The member of the PH team rear-ended recently while stationary by someone whose 'foot slipped' may beg to differ, but this no man's land we currently occupy between human control and full autonomy scares the hell out of me. And all the while the carmakers are making hay by selling us all manner of 'driver assist' systems as apparently essential cost options. You may argue the toss over that wheel upgrade or sports exhaust, but who'd dare be irresponsible enough to skimp on the safety gizmos?
Take the C63 AMG Edition 1 Coupe we had in on test the other week. That's a near-£80K car base. But for another £1,695 Mercedes will sell you a Driver Assistance package that'll nudge you from your slumber if you drift out of lane, bleep if you can't be bothered to check your mirrors or even bring you to a complete stop if it somehow escapes your attention that the traffic ahead has come to a halt.
Not fair to single out Mercedes in all this either. I've driven Skodas that self-steer to stay in lane (unsettling on the motorway, downright irritating on a twisting single carriageway A-road where you might want to edge over the white lines to improve your line of sight), had a VW bring itself to an unwarranted emergency stop in traffic and endured strident ohmygodohmygodohmygod alarms from Matt's Civic seemingly any time there was another car on the road.
How much responsibility now lies with the car?
Why do we put up with this nonsense? More to the point, why do we let ourselves be talked into paying more for the privilege of a simulated nagging passenger, constantly scolding us and going for the electronic equivalent of the Jesus pedal at every opportunity?
I realise you can turn most of this stuff off, some manufacturers making this easier than others. But then where does that leave you? The need for this active safety is, ironically, a result of ever-more stringent passive safety. A laudable aim but one with unintended consequences, like pillars and rollover protection to shame a WRC car that creates blind spots so massive the only solution is to rely on electronic bleepers to warn of the stuff you can no longer see. Fashion plays a part too, beltlines taller than the average wall, bollard or (more worryingly) child meaning parking sensors are pretty much essential in most modern cars, no matter how good your spatial awareness or Jedi parking skills.
I'd never begrudge carmakers building vehicles that make crashes more survivable than ever. Or mitigate the (literal) impact on pedestrians through common-sense engineering such as crumple zones over potentially lethal hardpoints like engine blocks. But there are elements of this reliance on 'assist' systems that I find deeply worrying.
We know that's off; other seemingly do not...
Part of it is awareness. At one level we're creating a generation of drivers ready to abdicate responsibility to sensors and black boxes. Let's go back to my unfortunate colleague being rear-ended in traffic. Not so long ago that would be clear cut - if the driver behind couldn't bring their car to a safe stop they were either driving too close, too fast, not paying attention or a combination of the above. Possible reluctance to admit liability aside, everyone understood that. Now we have people who might not push the brake pedal hard enough, expecting the systems initiate assisted braking and bring the car to a halt. Or drivers on radar cruise control who read in the brochure their car could 'stop and go' of its own accord in traffic and, having paid extra for the option, entirely reasonably expected it to do just that. From 'my foot slipped...' to 'my automatic emergency braking system seems to have failed' or 'my attention assistance system forgot to remind me to stop for coffee' suddenly opens up a yawning grey area in personal responsibility, never mind legislation and insurance.
Then there's the question of people being educated in how these systems work. Or, more importantly, their limitations. Who can forget, after all, that infamous Volvo demonstration of its autonomous braking tech... More worryingly I remember driving with an ex-girlfriend of my brother whose first instinct when setting off was to switch the ESP off in her Ford Focus. Nothing unusual in the driving god realm in which motoring hacks like to think they operate. But unusual enough among 'civilians' that I couldn't resist asking her about. "I'm switching the safety system on - when that yellow light is on the dash that means it'll stop the car skidding." As tactfully as possible I tried convincing her that the opposite was true and she'd in fact disabled it. She wasn't having it. "The salesman showed me. Every time you start the car, press the button and the system is on and it won't skid." Terrifying. And how many people had he told this to?
Full autonomy is coming - but what about until then?
Extrapolate just this one example to people sold cars on a promise they'll stop automatically if
a cyclist weaves in front
of them or a child runs out into the road and there could be some genuinely tragic outcomes.
The general trend is, of course, for road deaths to be on a downward curve. And to rant against the systems that have helped this trend seems unnecessarily belligerent. In no way am I advocating a return to the 'good old days' of unsecured passengers being propelled through windscreens or drivers being impaled on steering columns. But as someone who drives, rides bicycles and - on occasion - crosses busy roads while supervising young children I remain deeply worried at this transitionary stage between human and computer control. Full automation, properly done? No problem with that. Disconnected drivers blithely motoring around assuming they paid for the right not to look where they're going or even stop the car themselves? Bloody terrifying.
Which is a long way of saying if you're choosing between that sports exhaust, wheel upgrade or fancy paint and some stupid bleepers or assist systems you have PH blessing to be totally superficial and go for the former. At least you'll have some incentive to look where you're going.