Comment by dgfitz

Comment by dgfitz 20 hours ago

29 replies

I’ll be sure to tell that to the poor person on a bicycle in the middle of the road in front of me when I come around a blind curve and can’t jump lanes so as not to hit them.

“So sorry I squished you, my lane assist wouldn’t let me move out of the way in time.”

NikolaNovak 20 hours ago

Is there a lane assist that won't let you change lanes?

I've driven several brands and they just shake wheel or exert like 5% gentle nudge. But maybe there are brands that will actually forcefully prevent lane change without signal (which is automatic / reflexive for most people who'd have good reflexes but I digress).

I'm not at all saying that all Automation is good or that cars always know better than me, but I do want to understand if this is a made-up strawman argument or has anybody ever actually failed to change lanes due to lane assist.

  • dgfitz 20 hours ago

    To be fair I do not know, never driven one. Seems like the slippery slope has already been paved with good intentions though.

    • NikolaNovak 20 hours ago

      I'm a techie, I loved my 2004 wrx for good two decades, but which slippery slope are we discussing here?

      Putting a black box in your car that records everything without my consent - I'm with you on slippery slopes and ulterior motives.

      A gentle gentle nudge that helps me on long distances - I'm honestly not with you :-/

      • whatevaa 13 hours ago

        Last I heard, not all cars are "gentle". Implementation depended.

        • NikolaNovak 7 hours ago

          Fair possibility, that's why my question here is - did anybody actually experience a car that won't let you change lanes easily without a turning signal?

          I've driven Toyota, Ford, subaru and kia off the top of my head and while e.g. Toyota feels rougher than Honda, none of them approach anything that would even remotely stop, prevent, or even slow me down if I really want to change lanes, let alone if I did it forcefully in emergency. Can't speak for other brands and I definitely never drive a Tesla :-)

    • aaomidi 19 hours ago

      lol so you’re just making shit up?

beAbU 8 hours ago

You are arguing in bad faith. You are also creating a straw man argument attempting to rubbish a feature that works acceptably well in 99% other use cases even if your scenario is legitimate.

If there is a blind corner you should slow down enough that you can safely stop if there are obstacles in the road. You don't know what's in the oncoming lane, so you can't assume that it'll be safe to blindly swerve into it to avoid something in your lane.

Secondly, lane keeping does not lock your steering wheel preventing you from changing lanes if you need to. The additional force required to override it is the difference between steering with your pinky and gripping the wheel with your hand.

raincole 20 hours ago

So after manslaughter you are now committing perjury? This is not how lane assist works. Like, not at all.

  • dgfitz 20 hours ago

    I don’t think the dead guy will be in the courtroom.

    Clever try though.

    • saagarjha 17 hours ago

      Someone who read your car's manual might, though.

kace91 20 hours ago

That's a completely different discussion. OP was asking why not let him lower standards for cheaper price, not discussing the standard's quality.

dijksterhuis 20 hours ago

you do realise that most people slow down for blind curves for exactly this reason, right?

pre-empt potential dangers and adjust driving accordingly. if you’re concerned that you might have to act due to an unseen/unknown danger — then slow down.

it shouldn’t be necessary to swerve out when driving except as a choice of absolute last resort (ie something/someone jumped in front of you inside braking distance and you’ve got no other safe option, in which case you’re probably fucked anyway).

  • raincole 19 hours ago

    > you do realise that most people slow down for blind curves for exactly this reason, right?

    The parent commenter sounds exactly like one of those who don't slow down for blind curves.

    • dgfitz 9 hours ago

      You can take a blind curve at 15 miles an hour and not have time to avoid debris in the road.

      Use some critical thinking.

      • beAbU 8 hours ago

        At 15mph most cars should be able to stop on a dime, no?

      • dijksterhuis 6 hours ago

        then 15 mph is probably too fast for that blind curve as it was not possible to see the danger.

        it’s fairly simple logic.

zeroonetwothree 20 hours ago

Fortunately automatic emergency braking is another tech that hopefully your car also has.

  • dgfitz 20 hours ago

    I will buy used cars that don’t auto-anything for me until I literally cannot find one anymore. Then I’ll buy a tune to remove the feature.

    • esseph 20 hours ago

      This sounds like it'd be a good way to lose your license in the future, and maybe have a criminal court case if there was an significant accident that could have been prevented by said features you disabled.