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RE: Venus Williams accident illustrates the need for robotic assistance in cars

in #cars7 years ago (edited)

Hey bud, good post. I apprecite your and other people's interest in the active safety features being offered.

A short disclaimer:

These systems only work at certian speeds, under specific driving conditions and if they should fail for any reason -- the car manufacturer has no obligation to the effect of these features.

Might they intervene and save your life? Absolutely.

Might they do nothing when you're relying on them?

Always possible.

Source: I am a car salesman.

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Sure, I would say that you should drive with them as if they were not there. However the difference between not there and there is significant enough to be noticeable, at least in my model. Thanks for your insight as a car salesman. Encourage people to get it, because the cost of a life is rarely worth $2500 in savings.

also fwiw, that option along with a bunch more comes in the Honda Sensing package which roughly only costs $1000 -- I don't really encourage people to get much because giving them the thing they arrived to find is the shortest path of least resistence to the sale. Also, I'm not sure really what % of the time the feautres would work vs. people's confidence in them.

If uou as the driver onow how to operate the car and the safety features, then it is worth the investment.

I found the Honda technology to be lacking. The future is embracing the technology not shying away from it. Many of the current offerings by other brands seemed way more accepting of the technology to work 100% of the time. In fact the Honda offering seemed more reliant on the driver to act rather then the car, the car should avoid collisions at all costs even with a bad driver at the wheel.

Some of the technologies are designed to work at greater speeds while others are only for low speed driving. Some completely refuse to hit the car in front without any driver mitigation and these are the better technologies going forward IMO.

Some tech doesn't last -- remember the fax machine? These safety options are definitely a good thing, but they're really a step-wise improvement towards driverless cars. I think that you'll find that within its class, the Honda system is the best available.

Is the car you purchased in a higher class than Honda? Honda's ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) is the only system in its class to bring the car to a complete stop from highway speeds.

Yes, the car I purchased comes to a complete stop from highway speeds and it also continues to operate as traffic moves again. Which is a terrific feature for stop and go traffic.

I also believe that the car I got is slightly larger on the inside and has a bigger engine then the Honda's I looked at. The fuel efficiency I believe was also higher compared to the Honda's I saw.

Ok, well for whatever reason you don't want to say the actual car you got. Either way, I'm glad you're enjoying it.