Cager technologies on the road in 2018 that are helping us!

[homie]

(ACC) Adaptive Cruise Control - You can't run up on a vehicle in your lane at highway speeds. Your vehicle automatically slows to match speed and maintains proper distance in relation to the vehicle in front of you.

(LDS) or (LKAS) Lane departure or lane keeping assistance systems - Simply corrects your trajectory between lanes IF you do not use your turn signal.

(BLISS) Blind Spot Warning Systems - In conjunction WITH lane keeping assistance automatically nudges your vehicle back in the lane if you are about to cut someone off.

(ABL) Auto Brake Lock - When in drive this holds the vehicle at a stop even if you let up on the brake pedal. Just like idle stop as soon as you accelerate it seamlessly releases. This feature is GREAT in bumper to bumper traffic and relieves leg fatigue.

(CSBS) City Safety Collision Braking Systems - Not only keeps cagers from goosing us at intersections but now brakes the vehicle automatically if any cross traffic is approaching behind a backing vehicle. Back up cams are great too!

I know we have a long ways to go before most cars and trucks have all these features but Volvo is already there. Every little bit helps in the new world of distracted driving but maybe it's the car that sees you before the driver in your next near death experience

We are just a suggestion to Volvo away from a system that recognizes a motorbike approaching in cross traffic situations and at least warns the driver if not applies the brakes automatically. Hell I would even pay for a transponder on the bike if cars would give a motorcycle presence warning to a merging driver.

[easyrider]

This is great news.. I wonder however, how effective or will they be able to detect a motor bike . Will their sensors/cameras pick us up effectively ? I really like your idea of a transponder of some sort of device signal to give us positive recognition/ visibility to the vehicle's computer accident control system.
Is this one more step closer to driverless vehicles...will drivers become lazy, and non attentive and let the car make all its safety decisions??? or will it matter? Will the medical industry pipe up and complain that widespread lidar (radar) signals are dangerous to our health.. You know lawyers will be suing once drivers claim deleterious effects.. Will they put these on motor bikes? Many questions ... I guess Time will tell, but I like where its going!

[fish]

Saw a Lincoln mag advert showing the Lincoln detecting a scooter approaching at a cross street, at night, coming over a hill. (Pulling out of the Fairmont on Nob Hill?)
Pretty cool..
If only we could implement a car that locks out self-centered drivers.
Fish

[Mel46]

I wonder how effective all of this is in real life bumper to bumper traffic. Will it become annoying to the point that the drivers will demand car manufacturers include ways to turn the warnings off? Imagine a driver that is engrossed in a phone call so much so that the warnings become an irritating reminder to hang up the phone and pay attention to the road, so he turns off the warnings.

Take a look around and notice how many people still ride without seatbelts. There will always be drivers who believe that they are quicker, or smarter than a computer. Heck, the other day I noticed a lady driving a big SUV with her kids bouncing around unrestrained in the back seat. She would be the first to sue the auto manufacturers because her kids were hurt.

[homie]

Mel there are no annoying audio warnings in these emergency situations like you imagine. The vehicle just reacts immediately to the threat with physical resistance and or indications audio and visual IF you have these extras enabled. For example if I try to change lanes with an obstruction in my blind spot or without using my turn signal I will feel resistance in the steering wheel and a BLISS indicator on my side rearview will flash. At that point you simply don't force the issue UNLESS you choose to over power this resistance and cut someone off. If I am drifting out of my lane you feel the same nudge in the steering guiding you back into your lane unless you have signalled, and only at certain speeds of course. These safety features are very subtle and most effective.

[homie]

At 3:05 in this video you can see Adaptive cruise control react to a merging motorcycle changing lanes at highway speeds. At this point the driver has his hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals (not recommended as you must keep one hand on the wheel or you get an audio warning) but he is demonstrating Auto Pilot Assist braking and steering reactions to surrounding traffic flow. These things should help keep bikers a little safer I hope

[PCX150Rider]

Good vid demonstration.

A couple of my concerns are:

1) Drivers who may own a car like that and then drive another older car (or older technology type car) now and then and forget that they can't rely on the new technology fail safe systems. People are very distracted today or self absorbed and it may look like the light is on but nobody is home so-to-speak.

2) Some cars develop "B" voltage problems that are hard to trace. . .grounding issues that cause dim headlights or a battery to prematurely drain etc. . .. Not to be critical but the air bag recall has been expanded into the millions again and it effects several brands. In the name of safety those things were engineered and developed to acceptable standards at the time but history indicates imperfection costing innocent human lives.

It's not like NASA is building these vehicles and the inspections are many and no expense is spared in safety. . .or shouldn't be. They are mass produced. Remember the old saying "Never buy a car made on a Friday"? Worn tools and burned out employees dreaming of party time on the weekend or whatever makes 'em grin. Ahhhhhh. . .don't worry about it. . .they'll catch it at the dealership and besides it's covered under warranty right? It will give them something to do.

Keep it simple and basic is my motto. But as the market moves in new directions we must adjust and adapt I guess. . .even if we are happy with what we had. Hell. . .I'd buy a VW Beetle just like I had in the '70s if they'd improve the crash test and fuel cell issues. Price it at $9K and count me in.

[easyrider]

As Mr.Newton said..for every action there is a reaction..sooo wondering what the long term physical health affects this will play on the human physiology.The cell phone was the greatest thing and now they say it causes cancer.Can you imagine being stuck in traffic on an eight lane highway everyday in rush hour getting bombarded by lidar,infra red ,and other electro radio waves for hours.Think of it as a cloud of radiation bombarding your body everyday.There will be issues you can bet,but I still think the good outweighs the bad.Lawyers will see it differently when the time arises I'm sure.Good market for radiation driving suits..lol

[you you]

I think we might be over thinking this.

[JohnL]

They were my thoughts also.

[flyingzonker]

I certainly appreciate these new technologies. I would like to propose to Volvo, Toyota, Ford and whomever else out there making cars that if they are really serious about making the roads safer they should take special care that they make them safer for those motorists who are most vulnerable, i.e., motorcycle and scooter riders. Let them therefore effect this: If at any point in the life of an automobile it should, on making a left turn, collide with an oncoming motorcycle or scooter...or bicycle, the automobile should be so equipped that it immediately blows up and, provided there are no passengers other than the driver, burns to a cinder as well.

[homie]

the automobile should be so equipped that it immediately blows up and, provided there are no passengers other than the driver, burns to a cinder as well.

Lighten up psycho ... here watch this funny crap when you are all pissed off over traffic.

[BarryPCX]

Perhaps this should be a separate thread but, a recent cager technology I would like to see banned is auto-dip headlamps. Often these days I find they either don't detect motorbikes, or are extremely slow to react. I am increasingly having to slow right down or even stop due to idiots using these. Drivers seem blissfully unaware (or just don't care) of the danger, or the law. They are usually the high intensity Xenon lamps too, which make matters much worse.

Certainly in the UK you are supposed to switch off main beam as soon as you are aware of the other vehicle, not several seconds or more after you have already dazzled/blinded its driver/rider.

[PCX150Rider]

And whenever is enough new technology ever enough?

[flyingzonker]

the automobile should be so equipped that it immediately blows up and, provided there are no passengers other than the driver, burns to a cinder as well.

Lighten up psycho ... here watch this funny crap when you are all pissed off over traffic.

You're right. I have been watching too much news lately...Mr Trump, Mr Duterte,....well...it's downright crazy-making!

A more nuanced approach that would probably be more effective in that it would not stir up an inevitable and thoroughly counterproductive backlash by and by might be something like equipping cars with a motorbike sensor system which would operate such that when bikes and cars confronted each other at intersections the sensor would detect the action of the bike motor and would not allow the car's transmission to engage until the bike was out of its range.

[GeorgeSK]

The only real solution I see that allows autonomous, semi-autonomous, human-driven and human ridden vehicles safely coexisting is to have every moving vehicle "talk" to each other - like the AIS system used in large vessel navigation and airplanes. The various levels of autonomous still have to bristle with sensors since you won't get pedestrians or bicycles on the electronic "map", but at least if everything with a licence plate had a transponder and electronics to process that incoming information from nearby vehicles, we might have a reasonably safe system.

Which would then be gamed by the self-important who would drive like A-holes knowing that their antics would be coped with.

But I'm not cynical.

[Mel46]

First I am going to tell you about a driver and his antics that I happened to see, and almost was involved in, and then I am going to propose that we come up with a solution to THAT type of situation. There will always be those who deliberately find a way to get around all of the automatic safeguards put in place.

The area: We have an entrance into our subdivision that has no intersection lights. However, it does have yellow caution posts so that drivers in the turn lane will not use it as a shortcut to the turn lane for the next street up, which is a main intersection. Drivers coming out of our subdivision use to get broadsided coming out quite often before those yellow posts were installed. In fact, even with the post it still happens.

The incident: I was coming out of our subdivision, slowing with the front of my car aimed to the right so that I could merge into the flow of traffic. I looked to my left and saw a car coming toward the yellow posts at well above the posted speed limit. I stopped dead. I didn't know what the driver was planning but I couldn't back up and if he plowed through the yellow posts he would broadside me.
So what did the driver do? Well, he has obviously done this a few times in the past. He swerved to the right, around the posts at the last second, clipping the posts (which are now made of PVC because they keep getting hit and replaced so much) and missing my car by inches while the driver sped ahead to the next right turn lane and merged left into the flow of straight traffic. So, in order to save 5 minutes on his driving time he felt it was ok to endanger anyone and everyone near his vehicle. By the way, there is also a pedestrian crosswalk there, so pedestrians were in danger as well.

Solutions??: Hmmm...well emergency vehicles have to be able to get by at that point if necessary, so cement in the yellow posts won't due...though I would love to do that. Same problem for putting spikes there.

So, any solutions for drivers who could care less about safety and autonomous anything having to do with safety in vehicles??

[flyingzonker]

From your description I get a vague picture of what you are up against....even when reading descrptions in Tolstoy and Hemmingway I never seem to be able to get more than a vague picture of what is being described. I can think of one humane solution and a lot that aren't. The humane solution is some sort of high tech cctv system that records every vehicular tansaction. Once every so many days let all the that day's transgressions be scrutinized by software that can pick out the license numbers in the video. Then take the transgressors to court and lay fines on them that might be euphemistically categorized as: Onerous. The word would eventually get around that your subdivision ain't no place to mess around in.
Of course you could pull a vigilante action and have some guy posted behind a tree who would shoot out the tires and windows and maybe the brains (if they've got any) of the offenders...but every action, every every action has consequences that are equal and opposite (by opposite I mean the force of the consequence points back toward the source) , so, cctv is the way to go here. I mean, getting videoed back doesn't hurt.

[Mel46]

The road problems in our area could be summed up like this:

We have lots of drivers who have more money than common sense, and they don't care if the insurance rates go up because of them. When they want to get somewhere in a hurry, they are going to get there in a hurry, traffic or no traffic. Laws or no laws. Lights or no lights. After all, they didn't get where they are today by obeying the rules/Laws.

....and their wives and children learn from and emulate them.

[flyingzonker]

The road problems in our area could be summed up like this:

We have lots of drivers who have more money than common sense, and they don't care if the insurance rates go up because of them. When they want to get somewhere in a hurry, they are going to get there in a hurry, traffic or no traffic. Laws or no laws. Lights or no lights. After all, they didn't get where they are today by obeying the rules/Laws.

....and their wives and children learn from and emulate them.

Well spoken! I was driving the other day in my little Nissan Leaf on a street with a 35 mph limit. I was doing 35 in a no passing zone--the street is narrow, two lanes, cars parked here and there... Suddenly a car from behind swerves violently around me and cuts in front of me sharply to avoid oncoming traffic. I was stunned by the suddenness of this maneuver and leaned on my horn--a poor affair this horn, just as bad as the stock horn on a PCX. The guy in the car replied to my blast (read:bleat) by putting his hand out the window with the middle finger prominently displayed.