To hate that the car decides how to drive?

[Pouffeycat]

I got a new car last month. I have been driving to work and back and not much more. But I have noticed that the steering has been pulling at certain points. I thought maybe it wasn't aligned properly...
It pings at me if I am not in the centre of a marked lane.
Last night it slammed the brakes on when something ran over the road in the dark.
I live rurally.
I don't like not being in charge of the car.
I have been driving for 30 years and have never had any accidents.
I feel unsafe in this thing.
If someone had been behind me last night in a non smug car,there would have been an accident. I wasn't being safe, because the car took over!
Looking online it seems they make it hard to turn the systems off.
Am I just a dinosaur that needs to get with the technology?

[Mangogogogo]

i had a car doing all the posh stuff…. Then a wire chafed and faulted and the whole thing went absolutely barmy! Have bought one not so over the top now and even the parking sensors do my head in. They go mad about a tree on my drive and I’m nowhere fucking near it

[Ilovetocrochet]

I have the new Ford Puma and while I love most of its gizmos, I have had to switch the automatic breaking feature off. I was driving along a road at night, no traffic behind or in front, and as I approached a side road on my left, I think the car detected a cyclist who was stopping at the junction. He remained on the side road, did not encroach on the main road, but my car just suddenly did an emergency stop and set off an alarm in my car. I was really scared, had no idea what had happened and the cyclist looked surprised as well as the screeching sound! Had there been a car behind me, I doubt that it could have stopped in time.

I looked in the manual ( only available online which is a pain) and found out how to disable it but I had to do that every time I got in the car as it reverted back to being active when I switched the car engine on. I did notice after I’d been doing this for a few months that it now seems to be permanently off but I still check the computer every now and again.

When my car went back to the Ford garage I bought it from for a complimentary service, I mentioned the problem in case the sensors had been set incorrectly. When I collected it, the mechanic said that the info from the computer did not show that the braking system had been activated, implying that I was mistaken and imagined the incident!

[mum11970]

@LaurieFairyCake

I don't understand AT ALL how the insurance for this works if it brakes for you to prevent you running over a squirrel but the car behind SLAMS into the back of you

Insurance would find YOU in the wrong - yes, I know you're supposed to leave a safe distance to the car in front but if they've got a camera and it sees you emergency braking from 60>0 for a squirrel YOU will be found at fault !

No, it would be the car behinds fault as they should be within stopping distance. In a rear end collision it is always the driver behinds fault.

[HereComesMaleficent]

I'm with you OP, I had a hire car that did all this, the lane assist I could deal with but randomly breaking for its sensors picking things up scared me. I'm a millennial, so society assumes I want or need all this technology to do things.

The car breaked because it thought a overgrown bush was a pedestrian stepping into the road!!! It slammed on, and luckily there was no car behind me!!

I bought a new car recently and deliberately chose a car that had none of these features.

[Bingbangbongbash]

@Jonei

If you need technology to ensure the safety of other road users, maybe you shouldn't be on the road in the first place. Some of us can actually drive well and have done for many years.

Oh come on. Computers do loads of stuff to help us out and improve our human abilities. Most road deaths and injuries involve human error. Why would anyone want to deliberately make their car less safe?

[mum11970]

It makes no difference how quick you go from 60-0 it is always the responsibility of the driver behind to stop in time not to rear end you

[HelpMeGetThrough]

I've just been given a new car and switched a tonne of shit off on it. I'm sure it costs thousands as "optional extras".

I knew the car was taking the piss when it offered to park itself, that's turned off too. Cheeky bloody thing.

[Undertheoldlindentree]

If you can turn the features on or off, what's the problem?

[Pouffeycat]

@Bingbangbongbash

OP asked if she (?) was a dinosaur, I said she was a dinosaur. Not name calling, just answering the question.

It’s not blind faith in tech, it’s faith in proven and mandated safety features. There are studies that show the benefits of AEB in particular in preventing and reducing the severity of accidents.

This has nothing to do with being able to drive or not - I don’t have any of these features on my car - but I can appreciate the investigation and engineering that goes into them.

You should watch some of the old videos of people talking about seatbelts when they were introduced - there’s a familiar tone.

‘I don’t need to wear a seatbelt because I’m a careful driver’.

I did indeed ask if I was a dinosaur!

[Hellsmovie]

One of the many reasons to keep buying older cheaper cars/motorbikes.

Especially motorbikes, most newer bikes have anti-fun devices . Power modes so when rains you can ride with less power. All well and good until it malfunctions and your out in a storm and you've got more power than your used to in the wet .

It takes the skill away from learning to drive in all conditions.

[NoWordForFluffy]

@mum11970

No, it would be the car behinds fault as they should be within stopping distance. In a rear end collision it is always the driver behinds fault.

It's not, actually.

There have been instances where the car in front was found liable. For instance, if you cut in front of a vehicle and remove its braking distance, and it hits you, you can be found liable / partly-liable.

[ohsuzannah]

@Bingbangbongbash

Yeah, you’re a dinosaur. Active safety features like this save lives. Why would you turn off things designed to keep you and other road users safe? You’ll adapt to them quickly.

Oh yes? I have it on my car, and a few weeks ago I was overtaking a cyclist when " lane assist" pulled me back in, and I nearly hit them 🙄

[BCfan]

The fact is these technologies save lives.

However, I've had cars for the last 4+ years that have both the lane and emergency braking feature and it is very annoying when it happens at an inopportune moment.

[Allthegoodnamesarechosen]

@Pouffeycat

🦖 ruled the world for sixty million years…..

[Bingbangbongbash]

@ohsuzannah

Oh yes? I have it on my car, and a few weeks ago I was overtaking a cyclist when " lane assist" pulled me back in, and I nearly hit them 🙄

Then your hands are not holding the wheel strongly enough. Lane assist doesn’t take control of the steering wheel, it guides you back in if you drift. It is still easily overridden by controlling the steering wheel properly. It also doesn’t kick in when changing lanes - so the problem could also have been you didn’t cross the white line enough, you just skimmed it. Which makes me think you probably weren’t giving the cyclist the legally mandated 1.5m overtaking space.

[Oblomov23]

Turns off easily. Turn it off.

I had this, dislike, on a courtesy car I had this week. And unlike pp I completely disagree that it's because you're a dinosaur, that it's for safety and it saves lives. It can do.

But mine was really irritating. I have land assist on my normal car and it's great. But it wasn't working properly because it was trying to pull me over when I was on a dual carriageway! or when I was coming up to a roundabout, and I felt it tugging on me and I actually thought, actually that's not right, not helpful, not safe.

[Jonei]

I've looked in the settings and turned it off now. 👍

[Jonei]

@Bingbangbongbash

Oh come on. Computers do loads of stuff to help us out and improve our human abilities. Most road deaths and injuries involve human error. Why would anyone want to deliberately make their car less safe?

Do you not have enough faith in your ability to drive, that you need to outsource it ? Just this morning the auto brakes slammed on in my car... There was nothing there. That's not safer. It's bloody dangerous. I'm deliberately making my car safer...by turning it off.

[Bingbangbongbash]

I do have faith in my driving, but I’m not so stupid to think I’m infallible. And I have a lot of faith in science, which is what has been used to develop and prove the effectiveness of these features.

Drive safe.

[Testina]

Did you not test drive it?
I think it’s on you to know how your car works and how to turn off its features if not wanted. If you’d saved the hedgehog but killed a person behind you, I think it would have been your fault for not knowing how your car worked.

[familyissues12345]

Yes it's so annoying!

My car tries to veer me where it wants me, which is a pain through roadworks. It's also automatically slammed the brakes on when it thinks I'm going to hit something (which I wouldn't do!)

I want to switch it off, but it feels like as soon as I do that I'll regret it

[Jonei]

@Bingbangbongbash

I do have faith in my driving, but I’m not so stupid to think I’m infallible. And I have a lot of faith in science, which is what has been used to develop and prove the effectiveness of these features.

Drive safe.

Some science is good. Some not so good. But it's all science nevertheless.

And drive safe yourself. Or should I say, may your car always drive you safely.

[tigger1001]

@LaurieFairyCake

I don't understand AT ALL how the insurance for this works if it brakes for you to prevent you running over a squirrel but the car behind SLAMS into the back of you

Insurance would find YOU in the wrong - yes, I know you're supposed to leave a safe distance to the car in front but if they've got a camera and it sees you emergency braking from 60>0 for a squirrel YOU will be found at fault !

If someone rear ends the car in front of them because they were travelling too close to stop in the event of the car in front braking sharply then it is always the car travelling behind that is at fault.

It's irrelevant as to why the car in front stopped - people are supposed to travel with enough space between cars to be able to stop if the car in front performs an emergency stop.

[iaapap]

You have lane control on.

You can go into some settings and take it off.

You may have to do this every journey.

[Jonei]

@tigger1001

If someone rear ends the car in front of them because they were travelling too close to stop in the event of the car in front braking sharply then it is always the car travelling behind that is at fault.

It's irrelevant as to why the car in front stopped - people are supposed to travel with enough space between cars to be able to stop if the car in front performs an emergency stop.

This. I'm astonished car drivers aren't aware of this.