Are All Of These New Driving Technologies Actually Encouraging Bad Habits?

I just tested a relatively new technology that I’m terming “texting assist,” which helps drivers avoid crashing their cars while texting and driving.

Well, that’s misleading and I apologize. The name of the technology is “lane keep assist” or “lane departure warning,” and it’s available on a majority of car brands, and works like this: A camera mounted in front of the rear view mirror recognizes the center and side lane divider lines and alerts the driver when a car has wandered over one of the two lines. Some systems tug on the steering of the car to encourage the driver to steer back into the lane. It’s not a perfect system — a lot of roads have poorly marked lines, so the systems don’t work on those roads.

Of course, I know that in Michigan it is against the law to text while driving. National studies have shown that distracted driving accounts for 16 percent of crashes, compared to about 3 percent for speeding.

TheSteve - 9/24/2015 12:06:44 PM

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That argument was used for ABS: If a driver knows he has ABS, he'll just cut the safety margins offered by the tech by driving faster and following more closely. True... in SOME cases.

The best way to take advantage of some new technology like ABS or Lane Assist, is:
(1) Know what the tech does and does not do
(2) Know how to change your driving habits so as not to be affected adversely by the tech
(3) Drive as though the new tech is *NOT* there to save your butt! That way, it will provide you an added measure of safety for when you actually need it.

7msynthetic - 9/24/2015 6:40:24 PM

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DUH!!!

W208 - 9/25/2015 6:49:09 AM

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The majority cannot even afford these cars. So no, new car tech is not encouraging bad driving habits. However, mobile tech such as texting, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., those distractions trickle down to the driver, which represents 100s of millions of people worldwide; that's a problem.

It's like the episode of South Park where all of the elderly are trying to find the country buffet, and in the process, kill-off half of the towns residents.

People have wrecked Planes, Trains and Automobiles. How the **** do you crash a plane while texting?