

Super cruise takes the driving away from the driver



Source: Cadilliac

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RE: bad idea.
By tayb on 4/23/2012 10:37:43 AM , Rating: 0
It's actually far superior to anything a human could do. There are no blind spots, instant calculation of braking distance based on speed and automatic safe following distance, detection and automatic avoidance of cars merging into your lane, etc. It is not as if the driver will be sleeping in the back seat.

RE: bad idea.
By Solandri on 4/23/2012 1:45:43 PM , Rating: 3
I just got back from a weekend trip driving 5 hours each way. Here's the problem I see, at least until all cars drive themselves and people are banned from driving.

Unlike most people, I try to maintain a safe following distance. Unfortunately, in moderate traffic, this means I have this big space in front of me tempting people who want to make a lane change. They pull in front, cutting down my following distance. I have to slow down to regenerate my following distance. This annoys the driver behind me, who decides he needs to pass and pull in front of me. This forces me to slow down some more, annoying the new driver behind me, who decides to pass me too. etc.

Eventually I'm going 55 mph in the fast lane just to maintain my safe following distance even though I want to be going 75 mph. That's what's going to happen to any automatic car which tries to maintain a safe following distance. The only way to avoid this is to drive slow in the slow lane, or to tailgate / drive with less than a safe following distance. (The number of cars passing a certain spot per hour, their average speed, and the number of lanes dictate the average distance between the cars. A larger distance between cars means fewer cars per hour can use the highway.)

RE: bad idea.
By loboracing on 4/23/12, Rating: 0
RE: bad idea.
By Slyne on 4/23/2012 2:17:08 PM , Rating: 2
You don't get it, he (she) would actually be driving faster than most anyone else on the road, if they would respect safety distance and, yes, passing rules. He/She is in the left lane because he/she is passing (or attempting to pass, at least) other cars in the middle lane.

I know because I have the same problem: when traffic hits bottlenecks, I see lots of idiots with no idea of safety distance or basic rules of physics pass me haphazardly (turn lights? What are those for?), only for me to leave them in my rearview mirror a few minutes later once road congestion clears up. And as you pointed out, when I'm not passing, I drive in the middle lane.

RE: bad idea.

RE: bad idea.
By Jeffk464 on 4/23/2012 11:07:53 PM , Rating: 2
Yup, you can be going exactly the same speed as the car in front of you but if you leave a healthy gap people perceive that you are going slow. Supposedly automation will dramatically reduce congestion because supposedly congestion is caused by human error. Things like this, phantom accidents, real accidents, the yow yow effect, etc.

RE: bad idea.
By Dorkyman on 4/24/2012 11:24:00 AM , Rating: 2
I've tried to follow the rule "Stay to the right unless you're going to pass." If you follow this rule you will never have any issues.

My mom's rule years ago was "Move to the far left lane and put it in cruise control." She probably incited a lot of anger on the highway.

RE: bad idea.
By Solandri on 4/24/2012 1:23:24 PM , Rating: 2

That rule is ideal for 2-lane highways, but doesn't work on 3-4 lane highways. And it's an inefficient use of lanes when traffic starts to get congested.

A better rule is the one the Germans use on the Autobahn. If someone is approaching you from behind, you need to move one lane over to the right. That's the rule I use.

And yeah the other respondents are correct. I'm going the same speed as the car in front of me in the fast lane, I just have a bigger than average distance between me and the car in front. For some reason, many people perceive this as me going too slow, and end up passing me so they can continue going the exact same speed as me. OTOH, if they approached me from behind (so I know they're going faster than me), I'll pull over to the right to let them pass.

RE: bad idea.
By bah12 on 4/23/2012 2:24:06 PM , Rating: 2
The modern auto stop cars are pretty good at it. The follow distance automatically scales with speed, so at low speeds you will be much closer than at highway speeds. The cutoff guy is a rouge element for sure, but the car does what we do apply the brake and open the gap back up.

If anything one might argue this is the BEST way to follow safely, since instinctively (as you've said) we humans want to close the hole everyone keeps getting in. However in doing so we violate the car's safe stopping distance.

RE: bad idea.
By Nessuno on 4/23/12, Rating: 0
RE: bad idea.
By Jeffk464 on 4/23/2012 11:13:14 PM , Rating: 2
Not me I drive a truck and if you yahoo's keep passing on the right I just stay where I'm at messing up traffic until they stop passing on the right. Eventually somebody figures it out and makes space on the right.

RE: bad idea.
By mikeyD95125 on 4/24/2012 12:11:32 AM , Rating: 2
He was talking about the hypothetical problem of cars on the highway automatically maintaining a safe following distance.

Comprehension before correction.

RE: bad idea.
By rich876 on 4/24/2012 8:02:04 AM , Rating: 2
Usually when a car passes, it's to go faster then you are. I don't think a car passes just for the purpose to hold you down like what you are saying. It passes and usually maintains that speed if able to do so.

RE: bad idea.
By Hieyeck on 4/26/2012 5:20:57 AM , Rating: 2
Here's the better question.

Why are you cruising in the PASSING lane? It's NOT a 'fast' lane. In ON, 4 separate sections of our Highways Act are broken when you let someone pass you on the right.

1. Failing to maintain the right-most lane
2. Failing to yield to faster traffic
3. Failing to assist safe passing
4. Failing to assist lane changes

And since you broke 4 separate laws:

5. Careless driving

If you had the space to get passed on the right, you could've been IN the right lane. GTFO the passing lane.


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