“Cars need devices to curb child heatstroke deaths, lawmakers say”
“Some automakers slower to make standard technology that could avert 1M crashes a year”
“When Will Automatic Braking Become Standard Equipment?”
Like these headlines? I sure as hell don’t. I’m getting sick and tired of seeing that the answer to another mirror-fogger’s inability to function when it comes to their vehicle and inability to operate it is to either create an electronic alternative that removes the responsibility altogether, or to legislate something new because common sense went out the damn window sometime within the last twenty-five years. I don’t understand, folks, I really don’t. I harp and harp more about the need for stricter driver’s license requirements, and for required public transportation (or even better, fully autonomous vehicles with no driver input allowed past “Destination”) for those who can’t seem to drive their vehicles without somehow managing to forget their brains at home.
Here’s the disconnect: two decades ago, if you left your child in their car seat, alone, in the summer sun and the tot either suffered or worse, died, you were a criminally negligent parent. Now? You are a busy parent who somehow forgot that your child just happened to be in the car with you! Whoopsie! And you didn’t even do the kind thing and crack a window, like you do for your annoying-ass purse dog. Two decades ago, if you weren’t paying attention while driving down the street and someone ran out in front of your car, YOU HIT THEM and you deal with the consequences, because you were not operating your vehicle. In fact, chances are almost certain that you were operating your smartphone instead. And nevermind auto-parking, lane alerts, and advanced cruise control systems. Nowadays, the goal seems to be, “Don’t worry, boss. The car will take care of you. We will apply the brakes since you’re too preoccupied to be bothered. We will make sure life is alright in the end.”
“But what about safety? It sounds like you’re advocating against the safety of others! Do you not care about your fellow man?” I do. That’s why I stay the hell off of my phone, don’t drive drowsy or intoxicated, and stay aware of my surroundings when I’m behind the wheel. I might be a hack writer, but I’ve always prided myself on being a damn good driver and I intend to keep it that way, safety nazis or not. There is a view that auto-braking, communicating vehicles and the like are upcoming safety features that will become normalized, like the seatbelt and the airbag. I hope I’m wrong, but unfortunately it appears that’s getting shoved down our throats. But as far as needing a sensor system to alert Mom and Dad that they are leaving Junior in the backseat of their seven-passenger active lifestyle mobile in the Phoenix sun in August? These folks didn’t need to have a driver’s license, and them having a kid gets called into question as well.
Forget legislation. Forget twenty-thousand new electronic nannies that keep you from the true joy of operating a motor vehicle. Push for stricter driver’s licensing requirements. Make the failures take the bus back home. Or their autonomous pods. Otherwise, chances are good that you, the driver with no electronics, with just a seatbelt, will soon be the one at fault should something happen…you inconsiderate Luddite. Your car wasn’t able to stop for you, was it?
Good piece. Good train of thought. This is happening in all aspectes of life, however, and I have no idea how you reverse the course.
Parents, if you can imagine, once were responsible for making sure their children were fed. Now public schools offer breakfast and lunch meals. When I was temporarily laid off from Rockwell decades ago, when I got home that evening, my kids already had the applications in their hands for free (federally subsidized) school lunches. I never told the scholl, they found out before I even got home! I told themn to bugger off, that I’d feed my kids, thank you very much, and they got pissed. It was a political awakening for me; they got a disproporinately higher compensation from the fed’s than just feeding them lunch!
Car safety is another issue altogether. It’s got nothing to do with government protecting us, it’s got everything to do with insurance company and lawyer’s political action lobbyists.
I agree with this article! The car makers are seem as though they want you to not pay attention and are promoting talking or texting or surfing the internet while driving.
On another note I am waiting for the insurance companies to smack down the current muscle cars that are becoming available like the did in the early 70’s. You know, to “protect us from ourselves”
all these nanny systems and yet almost every night i see at least one car driving with no lights at all. or how bout bulbs burnt out? the gov cant seem to cover the little things, but they want you to have countless airbags that are like dirty bombs now. the ads trying to sell these safer cars for kids (all with ADD for phones) but who can honestly afford these cars for the kids? the more systems just make it more acceptable to do anything but really drive a car. Affluenza….yeah right
This is why I refuse to buy a new vehicle. I guess they are adding all these new features so you can use your “smartphone” while driving.
As the idiotic lawsuits get bigger, the cars will get progressively smarter.
Fortunately, for now at least, it’s still possible to break in and appropriately modify things to work a bit better. You do have to wonder for how long, though.
I think it’s just that news of stupidity carries further. Something that in the 1960s only made the Butts County local newspaper today can go viral on Facebook. According to this article, it looks like fatal crashes were three times more common per mile traveled in 1975 than in 2010.
We don’t have an epidemic of stupid drivers. We have an epidemic of stupid journalism.
I was thinking along this same train of thought while driving the other day. –> If you equip cars with automatic braking, its only a matter of time until people start relying on it to stop their cars all the time. Not just in an emergency situation. Yikes.
Nice, I really thought I might not totally agree with you on this.That is until the last line. It seems that every year, accountability in all walks of life is going by the wayside. People who want to be responsible and in control of their own lives are getting to be fewer in number. Your message is an eye opener. Good work!