Driverless cars.

Cobra said:
I say that its more a case, that far too many people ( drivers ) are incredibly arrogant, making dangerous maneuvers, and expecting everyone else to get out the way, by braking hard or making a maneuver ( if its safe to do so). thereby avoiding the potential accident the afore mentioned person has created, by his or her act in the first place.
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Drivers are isolated, cushioned and protected in their cars full of safety features such as airbags, crumple zones etc. It makes them feel invincible & possibly a bit more reckless, especially if driving something bigger & heavier than the others around them.

I had a serious collision in a Mazda 626 estate when a lorry decided to turn left into me ,moving from the outside lane of a dual carriageway into me in the inside lane. Fortunately nobody was hurt (both my children were in the car with me). Needless to say my next car was a bigger & heavier Volvo 850 estate......
 
broc said:
Drivers are isolated, cushioned and protected in their cars full of safety features such as airbags, crumple zones etc. It makes them feel invincible & possibly a bit more reckless, especially if driving something bigger & heavier than the others around them.

I had a serious collision in a Mazda 626 estate when a lorry decided to turn left into me ,moving from the outside lane of a dual carriageway into me in the inside lane. Fortunately nobody was hurt (both my children were in the car with me). Needless to say my next car was a bigger & heavier Volvo 850 estate......
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I believe that extra safety and security, apparently provided by larger vehicles, is largely an illusion. In reality, every road user is extremely vulnerable to injury. Once, many years ago, I was driving an 18 tonne lorry. It was hit in the side by a little car that was basically rust held together with paint, and my lorry overturned. The car driver only had minor injuries, even though his car turned into a special short-wheelbase model.

In my view "assertive" - or aggressive - driving is usually (although not always) carried out by those who are least competent to do so. In fact, it seems to me that the skill level is usually inversely proportionate to the manner of driving :(

I used to enjoy driving, not so much now. I'm getting old and my confidence level is reducing along with my reaction time. I'm still happy to drive most vehicles, including large tractors with very large trailers (about 30 tonnes and about 50' long) but have stopped driving HGV, partly because there are other people who can do so. Partly though, I feel that driving standards are reducing all the time which may in part be due to the advances to technology and the reduced need for drivers to understand anything at all about the physics of driving, assuming that the in-car technology will compensate for their own p***-poor performance.
 
broc said:
I had a serious collision in a Mazda 626 estate when a lorry decided to turn left into me ,moving from the outside lane of a dual carriageway into me in the inside lane.
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Section 133 of the Highway Code states...

"If you need to change lane, first use your mirrors and if necessary take a quick sideways glance to make sure you will not force another road user to change course or speed. When it is safe to do so, signal to indicate your intentions to other road users and when clear, move over."

...this does not apply to HGVs, 4 wheel drive cars or any vehicle made by BMW. :banghead:
 
broc said:
Drivers are isolated, cushioned and protected in their cars full of safety features such as airbags, crumple zones etc
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As my memory serves me, it was when Volvo, I think was the first, with the "SIPS" ( side impact bars for the yung'uns) that started the downward spiral.
 
Cobra said:
As my memory serves me, it was when Volvo, I think was the first, with the "SIPS" ( side impact bars for the yung'uns) that started the downward spiral.
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That was one of the things that swung me towards a Volvo 850 T5R estate, .... very powerful, but with evil torque steer as I recall, it also had an appetite for expensive tyres, especially at the front. One day I was on my way back from Edinburgh travelling through Northumberland when another Volvo 850 came up close behind me, trying to push me to exceed the speed limit. I ignored it & eased off a little, whereupon it overtook me. It turned out it was an unmarked police car.......
 
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broc said:
That was one of the things that swung me towards a Volvo 850 T5R estate, .... very powerful, but with evil torque steer as I recall, it also had an appetite for expensive tyres, especially at the front. One day I was on my way back from Edinburgh travelling through Northumberland when another Volvo 850 came up close behind me, trying to push me to exceed the speed limit. I ignored it & eased off a little, whereupon it overtook me. It turned out it was an unmarked police car.......
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Yep 10,000 miles to a set of front tyres, gets pricey when you do a lot of miles annually
Nice omfy cars though
Mine was white, people used to give way all the time and slow down when you came up behind them :)
 
Gremlin said:
Yep 10,000 miles to a set of front tyres, gets pricey when you do a lot of miles annually
Nice omfy cars though
Mine was white, people used to give way all the time and slow down when you came up behind them :)
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MIne was navy blue non-metallic, metallic paint was another £10 a month on the lease & I didn't see why I should pay that just for pigeons to leave their mark on the paintwork......

As well as being supremely comfortable it made a great towcar, it would do 0-60mph in a little over 10 seconds with a caravan on the back.

I never managed to get 10000 miles out of the front tyres, I used to have a fight with the leasing company every time I went for new tyres as they wanted to put cheap tyres on it instead of the P-Zeros. At the end of the lease on the 850 I bought my own S60 D5 when my employer offered us a car allowance as an alternative to a lease car when the company car tax rules were changed.
 
broc said:
I had a serious collision in a Mazda 626 estate when a lorry decided to turn left into me ,moving from the outside lane of a dual carriageway into me in the inside lane
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Not good.
Was he overtaking you?
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
Not good.
Was he overtaking you?
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We were approaching a junction to the left after moving off from traffic lights. The lane markings for the inside lane indicated traffic could either turn left or carry on straight ahead. The outside lane markings indicated traffic should carry on straight ahead. I was in the inside lane & my intention was to carry on straight ahead, the lorry was in the outside lane next to me. He suddenly turned left into me, pushing my car sideways, crushing the offside of my car. Afterwards the lorry driver accused me of accelerating too quickly (we had only moved 50m from the traffic lights in a 30 MPH area) then changed his story & said he had expected me to be turning left too.........

My employer self-insured its company cars, it looked like the case was going to court when all of a sudden the lorry drivers insurance agreed to settle the case in my employers favour.
 
broc said:
We were approaching a junction to the left after moving off from traffic lights. The lane markings for the inside lane indicated traffic could either turn left or carry on straight ahead. The outside lane markings indicated traffic should carry on straight ahead. I was in the inside lane & my intention was to carry on straight ahead, the lorry was in the outside lane next to me. He suddenly turned left into me, pushing my car sideways, crushing the offside of my car. Afterwards the lorry driver accused me of accelerating too quickly (we had only moved 50m from the traffic lights in a 30 MPH area) then changed his story & said he had expected me to be turning left too.........

My employer self-insured its company cars, it looked like the case was going to court when all of a sudden the lorry drivers insurance agreed to settle the case in my employers favour.
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Nuts.
Lucky you were all OK.
 
broc said:
I never managed to get 10000 miles out of the front tyres, I used to have a fight with the leasing company every time I went for new tyres as they wanted to put cheap tyres on it instead of the P-Zeros.
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Can't remember what we used, but a friend with the dame car told use to try and other make that lasted longer,
slightly more expensive, but as they started to wear after about 600 miles they lost grip, so never again.
I
hate cheap tyres, bought a car once that had new budget tyres on the rear which I didn't notice, first time
I went out of wet roads, it broadsided on a roundabout, one the way home straight into my local tyre place and got all tyres replaced
Since then I always check the make of tyres and change them if they are cheapies, my present can has the dreaded low profiles, so cheap tyres are far too noisy
 
Gremlin said:
Can't remember what we used, but a friend with the dame car told use to try and other make that lasted longer,
slightly more expensive, but as they started to wear after about 600 miles they lost grip, so never again.
I
hate cheap tyres, bought a car once that had new budget tyres on the rear which I didn't notice, first time
I went out of wet roads, it broadsided on a roundabout, one the way home straight into my local tyre place and got all tyres replaced
Since then I always check the make of tyres and change them if they are cheapies, my present can has the dreaded low profiles, so cheap tyres are far too noisy
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My pet hate(s) are run flats on BMW cars and in general those cars that lack a spare, even a space saver. What is worse is when there's no room for a spare in the boot as is the case with my current set of 'fun' wheels, a Mini Cooper S convertible.

I never buy cheap tyres, I once looked at a 12 month old low mileage Mercedes C-Class at a Mercedes Main dealer, it was lovely apart from the fact all its tyres had been replaced with a mixed bag of cheap ones, I reckon someone pulled a fast one at the dealership........ I wondered what other tricks they played as I walked away.

The last used car (6 months old, low mileage) I bought came with a cheap tyre on the front, obviously replaced because of a puncture as the rest of the wheels had nearly new ex-factory tyres. I stopped off on my way home to have it replaced.
 
broc said:
and in general those cars that lack a spare, even a space saver.
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100% agree with that (y)
Those inflatable cans of goo never work either, well that is I've not used one in years, but it didn't work then, and I doubt that they work now :(
 
Cobra said:
100% agree with that (y)
Those inflatable cans of goo never work either, well that is I've not used one in years, but it didn't work then, and I doubt that they work now :(
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even if they do, I understand that tyre fitters won't attempt to repair a tyre which has been gooed.....
 
broc said:
even if they do, I understand that tyre fitters won't attempt to repair a tyre which has been gooed.....
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No they won't.

What I also find strange is, years ago, you got a puncture it got fixed, now that nail screw what ever, is in wrong place and the tyre is a write off.
I've even had a tyre go flat overnight on the drive. it was fine when the van was parked up.
Tyre changed for the spare, down to the local tyre place " You've driven on the the wall is crushed its a write off!
[PLEASE DON'T TRY TO BYPASS THE SWEAR FILTER] was it / did I !
But as I wasn't paying I really CBA to argue ..
 
Cobra said:
No they won't.

What I also find strange is, years ago, you got a puncture it got fixed, now that nail screw what ever, is in wrong place and the tyre is a write off.
I've even had a tyre go flat overnight on the drive. it was fine when the van was parked up.
Tyre changed for the spare, down to the local tyre place " You've driven on the the wall is crushed its a write off!
b****x was it / did I !
But as I wasn't paying I really CBA to argue ..
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My wife managed to get a tyre puncture 3 days after taking delivery of her new car. The tyre fitter said he could not repair it but could send the tyre back to the factory for them to repair it & vulcanise the repair at about twice the cost of a 'normal ' repair.
As neither the vehicle main dealer or our local tyre fitter could obtain a replacement tyre the right size anywhere in the country we ended up buying a space saver tyre & rim for the car while we had the repair done. What was particularly annoying was knowing the factory where the car was made was less than 5 miles away from us.
 
broc said:
What was particularly annoying was knowing the factory where the car was made was less than 5 miles away from us.
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That is annoying :(
 
IIRC, when Smart cars were first available, spare tyres were unavailable since only one make was being made and all of them were going to the factory.
 
Nod said:
IIRC, when Smart cars were first available
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Mercedes used to be one of my customers many years ago, when I went around the back of the building there was about 50 of the things lined up.
When I got back to the reception, I had to ask "WTF are they?" it was met with a Shhhh no one, outside the company, is supposed to know about those until the official launch in a couple of months.

I just said OK I'll say nothing, but questioned the name :D
 
Cobra said:
Mercedes used to be one of my customers many years ago, when I went around the back of the building there was about 50 of the things lined up.
When I got back to the reception, I had to ask "WTF are they?" it was met with a Shhhh no one, outside the company, is supposed to know about those until the official launch in a couple of months.

I just said OK I'll say nothing, but questioned the name :D
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The name is a good one. it's standard marketing practice to use a name, and a tagline, that's completely wrong for the product.
About 60 years ago, when I first started out in photography, there was an imitation Hasselblad, called the Corfield 66, made in Ireland. It was the most unreliable camera you could have nightmares about, and a complete pile of s***e. I remember that the mirror mechanism was operated with string wrapped around pulleys, just like the window winders on that other well-know example of engineering excellence and workmanship, the Lada cars. Anyway, the point is that they marketed it on its fantastic reliability and great build quality:(
 
From what I remember, Lada cars were designed by Italians(FIAT) , built by Russians. The FIAT 124 & 125 factory contents were 'sold' to the Russians.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
Apart from being a 6x6 SLR with film magazines, I'm not sure there was much similarity to the Hasselblad. For anyone interested, here's a description: http://www.novacon.com.br/odditycameras/corfield.htm
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Thanks for that, a real blast from the past. I never actually used one myself, we had much better cameras available. I'm not surprised that so few were made.
But, as I said, it really was an imitation Hasselblad, just even more hassle than the hassie:)

But the point remains, it was a poorly designed, poor built camera that was barely fit for purpose, so it was marketed as having a unique design with super hand-built quality and complete reliability, something that no pro photographer could possibly manage without - a bit like the Smart car.
 
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