Driver [ir]Responsibility [WAS: Toyota UA-LAC]

[urq]

... no apologies required for this corner ... I hear ya!

The things that have me the most concerned are automatic features ...
Toyota/Lexus has a system that parallel parks your vehicle for you and
steers it should you deviate from the lane ... MBz has a similar feature as
well as one that applies the brakes for you; I believe this is above and
beyond the feature that pushes the brakes harder when it thinks you're in a
panic stop and not pushing hard enough.  I'm sure there are other similar
features offered by other manufacturers.  

While such features are wonderful for overall safety, they make it all the
more likely that the "driver" will assume less and less responsibility for
their actions, and their skills will not be what they need to be to
skillfully operate their vehicle.  The other day I saw a car on the freeway
that couldn't seem to stay between the lines, I imagined that the driver was
on the cell phone or something similar, alas when I passed the car it did
not appear that the driver was doing anything other than "piloting" their
vehicle.  It was mid morning, so I don't think she was DUI, but who knows.  

I saw an episode of Top Gear a while back where BMW showed an autonomous
vehicle that drove their course fairly aggressively.  They "trained" the
vehicle on the course, given the vehicle can assess things like amount of
traction and nearby traffic the car could do a better job in some ways than
most drivers.  If responsibility of the driver is going to be reduced, this
is the model used.  The driver needs to assume full responsibility for the
operation of the vehicle or none, anything different is dangerous for all.

Steve Buchholz

-----Original Message-----

what we need here is further expansion of federal US control and diminished
individual responsibility. lets petition congress for another agency. theres
already 30 plus czars unlawfully interfering, whats one more.. oh wait, we
already have a car czar.

pardon my cynical rant, but the sensationalized media blasting of particular
topics and willful disregard of what really matters gets me quite surly.

im also not particularly fond of the lack of mechanical interfacing on new
and upcoming automobiles. theory and calculations are one thing, practical
application is another. i personally support properly installed/maintained
mechanical devices and am pleased to have cars & principles that are
in-congruent with certain political agendas like a GPS based tax initiative
and other BS that these headlines are prompting the sheople to accept and
worse, request.

-brian