to learn how to fix them 
yourself or walk. If you are brought up on vehicles like this, barely 
road-legal if at all, then you learn how to drive and not get yourself 
killed in the process, and by the time you eventually graduate to a 
'proper' car you are a master of the art of staying alive on the roads.
Kids today have it too easy - the car does everything for them and 
protects them from the consequences of their own actions. So they never 
develop that survival instinct.


> On 8/10/2020 4:24 AM, William Hubbell via VirtualVairs wrote:
>> If your goal is to make a 50+ year car as safe as a modern car, 
>> you’re probably in the wrong hobby.
> lol!
>>



More information about the VirtualVairs mailing list