Lexas self steering

[Blackcuda]

This a great option, bad drivers will continue to drive bad. I'm sorry, but if a person cannot parellel park, means that your driving skills are not very good. This is a basic manuver, that's why in some states they will not give you a drivers license if you can't do it.
And yes you will see people with the cell phone to the ear, and the Starbucks in the other as there car parks itself. But it still won't stop them from dinging you're car door because they have there hands full.

[Bonkers]

Yet another reason why I won't buy a new car.

Did you know every car built after 96 has a "black box" device that records between 15seconds and 5000hrs of performance? In NJ there's a law being worked on where it'll be legal for a cop to pull you over, plug in a scanner, and write you a ticket for whatever the car says you were doing. Scary stuff.

Benz uses the feature to void warranties. I used to work for them years ago and when you bring your car into the shop they hook up the scanner to see if you've been .. .. aggressive lately. If you had, they seal everything back up, void the warranty, and start re-negotiating fees. Very annoying.

Benz also has that "auto stop" feature that automatically slams on the brakes if something dodges out in front of you. The first test of the car was in a generated fog - the test driver drove up to 20mph, entered the fog, and promptly plowed into the test car in front. Reason? The engineers forgot to turn the system on before the test - very embarrassing to MB.

Cars today stop for you, control slips, have 300 airbags from steering wheel to ashtray, 45-way powerseats, iPod, MP3, XM, Infrared display, radar avoidance, height control, rear-view cameras, rear-view sensors... seems like the only thing no one is bothering to improve is the driver.

I read in Germany (or some autobahn-happy European country) a drivers license costs about $3,000 and about 18 months of class to obtain. You need to know manual/auto, blinkers, seat position, road etiquette, accident avoidance, parking, ect... If you screw up and loose your license you have to re-take the course to get it back.

[Oldschool]

Yet another reason why I won't buy a new car.

Did you know every car built after 96 has a "black box" device that records between 15seconds and 5000hrs of performance? In NJ there's a law being worked on where it'll be legal for a cop to pull you over, plug in a scanner, and write you a ticket for whatever the car says you were doing. Scary stuff.

Benz uses the feature to void warranties. I used to work for them years ago and when you bring your car into the shop they hook up the scanner to see if you've been .. .. aggressive lately. If you had, they seal everything back up, void the warranty, and start re-negotiating fees. Very annoying.

Benz also has that "auto stop" feature that automatically slams on the brakes if something dodges out in front of you. The first test of the car was in a generated fog - the test driver drove up to 20mph, entered the fog, and promptly plowed into the test car in front. Reason? The engineers forgot to turn the system on before the test - very embarrassing to MB.

Cars today stop for you, control slips, have 300 airbags from steering wheel to ashtray, 45-way powerseats, iPod, MP3, XM, Infrared display, radar avoidance, height control, rear-view cameras, rear-view sensors... seems like the only thing no one is bothering to improve is the driver.

I read in Germany (or some autobahn-happy European country) a drivers license costs about $3,000 and about 18 months of class to obtain. You need to know manual/auto, blinkers, seat position, road etiquette, accident avoidance, parking, ect... If you screw up and loose your license you have to re-take the course to get it back.

When I was on the local government accident review board, there was several accidents involving police cars.  While it is true there are data boxes in the cars, they aren't useful in an accident investigation.  We tried many times to go through the dealers (Ford-Crown Vics) and the manufacturer to get data that could have exonerated the officer.  We were told in every case that the data was proprietary to the manufacturer and would not be released except by court order.  They also did state that the data recorded was not helpful in any way in accident investigations, it was more computer data concerning daily operational info.  No accelerometers, decelerometers, g-force meters, impact meters, or any way to determine what the car or operator was doing leading up to the accident.  Unless that has changed in the last 12 months, those data boxes are pretty useless to anyone but the manufacturers.        

[asm74]

I think it would be great if they created a self-destruct feature for anyone passing on the right.