Feared by the purist, favoured by the frightened, driver aids play a greater role in our cars than ever before. ABS and traction control have evolved into "stability management" systems, providing a new level of resistance and assistance to the under-skilled or overzealous driver's efforts.
While the more staid versions operate with safety at the forefront of their electronic minds, intervening early to keep your pride and joy on the not so straight and narrow, some of the more performance-orientated manufacturers are now programming their systems to allow the driver to comfortably lean on them to extract maximum performance from the car to which they are fitted – suspension, power and braking being juggled as necessary to keep the car on the edge of its envelope, getting the spine tingling without the buttocks clenching.
The best drivers are impressed, while those of lesser abilities are wowed to discover that they have become driving gods overnight, their Xbox inputs resulting in arcade game responses as the technology allows them to drive closer to the car's limits and well beyond their own.
It's a laugh a minute, for sure, and such technology is quite possibly a necessity on a handful of overpowered freaks, but as it inevitably filters down to everyday machinery you have to question what the long-term effects will be on our driving skills and thrills.
The traditionalist might argue that the enthusiast should forgo such devices in favour of the natural approach, the entertainment being found at more attainable levels, a bigger buzz because you know there's no safety net there. Perhaps you'd even remain safer as you hang back further from that limit with a healthy fear of what might happen if the car really bites.
Of course, for fans of the analogue approach there's always the "off" switch, or the "journalist button" as some manufacturers prefer to call it, but already some of these don't relinquish full control to the driver, and it's only a matter of time before such buttons disappear completely from many dashboards.
And what about those who have no intention of pressing that button anyway? For now, this technology may protect them from the results of their clumsy actions, but are we in the process of creating a new generation of dumbed-down drivers who have no concept of where the natural limits of an automobile lie; drivers who will simply pilot such cars well into the depths of their hi-tech safety measures from the day they pass their tests, with more disastrous consequences when they finally manage to overstep the levels of protection afforded to them?
Such false bravado will no doubt cause safety measures to move on again, and manufacturers are already a step ahead. Steer-by-wire is set to be the next big thing, promising benefits both in terms of packaging and operation (but not feedback), while being ripe for yet more microchip meddling.
Meanwhile, to save us having to concentrate too much when we could be getting on with some important daydreaming, future Hondas will predict and help avoid rear-end collisions, specced-up Audis promise to warn you when you drift from your lane, and BMWs will use navigation data to assist with gear selection and information gathered from other vehicles to find out everything about the road ahead from the traffic levels to the quality of the surface.
"A four-wheeled Whitney Houston: astounding ability, but lacking any real soul."
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Bundle all these technologies together, add a dash of imagination, and you're not a million miles away from having a car that you can drive straight at a corner with your right foot planted on the gas, leaving the computers to adjust your speed and tidy your every input for the perfect cornering attitude. Just dial 95 per cent into the "How Close To The Limit" setting on the iDrive and let the car take you to the edge in perfect safety. With 50 per cent of the thrill removed. A four-wheeled Whitney Houston: astounding ability, but lacking any real soul.
For the daily commute expect Tomorrow's World-style trains of nose-to-tail cars; sat-nav guiding the way, lane sensors keeping us on track like slot cars, distance sensors protecting us from other traffic like invisible dodgem-car bumpers. Heaven for those A-to-B drivers who struggle to summon the energy to operate the indicator stalk; hell for those of us who see a car as more than just somewhere nice to sit on the way to work.
OK, so it's not all bad. It will, hopefully, make our roads safer, but with such features being lapped up by the masses, the characteristics that make a good driver's car will no doubt steadily slip further and further down the priorities list with each new model. The small minority of enthusiasts and eccentrics who prefer feedback-laden mechanical, manual control will be left with an ever decreasing choice of low-volume specials and classics, all, no doubt, accompanied by sky-high insurance premiums and calls for such vehicles be outlawed on safety grounds. And as long as the auto-piloted personal mobility of our fellow road-users remains unaffected, we can be sure to rely on their lack of support.
So get your own back now. When a weak-armed friend or colleague asks you if they should tick that Active Steering box on the options list for their new 5-series, tell them, without hesitation, "No".
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