Volvo – click to the video on the 5th tab

The new Volvo S60 can scan for pedestrians and stop if it thinks there’s going to be an accident. As a cyclist I’m not sure if it’s the greatest thing or the worst. I believe there’s also a bonnet-mounted pedestrian airbag too…

The case for:
Drivers frequently show themselves to be unable or unwilling to take on the responsibilities of driving around pedestrians or cyclists – so take the responsibility away from them and give it to a machine – safer for non-drivers
Fewer pedestrian and cyclist deaths/injuries
Safer cycling = more cyclists

The case against:
Morally this doesn’t feel right. People show themselves to be unwilling to show responsibility so we go ‘ok then… you don’t have to any more’
Automating key decision-making has already been shown to create mishaps – how many incidents caused by people handing over navigation responsibility to their sat-nav ends up with cars in the sea/lorries stuck under bridges..
I’ve stopped looking properly when I reverse since I got a car with rear parking sensors
These things work in the city, people habituate their hands-off driving style and carry it into non-urban environments, the result? Carnage…

Anyone else disturbed by this, or encouraged? Tbh given that most of the incidents of near misses I get when I’m riding are drivers being inconsiderate, bullying or incompetent I’m not sure that taking control away from them is a bad thing really. Just depends on the wider consequences I guess…

After this morning a blessing. I assume that it will be programmed for rules of the road. Therefore it won’t try to pull out in to me from a side road when I am on a dual carriage way and then scream at me that it is a dual carriage way. As I pointed out to the kn er driver “yes and I am one on the dual carriageway”. Or have rules changed and are now that traffic on main roads proceeding along the carriage way have to stop or give way to traffic entering from side roads?

Regardless, as they don’t seem to obey the 2 second vehicle separation law, how will they cope with sudden unexpected obstructions (HGV crossed over from opposite carriageway, concrete block fallen from bridge, etc.)?

Think you need to check out the video of Volvo demonstrating the system on Youtube.

Not sure what the Youtube video adds by way of explanation tbh. It points out that driver responsibility still remains but if you get used to the car making up for your mistakes/poor judgement, your driving behaviour will inevitably change… and be less cautious surely…

tbh I think it has to be better than most drivers these days.

If it was a completely self-driving car then I’d say it’s a good thing since it would be better than your average driver. Unfortunately the video suggests otherwise and that it’s in addition to the driver, in which case it’s a bad thing since it encourages drivers to pay even less attention.

Hmm, not sure if you saw the same video as me, the one I saw involved lots of important people waiting to marvel at how a car can stop automatically when presented with an obstacle in front of it, what they actually saw was a car driving straight into the back of a lorry, and some rather embarrased staff.
Edit- “Volvo auto brake fail” should get it.

MTBers have “skill compensators”, so why shouldn’t drivers have them 😉

The volvo system is not really the one to go looking at as all the current manufacturer systems are either partial assistance (adaptive cruise control, brake assist, lane departure warning or parking assist) or work at crawling speeds.

Have a look at the fully automatic system that Google have done which really does work very well.

Luddite alert – I doubt these systems will make it into use in the real (litious) world. Any failures will result in the car manufacturer being sued rather than individual drivers being held responsible. The consequences of failure are just too extreme.

If it was a completely self-driving car then I’d say it’s a good thing since it would be better than your average driver. Unfortunately the video suggests otherwise and that it’s in addition to the driver, in which case it’s a bad thing since it encourages drivers to pay even less attention.

This really. Most drivers don’t seem to really appreciate (or care) what they’re doing when they’re piloting their ton of metal through the streets, and TBH I’d trust a computer to do a better job on the whole than the average human.

But as above if it’s an add-on to a human-controlled car it’ll probably just make them think they can take even less care than they do now.

Google-style properly driverless cars FTW.

Luddite alert – I doubt these systems will make it into use in the real (litious) world

The full self-driving cars aren’t yet, but the Volvo system is on sale as we speak.

And I agree about the legal side of things, whose to blame if there’s a crash, whether due to a system failure or not? Be interesting to see how the lawyers at the car companies are approaching that one.

I meant litigious as in prone to resort to law, not litious as in booty-litious.