OT: Cool technology/gadgets

[Hunter368]

Electronic vehicles, specifically the lane keeping, variable cruise control (maintaining speed relative to car in front of you), and heads up display (showing speed limit and navigation indicators to turn).

I went for a drive in a Tesla car for the first time about 2-3 months ago, i was impressed with its power & acceleration. Not sure if I would buy one, but that's just my personal choice, I can see why many like them. It was impressive

 

[Gm0ney]

Electronic vehicles, specifically the lane keeping, variable cruise control (maintaining speed relative to car in front of you), and heads up display (showing speed limit and navigation indicators to turn).

My only problem with the Adaptive Cruise Control is that it can sneakily reduce your speed if you're not watching...set it to 100 km/h and you catch up to a car in front of you going 90 km/h and now you're also going 90 km/h.

Lane assist is of questionable utility in Manitoba where lanes are marked so poorly...but yeah if you're on a decent highway (or say in a country with better road infrastructure like the US or Burkina Faso), then it's handy. Had a rental with it down in Georgia this spring and it was practically driving itself through the Appalachians...on my car here, driving to Gimli last weekend it was constantly binging to inform me that lane assist is cancelled because it can't see the lines on the road.

The collision avoidance stuff is good. Cross traffic alert when you're backing up. Breaking when there's an obstacle in front of you. Blind spot warning. Euro NCAP has some comprehensive testing videos showing all this stuff at work. Here's the Mercedes E-Class (the collision avoidance testing is at the 1:40 mark):

 

[macmaroon]

Lane assist is of questionable utility in Manitoba where lanes are marked so poorly...but yeah if you're on a decent highway (or say in a country with better road infrastructure like the US or Burkina Faso), then it's handy. Had a rental with it down in Georgia this spring and it was practically driving itself through the Appalachians...on my car here, driving to Gimli last weekend it was constantly binging to inform me that lane assist is cancelled because it can't see the lines on the road.

 

[Buffdog]

My only problem with the Adaptive Cruise Control is that it can sneakily reduce your speed if you're not watching...set it to 100 km/h and you catch up to a car in front of you going 90 km/h and now you're also going 90 km/h.

Lane assist is of questionable utility in Manitoba where lanes are marked so poorly...but yeah if you're on a decent highway (or say in a country with better road infrastructure like the US or Burkina Faso), then it's handy. Had a rental with it down in Georgia this spring and it was practically driving itself through the Appalachians...on my car here, driving to Gimli last weekend it was constantly binging to inform me that lane assist is cancelled because it can't see the lines on the road.

The collision avoidance stuff is good. Cross traffic alert when you're backing up. Breaking when there's an obstacle in front of you. Blind spot warning. Euro NCAP has some comprehensive testing videos showing all this stuff at work. Here's the Mercedes E-Class (the collision avoidance testing is at the 1:40 mark):

Yeah, seems like every time I rent a car with the adaptive cruise I find myself asking "why am I going so slow?" before realizing that I've just slowed down to the speed of the car in front of me. Not a huge fan

 

[buggs]

Yeah, seems like every time I rent a car with the adaptive cruise I find myself asking "why am I going so slow?" before realizing that I've just slowed down to the speed of the car in front of me. Not a huge fan

It takes some getting used to it. I definitely ran into the confusion when I drove my car back from Calgary, where I bought it. But a 12 hour drive was certainly informative to learn how to use stuff.

I assume other cars are like mine and have variable settings for the adaptive cruise. The highest setting leaves you quite a distance from the other car (safe) but the lowest setting on my car allows you to get surprisingly close, but match the speed. If the car in front braked hard I doubt the adaptive cruise could react in time. Hopefully the driver with the adaptive cruise would notice they are that close to another car and do something, but these days, who knows.

I can't imagine even turning it on on #1 East on a long weekend heading to Falcon/West Hawk/Whiteshell; it would be so utterly aggravating.

In some respects I didn't like some of the new safety measures initially because there are just too many people relying on the technology to do the job of driving for them. Then I came to realize that the tech is exactly geared to that kind of moron and is keeping the rest of us safe.

 

[Gm0ney]

Yeah, seems like every time I rent a car with the adaptive cruise I find myself asking "why am I going so slow?" before realizing that I've just slowed down to the speed of the car in front of me. Not a huge fan

What we need is adaptive cruise control that applies the setting of the fastest car in the line on everyone...

 

[WaveRaven]

As a motorcyclist we need all the fricking help we can get. Some real beauties out there.

 

[buggs]

As a motorcyclist we need all the fricking help we can get. Some real beauties out there.

No different forty years after I got rid of my motorcycle. Well, probably substantially worse given the increase in population with zero addressing of infrastructure.

I'm really not a fan of the seemingly lax transfer of licensing from foreign countries to Canada with relative ease. Before the obvious accusation rears its head, I don't honestly believe I should be able to roll into any country with right-hand drive and grab a rental car for weeks or months. It's not going to go well initially.

But then I'm a fan of mandatory testing for everyone every five years regardless of nationality. Way, way too many people out there not recognizing they are driving several hundred/thousand pounds of steel and their primary job is not the phone/conversation in the car/etc. Drive. The. Fracking. Car.

 

[snag]

Waiting patiently for my vendor of choice to get their Enraged Rabbit Carrot Feeder kit certified by the ERCF team.

I am sure there are a few that are saying a what the f*** is an Enraged Rabbit Carrot Feeder lol




Oh....and my wire service provider just finally approved my 20kW solar array

 

[snag]

No different forty years after I got rid of my motorcycle. Well, probably substantially worse given the increase in population with zero addressing of infrastructure.

I'm really not a fan of the seemingly lax transfer of licensing from foreign countries to Canada with relative ease. Before the obvious accusation rears its head, I don't honestly believe I should be able to roll into any country with right-hand drive and grab a rental car for weeks or months. It's not going to go well initially.

But then I'm a fan of mandatory testing for everyone every five years regardless of nationality. Way, way too many people out there not recognizing they are driving several hundred/thousand pounds of steel and their primary job is not the phone/conversation in the car/etc. Drive. The. Fracking. Car.

I also don't think they should allow the import of right hand drives in North America...our roads were not made for them.

I went for a drive in a Tesla car for the first time about 2-3 months ago, i was impressed with its power & acceleration. Not sure if I would buy one, but that's just my personal choice, I can see why many like them. It was impressive

I wanna try the Charger EV....

 

[ps241]

I went for a drive in a Tesla car for the first time about 2-3 months ago, i was impressed with its power & acceleration. Not sure if I would buy one, but that's just my personal choice, I can see why many like them. It was impressive

I have owned a Tesla for a while now. EV’s have their plus’s and minuses. For urban use I would have allot of trouble going back now. If you are doing allot of driving outside the city limits then I am way less of a fan.

If I am part of a two car family, or a two car household then yes I would have an EV in the mix.