Cousin Jack wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 9:11 pm
Slightly off-topic but related. If the idiots driving cars in the UK would actually LOOK at the road we could probably manage with smaller (and cheaper) lane closures.
Preceded by a big fcuk-off 'Flashing arrow' truck, preceded by TWO smaller inside lane closed trucks.
I know why it is necessary, but if drivers would only actually look ahead most of it would be totally unnecessary
Sometimes it seems that looking is a finite commodity, not to be wasted on driving.
Every year, just on the National Highways trunk road network, 30-40 of those trucks are hit.
Now, you say that you know why all the palaver of the circus parade is necessary, but here's something you might not know: that big truck has an impact attenuator on the back, AKA a 'crash cushion'. But it's not there to protect the workforce. Its task is to allow a car driver to hit it at 60mph, open the car door and walk away.
Horse wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 9:27 pm
Sometimes it seems that looking is a finite commodity, not to be wasted on driving.
Every year, just on the National Highways trunk road network, 30-40 of those trucks are hit.
Now, you say that you know why all the palaver of the circus parade is necessary, but here's something you might not know: that big truck has an impact attenuator on the back, AKA a 'crash cushion'. But it's not there to protect the workforce. Its task is to allow a car driver to hit it at 60mph, open the car door and walk away.
They should save the money for that and fix a set of big spikes, the sort that tractors have to lift big bales.
Horse wrote: ↑Mon Apr 17, 2023 9:27 pm
that big truck has an impact attenuator on the back, AKA a 'crash cushion'. But it's not there to protect the workforce. Its task is to allow a car driver to hit it at 60mph, open the car door and walk away.
They should save the money for that and fix a set of big spikes, the sort that tractors have to lift big bales.
Unfortunately, 'risk transfer' (ie make it more dangerous for the road user while making it safer for the roadworker) is frowned upon.
Its ironic that some very dangerous features of recent car design slip through without regulation of any kind. For example using touch switches and/or screens to control frequently used features such as heating and air conditioning. The driver is forced to take eyes away from the road for an extended time, first to find the location or the switch then to observe the setting value as it is being changed. We now have stricter rules about mobile phone use yet built in sat nav displays are centralized and complicated touch screen. My car has numerous buttons on the centre console which are designed to function while the car is in motion and the responses to these switches must be observed by looking down in a different place.
All of which highlights that the assumption that a driver will see you is even more dangerous than it was twenty years ago.
Anything without haptic feedback will usually require some sort of visual (or audible) check.
My Leon has a fairly well sorted set of controls, including dials for fan speed and temperature. A much earlier Ibiza just had + and - buttons for both.
Some manufacturers are moving away from using a touch screen for important controls.
Should be more like that... mind you, not a motorway... A34?
Yeah that's the A34, I know that bit well. It's only for the steep hill section, I can attest to the fact you get stuck behind overtaking trucks all the time on the A34.
Incidentally like, coming down that bit of the A34 was the only time I got my Jap import 400 to hit it's 112mph limiter
Horse wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 9:38 am
Anything without haptic feedback will usually require some sort of visual (or audible) check.
My Leon has a fairly well sorted set of controls, including dials for fan speed and temperature. A much earlier Ibiza just had + and - buttons for both.
Some manufacturers are moving away from using a touch screen for important controls.
I've recently driven a couple of new(ish) VWs, and the 'soft-touch' controls for a/c are terrible - no feedback whatsoever, and you HAVE to look at the central console to find them - there's nothing to tell you where they are by touch.
I lean on the voice control in my car really hard now. The last few vehicles I've had have featured it, but I never used it 'cause it was such a faff. The new one is great though, vast vast improvement over old systems to the point where I can genuinely use it as a replacement for buttons.
BTW, in my car (made by the OEM I work for) you activate it by mentioning the brand of car. Can you imagine how hard it is to have a work conversation in said car
Rockburner wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 11:22 am
I've recently driven a couple of new(ish) VWs, and the 'soft-touch' controls for a/c are terrible - no feedback whatsoever, and you HAVE to look at the central console to find them - there's nothing to tell you where they are by touch.
They had those in a 99 Passat... couldn't tell them apart from the audio controls - even looking took a good squint as the labels were so small as to be almost unreadable.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 11:33 am
I lean on the voice control in my car really hard now. The last few vehicles I've had have featured it, but I never used it 'cause it was such a faff. The new one is great though, vast vast improvement over old systems to the point where I can genuinely use it as a replacement for buttons.
What's the car, and what voice analysis home-server is it using? I'm assuming it has a 4G sim built in which is talking to a remote server? Or is it all built-in now? (do you have any idea of the spec of the internal computer?)
Rockburner wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 11:22 am
I've recently driven a couple of new(ish) VWs, and the 'soft-touch' controls for a/c are terrible - no feedback whatsoever, and you HAVE to look at the central console to find them - there's nothing to tell you where they are by touch.
They had those in a 99 Passat... couldn't tell them apart from the audio controls - even looking took a good squint as the labels were so small as to be almost unreadable.
They're currently a 'soft-touch' interface (kinda like the new 'touch-bar' on current Apple laptops) with a polished surface and absolutely zero physical interaction.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 11:33 am
I lean on the voice control in my car really hard now. The last few vehicles I've had have featured it, but I never used it 'cause it was such a faff. The new one is great though, vast vast improvement over old systems to the point where I can genuinely use it as a replacement for buttons.
What's the car, and what voice analysis home-server is it using? I'm assuming it has a 4G sim built in which is talking to a remote server? Or is it all built-in now? (do you have any idea of the spec of the internal computer?)
Not a scooby do on the internal specs. I know the software is developed in partnership with one of the big tech names. It's the OEMs biggest area of investment IIRC, comparable to the money they're spending on EVs.
Judging from how fast it responds I'm guessing much of the common stuff is done "locally"...asking for a particular radio station, navigating to a specific address or checking the tyre pressures for example....but if you ask what the weather will be like at your destination or where the nearest satrbucks is it thinks for a bit longer. Suggests to me some of it is local some network.
It's clever enough to know the difference between "is there a Starbucks nearby?" and "is there a Starbucks on the way?". It programmes the nav differently based on how you phrase it.
Mr. Dazzle wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 12:38 pm
Have to say I really don't get yhe AC control complaint thing, but I appreciate that's probably just me.
I can't recall the last time I needed to adjust the AC in my car. I set it to 20°C and never touch it again for 9 months.
I was driving on a warm day when there was a sudden thunderstorm with hail... with the downdraft, the outside temp dropped about 10c in 2 mins and the windscreen fogged. I couldn't find the controls to turn on the fan and get some hot air on it.
