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Lane assists and emergency braking assists are going to be mandatory safety features in the EU from 2022. I sure hope they are not required to be always on, bec

Lane assists and emergency braking assists are going to be mandatory safety features in the EU from 2022. I sure hope they are not required to be always on, because my experience with Opel's collision detection has been that it's more likely to cause accidents than avert them. Like you described, suddenly losing power at highway speeds is really confusing, especially when you're driving an Ampera with the regen braking in the more aggressive mode. It will lose speed fast, and the first time it happens, you will spend several seconds figuring out that the cruise control has been turned off because the system got confused by a truck in the other lane, somehow.

zvrba 7y ago
> I sure hope they are not required to be always on, because my experience with Opel's collision detection has been that it's more likely to cause accidents than avert them. A couple of years ago I rented some Toyota which had collision warning. I got on the exit from the highway, it was a big round swing with high, thin marker poles by the sides. The car suddenly started to emit a maddening high-pitch beeping tone that scared the shit out of me. I hit the brakes to slow down to snail speed (fortunately, there was nobody behind me) and then I figured out on the display that it was collision warning. The next thing I did is to read the user manual and disabled the shit. > Lane assists and emergency braking assists are going to be mandatory safety features in the EU from 2022. WTF?! We should make a website collecting all stories of almost-accidents due to these features.
- F_r_k 7y ago
  And for the sake of it, make a website collecting all the lives saved thanks to it (I'm thinking of the Netherlands schoolboy who'd had been crushed by the truck without it)
- wongarsu 7y ago
  When those features are mandatory their performance will be just another thing talked about in car magazines or when talking with friends about the experience with your car. A particularly good or bad implementation might significantly impact sales, so I expect lots of improvements in teh coming years.
RomanBob 7y ago
Most drivers are probably not as competent as you. Think of women who text while driving. The car stopping by itself instead of running a child over is going to save lives.
- knolan 7y ago
  I see plenty of men texting too.
- gargravarr 7y ago
  Let's not bring gender into this, but idiots who text while driving deserve to have their asses handed to them for dangerous driving.
- dang 7y ago
  Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN, and cut the flamebait and slurs right out? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
iofiiiiiiiii 7y ago
Conversely, I recently did some driving in a recent Volvo with all the assist features and was pleasantly surprised to find it quite unobtrusive and actually helpful. There's hope!
throw0101a 7y ago
> Lane assists and emergency braking assists are going to be mandatory safety features in the EU from 2022. I can see the use of emergency braking, but not lane assist. As someone with a 2003 Golf, I have never found it difficult to stay in my lane. What is the "logic" behind mandating this? What problem are they trying to solve?
- orloffm 7y ago
  When you have adaptive cruise-control which keeps constant distance with the vehicle in front of you by adjusting speed, you start to pay less attention to the road in general. You basically can't hit the car in front of you, so you subconsciously start to care less. So there are small curves of the road that fall under your consciousness' "radar" and lane assist actually helps in those cases. But boy, how afraid I am when it triggers in the construction zones!
  - vsl 7y ago
    The reason for lane departure assist ( that’s the one that will be mandatory, not lane keeping on CC) is something else: inadvertent drifting off the lane when tired and driving without CC/autopilot/whatever (when you arguably shouldn’t be driving bad should have stopped, but sometimes you can’t, or don’t evaluate your tiredness correctly).
gargravarr 7y ago
>Lane assists and emergency braking assists are going to be mandatory safety features in the EU from 2022. I am never, ever, buying a brand-new car.

zvrba 7y ago

> I sure hope they are not required to be always on, because my experience with Opel's collision detection has been that it's more likely to cause accidents than avert them. A couple of years ago I rented some Toyota which had collision warning. I got on the exit from the highway, it was a big round swing with high, thin marker poles by the sides. The car suddenly started to emit a maddening high-pitch beeping tone that scared the shit out of me. I hit the brakes to slow down to snail speed (fortunately, there was nobody behind me) and then I figured out on the display that it was collision warning. The next thing I did is to read the user manual and disabled the shit. > Lane assists and emergency braking assists are going to be mandatory safety features in the EU from 2022. WTF?! We should make a website collecting all stories of almost-accidents due to these features.

F_r_k 7y ago
And for the sake of it, make a website collecting all the lives saved thanks to it (I'm thinking of the Netherlands schoolboy who'd had been crushed by the truck without it)
wongarsu 7y ago
When those features are mandatory their performance will be just another thing talked about in car magazines or when talking with friends about the experience with your car. A particularly good or bad implementation might significantly impact sales, so I expect lots of improvements in teh coming years.

RomanBob 7y ago

Most drivers are probably not as competent as you. Think of women who text while driving. The car stopping by itself instead of running a child over is going to save lives.

knolan 7y ago
I see plenty of men texting too.
gargravarr 7y ago
Let's not bring gender into this, but idiots who text while driving deserve to have their asses handed to them for dangerous driving.
dang 7y ago
Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN, and cut the flamebait and slurs right out? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

iofiiiiiiiii 7y ago

Conversely, I recently did some driving in a recent Volvo with all the assist features and was pleasantly surprised to find it quite unobtrusive and actually helpful. There's hope!

throw0101a 7y ago

> Lane assists and emergency braking assists are going to be mandatory safety features in the EU from 2022. I can see the use of emergency braking, but not lane assist. As someone with a 2003 Golf, I have never found it difficult to stay in my lane. What is the "logic" behind mandating this? What problem are they trying to solve?

orloffm 7y ago
When you have adaptive cruise-control which keeps constant distance with the vehicle in front of you by adjusting speed, you start to pay less attention to the road in general. You basically can't hit the car in front of you, so you subconsciously start to care less. So there are small curves of the road that fall under your consciousness' "radar" and lane assist actually helps in those cases. But boy, how afraid I am when it triggers in the construction zones!
- vsl 7y ago
  The reason for lane departure assist ( that’s the one that will be mandatory, not lane keeping on CC) is something else: inadvertent drifting off the lane when tired and driving without CC/autopilot/whatever (when you arguably shouldn’t be driving bad should have stopped, but sometimes you can’t, or don’t evaluate your tiredness correctly).

gargravarr 7y ago

>Lane assists and emergency braking assists are going to be mandatory safety features in the EU from 2022. I am never, ever, buying a brand-new car.