Cycling UK Forum

Spot the missing vulnerable road user.....

squeaker wrote:Spot the missing vulnerable road user.....

At least the profile of a cyclist and a pedestrian are fairly similar - assuming an upwrong of course.

I'd like to see what it does when it sees something it *doesn't* recognise. There is really no need for object recognition - just positional data, and a clearance definition...

The article the OP links to mentions Forward Collision Warning (FCW).
I used to work with someone who owned a Volvo car which had this system
fitted. This driver loved it and felt that it made the car safer. As a passenger
in the car I found it very alarming. There were bells (chimes) and whistles
going off left, right and center (literally). It was an exercise in risk compensation
if ever I saw it.

You might get it to work as intended if you have the warning system
electrocute the driver in addition to setting off the audible alarm .

Adding automatic (...sorry, autonomous) braking to the system does not change this .

It was Mayer Hillman, some years ago, who proposed taking away the airbag and replacing it with a sharp metal spike affixed to the centre of the steering column. That'll teach 'em to drive safely! All this high-power techie stuff is just peripheral.

661-Pete wrote:It was Mayer Hillman, some years ago, who proposed taking away the airbag and replacing it with a sharp metal spike affixed to the centre of the steering column.

IIRC, the other 'advantages' of the spike were that it stood a good chance of providing progressive retardation to the driver's head in the event of a 'sudden unintentional deceleration', plus a nice clean hole for the medics to work on, should the driver survive

Volvo to the rescue?

(Probably significant that Thatcham is in the UK )

This is about Volvo selling more cars.

This system is going to stop SMIDSY's and close overtakes by wrestling crontrol of the car away from the driver? Where's the fun in that?

And when the system fails do what is claim of it, I predict what the result will be: "My client accepts that his motor vehicle ran down the cyclist but the vehicles Forward Collision Warning system was blinded by the presence of metal railings situated along side the carriage way."

I read a car review recently, which said that an optional extra on the car ( VW Golf ?) was a system to move in slowly queuing traffic without the driver having to work the pedals.

IMO, what's needed is something similar for fast-moving motorway traffic. The only problem would be that as the system maintained a safe stopping distance behind the vehicle in front, so many others would slot into it that the system would go into reverse.

The same thing would apply on all roads if this type of system became widespread: it would be an invitation for drivers to emerge from side roads in the (almost) certain knowledge that the vehicle on the main road would be braked by the system.

squeaker wrote:Volvo to the rescue?

(Probably significant that Thatcham is in the UK )

More on the Volvo system here. I'm sure collision avoidance systems will become more ubiquitous in all cars as time goes on . It will be interesting if this technology will prevent close passes, thereby demonstrating that the car is invested in more intelligence than the driver.

thirdcrank wrote:IMO, what's needed is something similar for fast-moving motorway traffic. The only problem would be that as the system maintained a safe stopping distance behind the vehicle in front, so many others would slot into it that the system would go into reverse.

The same thing would apply on all roads if this type of system became widespread: it would be an invitation for drivers to emerge from side roads in the (almost) certain knowledge that the vehicle on the main road would be braked by the system.

This technology is inevitable and driver discretion (including from side roads) will increasingly become more limited as time goes on. I'm all for it, if they can do it for a fighter jet then they can do it for a car. The advantage is that computers don't get drunk, lose concentration, get distracted by mobile phones...

I'd quite like a warning system in a car that shouts 'too close, too close' if they overtake a cyclist too close. Maybe that would wake them up. Along the lines of the GPWS systems on modern aircraft that have the automated 'pull up, pull up' repeat if the aircraft is too close to terrain.