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Driving a rental car in Germany almost makes me cheer for the ongoing bankruptcy of their auto industry. It really needs a full reset at this point. Sad thing i
by afarah1 4mo ago
Driving a rental car in Germany almost makes me cheer for the ongoing bankruptcy of their auto industry. It really needs a full reset at this point. Sad thing is EU law mandates for a modem in the car as well as intrusive driving aids that actually make driving less safe by constantly driving your attention away from the road[1]. So there is no hope to get a minimally decent car in Europe in the near future, unless a wider reset also happens at the political and social level.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-S76WEl25k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-S76WEl25k
- techpression 4mo agoWhoever came up with the idea that the car should beep loudly even close to the speed limit has clearly never driven a car. The best way to silence it is to constantly be over the speed limit or well below.
- lnsru 4mo agoThis thing makes me crazy. But I can somehow ignore my Skoda’s whining. The other car was bought months before this regulation happened and I will keep it as long as I can.
- iroddis 4mo agoProbably made worse by the fact that _every_ VW brand car I’ve driven has read about 10% high on the speedometer. I think I’m going 100 kph, but timing using the km markers on the highway show I’m going about 90. When I talked to the dealers, they said that the speedometers only have to be accurate +/- 10% according to the SAE specifications. After DieselGate I assumed that the high reading was to game the fuel consumption game. Never again, VW auto group…
- storus 4mo agoJust use the speed reported by your GPS. Most navigation apps show the GPS-based speed.
- cuu508 4mo agoA little nice thing the cars could do is automatically calibrate the speedometer from GPS when on a long stretch of a road. You would get the accuracy of GPS and the reliability of speedometer even when in city jungle, underground, during slow speed manoeuvres etc.
- jabroni_salad 4mo agoI have a GTI and with cruise control on, the speedo and my phone's gps reads exactly the same speed.
- embedding-shape 4mo agoI have a Audi A3, speedometer reads ~6km/h too high compared to GPS and various "speed-showing signs" I've driven past.
- mnw21cam 4mo agoMy 18 year old A3 reads about 1mph higher than the true speed at motorway speeds. It's pretty spot-on, which is very unusual.
- embedding-shape 4mo agoAh, mine is quite precisely 10 years younger, and also European if that matters, sounds like yours might be Mexican if it's in the US unless I'm mistaken. I guess there is some tuning process at the end of fabrication/production, maybe just "wild luck" either way.
- technothrasher 4mo agoI believe the only Audi car made in Mexico is the Q5. My US model 2025 A3, btw, is dead on (+/- 1 mph).
- martinpw 4mo ago> When I talked to the dealers, they said that the speedometers only have to be accurate +/- 10% according to the SAE specifications. I believe the requirement is only one way - they can read high by a certain % but they cannot read low. Which makes sense. But that means in reality they will usually read a little high.
- gene91 4mo agoWow TIL. I have observed that my rental cars in Europe all have faulty speedometer. Multiple brands, multiple countries. So this is why.
- martinpw 4mo agoWas in an Uber in Korea recently traveling from the airport and the car literally beeped every 30 seconds for the entirety of the one hour drive with what presumably was a speed limit warning - a beep AND a verbal message. Seemed to be only marginally over the limit. Drove me insane. I don't know how the driver dealt with it - he must experience it all day every day. I guess you just filter it out after a while but it definitely makes me think I need to do some research before getting a new car any time soon.
- martin_a 4mo agoWell, just don't drive fast than the speed limit and nothing will beep at you. Simple as that. Positive side effect: No expensive photos will be taken, too.
- techpression 4mo agoYes, let’s make people focus less on the road and instead worrying about 1km/h speeding. And where I live expensive photos are only taken way way later than the car starts beeping. It’s the real life equivalent of the cookie banner.
- martin_a 4mo agoEach km/h over the speed limit can decide between coming to a stop at the right moment or killing somebody. Don't try to put it into the wrong perspective. The beeping is fine.
- techpression 4mo agoNo, good driving, which includes focusing does that. People hit other people in the parking lot. There’s a reason some countries have significant higher death counts in traffic and no amount of beeping will change that.
- skrebbel 4mo agoWait what brand does that? I need to know what car to not buy.
- tonyedgecombe 4mo agoEvery new car sold in the EU. Most make it easy to turn off but it does default to on when you start the car.
- skrebbel 4mo agoThat’s terrible. Means I better drive my old Ford long enough for them to fix that ridiculous regulation.
- tonyedgecombe 4mo agoI don't see them fixing it, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if they doubled down and restricted the cars speed according to the local limits.
- LtWorf 4mo agoSometimes the camera will pick up speed limit signs that only apply for the exit lane or just an adjacent road. If cars were to suddenly break based on those it would be quite dangerous. There's a precise spot where the camera picks up a speed sign, every single time. There is no speed sign at all there. It must be some AI hallucination.
- tonyedgecombe 3mo agoI always assumed it was GPS based rather than using cameras.
- lisper 4mo agoThat is one of the best, most profound and prescient videos I have ever seen.
- Matumio 4mo agoI recently saw a reportage about emergency call-takers. As you watch them work you'll notice they get an automatic call from the crashed car long before any human calls them, presumably from that modem. I'm not arguing that the modem should be mandatory, or that you shouldn't be able to control what it does. But forcing car vendors who want to built in a modem to make this modem do an automatic emergency call by default, that seems quite sensible. Even more sensible would be if the modem did nothing unless you allow it, except when it detects that crash, but... profits.
- crote 4mo agoThis is already sorta-kinda the case, and it is leading to a lot of issues right now. The eCall functionality isn't exactly trivial, and due to its safety use there are probably some rather strict regulations around it. In practice this has led to many car manufacturers opting to use dedicated off-the-shelf modules for them, which are completely separate from all the connected infotainment stuff. However, early modules were built around 2G/3G cellular technology, and cars with those were still sold well into 2025. Not a huge surprise, because its application doesn't require 4G/5G data speeds. Buuuut many countries are now actively retiring their 2G/3G networks, leaving those cars unable to place emergency calls, and with a functioning eCall module often being legally required it would mean some 2-year-old cars would no longer be road legal...
- LtWorf 4mo agoThey can issue a recall and replace the module?
- fodkodrasz 4mo agoRecently I rented Cupra for a week, its assistants were non intrusive, and helpful. It was a pleasant surprise. Now don't get me started on Toyota or Hyundai assitants... BTW the video you linked features a Toyota.
- Grollicus 4mo agoOur Mercedes: - beeps about the speed limit, especially if it misses a sign. For example every time starting on a parking lot it keeps the 5 kph even after multiple turns - warns about leaving the lane, including trying to stay on the lane by slightly couter steering while ignoring yellow construction lines - Sometimes when moving off from a standstill in a queue, it triggers all "careful you're about to crash into something"-warnings. I suspect it's detecting exhaust gasses from a car in front? - You must not, ever, touch the turn signal to announce your will switch lanes soon, while there is still a car next to you. You'll get a loud, obnoxious warning tone. This one is especially annoing as it makes sleeping as a passenger on the autobahn basically impossible.
- gib444 4mo ago> ... it makes sleeping as a passenger on the autobahn basically impossible. Which people often do when sharing the driving on long drives. So, another case of it making driving more dangerous, if the spare driver can not rest properly.
- BLKNSLVR 4mo agoMy 2024-model Chinese EV allows for volume to be turned down for various things - and these volume settings are kept across 'reboots'. It makes the occasional 'bing' or 'bong' that I need to look at the screen to work out why (which is probably a 'new' safety issue caused by 'safety' settings), but it's nowhere near loud enough to awaken a sleeping passenger. My sister-in-law has to reconfigure all of the cars safety settings every time she turns the car on as they reset to their seemingly maximal defaults upon boot.
- gib444 4mo ago> constantly driving your attention away from the road Absolutely agree! After a few minutes you realise you forgot to disable one of the 'features' and then get distracted trying to do that. Lane keep assist is broken and dangerous Auto high beam assist is broken and dangerous Auto cruise control is broken and dangerous Collision detection-avoidance is broken and dangerous (thinks you're going to crash quite often in our narrow, built-up areas in the UK) Speed sign detection is broken Hell, even automatic wipers, after all these years, is far from perfect. I feel they should have had to prove themselves with that before being given anything more important
- virgilp 4mo agoHow are all these "broken and dangerous"? In my car (Volvo) they work rather well. Perhaps sign detection sometimes misses signs, but so do I so I can't fault it. The others though, I rank them all somewhere between "genuinely useful" and "absolutely awesome"
- gib444 4mo agoN.B. I didn't write /all/ were "broken and dangerous" But some personal examples: - Auto high beam assist saw a car at a side junction, turned off high beam, then turned back on, mimicking a 'flash' to let the car out, which they acted on by pulling out. I had to brake hard to avoid them. I was doing 60 mph - I was on the motorway and a stranded vehicle was on the hard shoulder and the driver decided to exit from the side closest to my lane. I went to move over slightly to give space and avoid him, and the lane assist pushed me back towards him (there was too much traffic for me to change lanes) - Driving in built-up areas with lots of parked cars and narrow sections, the collision avoidance has pre-activated with huge beeping warnings that massively distracted me, causing me to actually nearly hit something These were all different modern (but not high end) vehicles Auto cruise control doesn't take into account vehicles in other lanes etc. It encourages disengagement in dangerous situations/surroundings. It is by definition dangerous edit: and speed sign detection is probably the most broken. The constant beeping and flashing. I mean, I don't have to explain that do I? Distraction -> danger.
- epolanski 4mo agoI rented a VW EV (the ID 5) 1 year ago in Germany and had no issues. The driving aids can be annoying (especially when there are works on highways or similar and you need to drift beyond lines but lane assist wants to keep going in that direction) but they actually saved me from crashing the car in the parking! I completely did not see a small wall behind the car and the car emergency broke before I made major damage.