Quote:
Originally Posted by theDreamer
Lately I have noticed a new trend in car commercials, many luxury brands, but even some non luxury brands. The idea that they are developing new software & hardware to prevent accidents. Now I am not against the idea of technology progress or the idea of preventing accidents, but why are companies spending so much money on new technology without upgrading current tech?
Brakes:
-A good upgrade for any car and through racing and other sciences have developed some major forward steps. Pads, current pad technology is great in that we can have great bite with low dust and no noise. Calipers, bigger calipers and proper design helps in cooling and making sure your brakes perform the same time and again.
Tires:
-A optimal upgrade which OEM manufactures could easily pick up. It might sacrifice a bit in noise or tire life, but with how much sound control and noise reduction built into cars an average driver would not even notice.
Heavier is better:
-Not sure how this became such a prominent thought in the industry, but you have cars which are very light weight (sub 3500) which stop better, just as good crash ratings and have solid real world results.
The reason for some of these points is that, you reduce stopping distance, you eliminate many accidents. Both on the highway, red lights or stop signs, etc.
One of the main commercials which has set me to write this post is a Mercedes commercial. They have 4 or 5 people talking about how they were falling asleep, drifting lanes, person in front of them stopped short. Why is Mercedes having to fix a human error or not provide better stopping abilities in their cars. Instead they want to develop nanny controls which stop for you or pull you back into your lane to correct your drift.
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I agree and i've noticed this trend too. put more emphasis on driver aids that help a driver's inability to control their car, and less emphasis on helping the driver control their car.
you mentioned tires. it's a commonly held belief that summer tires/high performance tires/low profile tires are more expensive to produce. that is false. they only reason it costs you more to buy a 285/30 series tire than a 215/55 tire is because of the economies of scale that producers can achieve because of the volumes in the high profile, passenger tires. more people buy them, they produce more, the cost is less per tire. Same goes for tread compound. if your average run of the mill car demanded a better tread compound, tuned for grip and less so for tire life/road noise etc, then a better handling tire would become less expensive.
heavier is better really pisses me off. like, i'm really glad ms soccer mom feels safer with her 5000 lb suv because its heavier. the fact of the matter is, heavier is safer, only if everyone plays by that logic. a 5000lb suv is going to annihilate a corrolla, not because a corolla isn't as safe, but because of simple physics. and the fact of the matter is, theres always a bigger fish. you feel safe in your big SUV? lets see how it fairs against a semi-tractor trailer or a dump truck....
instead of engineering cars to give their drivers a better ability to avoid accidents, there is this notion that if a hazardous situation is to present itself, you're probably gonna crash, so just brace for impact. its like their whole message is "hey... accidents happen, and we know that you probably aren't paying attention to driving, so if we can, our car will help avoid accidents by keeping your car in its lane, and when it can't, you'll crash, but you'll be ok because your car is heavy.
oh, what was that? you want to be able to avoid an accident by braking? oh, no your car can't stop quickly enough because its too damn heavy. Have fun now!"