<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!
>>
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