Have you seen these commercials for all this new technology in vehicles ? I mean cars that parralel park themselves, that keep you from crossing over lanes if you dose off etc ?
Some of this stuff was really useful when it began. Like the sound and lights that showed you your door was unlocked or the ones that showed you that you forgot to put on your seat belt.
I also like the ines showing you your tire pressure is low and stuff and the sensors that react quickly if someone stops short in front of you and can help you avoid rear ending the person.
In the last few days i have seen some commercials for vehicles like Nissan and others with two or three functions that annoy me. I think instead of making us safe they actually make us forget the basics of driving and prevent us from developing the necessary skills to do so.
One of these is a commercial for Nissan. A woman drives a car and sees 2 trucks in front of her. One is in the right lane, the other in the left lane. She is in the middle one. All she has to do is drive straight to pass between them and she is home free. This is the commercial. Take a look:
Now this really makes this driver look so stupid. I mean what skills for driving do you posses as a driver if you can't deal with the "huge stress" of driving in a straight line ? I mean how stupid do these car manufacturers and the government really want to make us ?
Another commercial is when a daughter is driven to her dads home by her boyfriend and he lets the car self park itself to make a great impression...
I know the dad can't see if the guy drives himself or not but if I was the dad I would not have been impressed. If you can't as a guy while driving my daughter parralel park yourself she does not belong in that car with you.
Things like that take away our practice of the basic skills we should have to be a safe driver.
A backup camera is great and that helps but to have the damn car turn the wheel for you, estimate the distance etc is just ridiculous. This stuff dumms us down and keeps us more dependent on technology.
The third one I have for you in my opinion that makes us more stupid as drivers are the little indicators on our mirrors that tell us if its safe to change a lane.
This also takes away a basic very important skill behind a wheel of turning your head and actually looking if its safe to change a lane.
You get use to the indicator and once it fails you might have a serious accident. Humans make mistakes and tech mostly doesnt, but it fails and when it does it will be your fault no matter how serious the accident. Someone might lose a life.
So advancements in technology help us a great deal. Sometimes I think they go a little too far and actually maku us less self sufficient and aware and more lazy. That is a big problem.