03-08-2013, 01:14 AM
MountainMan Wrote:That might be the ideal...IF human beings were actually that smart...but we are not and we constantly go to great lengths to prove it. The most advanced technology in the world is useless to us if we aren't smart enough to pay attention to it, and we continually prove that we are not smart enough. "Smarter" vehicles like you describe actually make people dumber than they already are. Less and less for them do do, and the since average human does not possess the reflexes of a fighter pilot, the HUD approach is even worse than useless because at critical times demanding the maximum attention and response from the driver it becomes a major distraction.
Either start teaching people to really drive intelligently, responsibly and defensively, lower the speed and create "bumper car" vehicles, or let an electronic brain far smarter and faster than we will ever be do the job for us so that we can resume vegetating in blissful ignorance while racing down the roads.
This is what is really needed. People around here don't even know how to use a crossover in a median strip right. Then they will sit there and honk at you even though you are the one following correct traffic procedure. I drive a fire truck for a living... you wouldn't believe the percentage of drivers that are unaware of the most basic maneuver for yeilding to emergency traffic... pull to the right. I ALWAYS go left in the fire truck, because YOU are supposed to go RIGHT. Regardless, I inevitably end up standing still in traffic waiting to see what other drivers will do... defensive driving at it's worst.
-Dave