[adriang]

BMW working on collision avoiding technology, as it seems
http://www.wimp.com/car-brakes/

I wonder if it will be better than the mazda's technology
http://www.carscoops.com/2013/11/maz...ing-fails.html

[ShocknAwe]

Got a good one in my car now actually, works pretty well. It involves putting away distractions and driving with full attention.

[fecurtis]

Originally Posted by ShocknAwe

Got a good one in my car now actually, works pretty well. It involves putting away distractions and driving with full attention.

Some demographics (read: women) can't be bothered with that method. It's free so they can't brag about how much money they spent on it.

Joking aside, if they're inexpensive then I could see the value. A computer can react faster than a human so if something like a kid runs out in front of your car suddenly causing you to slam on your brakes, an automated braking system could react fractions of a second faster than you which could mean the difference between that hypothetical dumbass kid's life.

I could use a real life example. Many years ago someone in my family was driving home and it was dark and foggy as hell. He was on a two lane road and he noticed headlights coming towards him, he slows down because he noticed that the headlights weren't approaching very quickly so he assumed that there was something in the road he should be cautious of up ahead.

The headlights began approaching at a faster place so he assumed that whatever was in the way had moved so he too began to speed up. Suddenly he sees a girl walking across the street, swerving he clips her and she falls over, the car behind him straight up ran over this girl and killed her.

Turns out, that vehicle approaching him was a school bus. It had stopped to let out a girl coming home from after school track practice but neglected to turn on the typical yellow/red warning lights requiring drivers to come to a stop. In addition, the bus driver did not wait until she had crossed the street fully before driving any further. The girl didn't hear the cars coming because she was listening to music on her headphones. She was an honors student at a local high school and her father was serving in Iraq at the time and had to come home to bury his own daughter. A police investigation found the bus driver to be at fault as they were able to prove that the bus driver never turned on their warning lights.

In situations like that, I could completely understand the reason for automated braking. Computer sensors can detect things the human eye can't.

To prove that point in another example, Google, while testing their driverless cars, noticed that on a one way street in an urban area, the car randomly stopped. The engineers were about to note it thinking it was a glitch or bug but they suddenly saw someone walking out onto the road and crossing the street. Neither of the Google employees saw this person because the parallel parked cars on the street blocked their view. The car's sensors knew it was there before they did.

So yeah while nothing replaces your own alertness, it's good to have a back up, especially when the behavior of OTHER people can be unpredictable and out of your own control.