Lane assist is dangerous

[Graham Butcher]

5 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

I think you have missed their point Graham and if you pause for thought you will realise that Paws4Thot (see what I did there!) makes a good point, he was picking up on your speaking of "proper to (sic) use of mirrors effectively"

Yeah, I do kind of get the point, but I was always taught mirror and signal were always linked together and that for me at least has always been an automatic thing, you just don't indicate without checking your mirror first to see if it was safe to carry out the intended move. Much same thing as using the clutch when changing gears or pulling away from rest, its one of those operations that require no thought process, like breathing really. 

[sussamb]

5 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

And how would/could you possibly know that your style of driving is actually saving more fuel than stop/start could. Besides that is not the point and is just simply not enough to argue against having the stop/start system active because it is a fact that while your engine is running while stationary in a traffic jam, at traffic lights etc is wasteful of fuel is therefore costing you money.

 

I have been driving for far longer than you have and equally certain that my driving style is also very economical, but why not add to that economy by using stop/start system, especially when it has been proven to actually save you fuel, thus money? 

 

Never driven over white lines unintentionally, I seriously doubt that and you could never ever be certain that you haven't either, all you do know is that you are still breathing and able to claim that you have never done so. 

Well I'm not going to get in a tit for tat with you over my driving ability suffice to say it's at a high standard due to numerous advanced, including blue light, driving courses that I've done over the years. The fact is when I cross a white line I intend to do it and in many cases an indication isn't required. I therefore turn lane assist off as I don't want my car telling me it thinks I'm doing something wrong. Equally I'm content to know that the way I drive saves more fuel than stop/start ever could, at idle a car uses only a minute amount of fuel. Equally if I know I'm going to be stopped for a reasonable amount of time I do what I've done for years, I turn my engine off.

[sussamb]

5 hours ago, toot said:

Fantastic.  If everyone was as you are.      If you listened. Less about fuel saving for you and more about others not sniffing your tail pipe emissions.    40 years driving likely mid 50,s and older.  More than middle aged. Your driving is going down hill standards way. Time to resit your test maybe.  

Ah well my I passed my last blue light assessment easily so suspect I'm a few 'test resits' ahead of you. Just a shame every driver on the road isn't reassessed regularly, might have saved me having to deal with so many accidents/injuries/deaths 

[Graham Butcher]

7 minutes ago, sussamb said:

Well I'm not going to get in a tit for tat with you over my driving ability suffice to say it's at a high standard due to numerous advanced, including blue light, driving courses that I've done over the years. The fact is when I cross a white line I intend to do it and in many cases an indication isn't required. I therefore turn lane assist off as I don't want my car telling me it thinks I'm doing something wrong. Equally I'm content to know that the way I drive saves more fuel than stop/start ever could, at idle a car uses only a minute amount of fuel. Equally if I know I'm going to be stopped for a reasonable amount of time I do what I've done for years, I turn my engine off.

Sorry, but I was not questioning your ability, I was just trying to make sense of what the lane assist is trying to do, and with it switched on, unless indicated, it will try steer drivers back into the lane as it thinks they may have strayed by accident. One such scene that I think you are trying point out is when you are coming off a slip road onto a major road, no need to indicate if the major road is clear, in that case, I totally agree with you. I have not had blue light training but I have been a professional lorry driver and covered many hundreds of thousands of miles during my time.

 

As to saving fuel at idle, when I was not paying for fuel, I also to think it didn't make much difference, however when I started to pay for own fuel, I did notice the difference, I suppose it makes a small difference in may be more rural areas and a far difference in cities like London.

[Ootohere]

Wtf had one person's Blue light driving ability to do with the general driving public's.    I would question how someone who is a Professional driver is blind to how others drive.  As I often think WTF is the police driver / motorcyclist doing, do they never indicate?  Or is their hazard perception total guff? 

[sussamb]

We're taught not to over indicate. There is no point in indicating if no one will benefit from an indication. That's not of course to say that every police etc driver gets it correct, just like many drivers don't.

[Ootohere]

Well if there is nobody to see an indication no harm done. Like if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it.   The issue is those that miss seeing who are seeing them and thinking Muppet with blue lights of flash to pass covert drivers.   ? What emergency service vehicles are you driving @sussamb?

Edited 10 July, 2023 by toot

[sussamb]

3 minutes ago, toot said:

Well if there is nobody to see an indication no harm done. Like if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it.   The issue is those that miss seeing who are seeing them and thinking Muppet with blue lights of flash to pass covert drivers.   ? What emergency service vehicles are you driving @sussamb?

 

True but it's taught to ensure there is an awareness of what is happening. Too easy to indicate on every possible occasion.

Edited 10 July, 2023 by sussamb

[Graham Butcher]

25 minutes ago, sussamb said:

We're taught not to over indicate. There is no point in indicating if no one will benefit from an indication. That's not of course to say that every police etc driver gets it correct, just like many drivers don't.

Agreed, but isn't that just the point about lane assist, blind spot etc, these things are there for the less aware of us, and for every trained "Blue Light" driver there are many thousands who aren't? These things will and do save maybe more drivers from getting situations where you could be called to respond under the old "Blues and two's" method that you will ever be aware of?  

[sussamb]

Yes fair point but I can understand why many don't like it and turn it off.

[Graham Butcher]

5 minutes ago, sussamb said:

 

True but it's taught to ensure there is an awareness of what is happening. Too easy to indicate on every possible occasion.

Yes. But seriously you expect us all to believe that you "Blue Light Drivers" always get it right? We can all see that is not the case, you are human just like the rest of and ALL humans make mistakes, fact of life.

Edited 10 July, 2023 by Graham Butcher

[sussamb]

Very true but we're getting well off topic now 😁

[Graham Butcher]

2 minutes ago, sussamb said:

Yes fair point but I can understand why many don't like it and turn it off.

Yes, so can many of us. As I mentioned earlier, while my car was assessed by the accident assessors, I had a Qashqai for 2 months and I ended up turning the lane assist off on that because it was to aggressive and made it almost impossible to decide if it was the lane assist or bad road surfaces at times. The system employed on my Superb does not fall into that category, it just works and works in what I call a sensible manner.

[Graham Butcher]

3 minutes ago, sussamb said:

Very true but we're getting well off topic now 😁

In what way are we "off topic"?

[sussamb]

2 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

In what way are we "off topic"?

Because we're getting too deep into driving techniques etc. You're clearly happy using Lane assist which is fine. Equally I'm not so I won't. Between the 2 views there will be lots of other takes on it. The topic is Lane assist is dangerous, which I think we'd both agree it isn't by itself.

[Graham Butcher]

1 minute ago, sussamb said:

Because we're getting too deep into driving techniques etc. You're clearly happy using Lane assist which is fine. Equally I'm not so I won't. Between the 2 views there will be lots of other takes on it. The topic is Lane assist is dangerous, which I think we'd both agree it isn't by itself.

Nothing to do with calling into doubt the actual and perceived ability of some "Blue Light" drivers then? 

[sussamb]

Well that's a whole new topic, and we then get into the different grades of blue light drivers 😁

[carefree]

12 hours ago, sussamb said:

Lane assist isn't what I would call dangerous but it is annoying so along with Stop/Start I turn it off everytime I drive off. It has no useful purpose.

Agreed, annoying at worst but NOT dangerous.  Back in the day (circa 2004) this place was a sensible, amusing and interesting forum where people on the whole respected others opinions and we had interesting debates even if we disagreed. These days, peppered with one or two argumentative idiots🙄😂😂

Edited 10 July, 2023 by carefree

[Breezy_Pete]

Yes indeed!

[Breezy_Pete]

Welcome to my list of 'special people' I no longer read. 

[carefree]

Thanks, always nice to meet like minded people👍

[Ootohere]

What a difference well sorted systems are compared to iffy one.  I did over 700 miles this past 5 days in a car i was not familiar with, but i am familiar with how BMW do tech.

I had stop start enabled this morning and travelled through a few towns and through Glasgow and over 150 miles of stop / start never needed as i never came to a stop.

It was not until in Dundee that it did function a few times at traffic lights.

The lane assist was brilliant and non intrusive and disabled it's self when the rain was torrential which was for a couple of hours.

[Graham Butcher]

That is indeed well done to BMW, the lane assist should indeed shut down if it is unable to see the white lines clearly, be it because the cameras view is obscured by the rain on the windscreen, or camera is not able determine what is a white line on the road because of light reflections from the wet road. I would hope that the system in the Superb follows suite, I have already discovered that the stop/start will take into account the workload of the A/C so that is good. 

[carefree]

On 10/07/2023 at 16:59, sussamb said:

We're taught not to over indicate. There is no point in indicating if no one will benefit from an indication. That's not of course to say that every police etc driver gets it correct, just like many drivers don't.

Every single blue light driver SHOULD be spot on every single time, no excuses.  It’s not like we are poodling to the shops for a loaf of bread, we often drive at speed in busy traffic (London for me), negotiating red traffic lights and busy roundabouts.  We were trained to “Roadcraft” standards and every drive should be given 100% concentration, no excuses.

 

Im sure this will somehow offend some people (my posts tend to😂) but I won’t apologise for it, blue light drivers should be a cut above.

 

Anyway, last assist is still not dangerous 😂😂

[sussamb]

Except as you'll know, just like every driver on the road, skill levels vary from basic driver up to advanced drivers at various skill levels. Not all therefore drive with the same skill set.

 

And agreed, lane assist isn't dangerous. I still switch it off though.