A Group of Automakers is Pledging Automatic Braking For Everyone

Very insightful. In my neck of the woods people hold on to their cars because there is no rust in the desert. I still drive a 1989 Camry V6 but it has Disc Brakes all-around. My best friend still drives a 1993 S-10 with Discs and ABS in the front and Drums in the rear. It's not unusual to find classics from the 50s still used as daily drivers where I live. Makes sense actually because it is cheaper to replace worn or broken parts than it is to go into debt for a new or used car. Now if they can only do something about the corrosive and deteriorating effects of E10 and E15 in old cars.

Wow somebody that does "get" it. The middle class is shrinking rapidly leaving the rich and the Walmart worker. Soon that is all that will be left and it will be interesting to see how these 10.00 per hour workers will deal with 500-5000 dollar repairs to get there rolling video arcades to pass inspection, emissions or registration. It's going to get worse people. The government is already lobbying to get electronic devices in your car to tally up how many miles your going, where and how often you go out etc so that they can throw more taxes at you. There is going to come a point when most younger people in the future will not be able to afford any car let alone a self driving one that costs more than there house.

@ponchoman49 We don't always agree, but this is spot on.

Hahaha yes, right, I'm the only person on this entire site who believes vehicle safety systems, when deployed by this many vehicle manufacturers, have been stringently tested using modern techniques unavailable perhaps a decade ago. Instead, we are expected to believe that the engineers forgot about soccer balls, snow, and the element of risk involved in activating brakes on a vehicle autonomously. I'm just (apparently) the only one willing to wade into this s conversation to point out that these technologies exist today, are saving lives, and no robot apocalypse has happened because of them. Yes, I'm looking forward to a world where the elderly can still have mobility due to safety features, and where pedestrian fatalities can stop increasing in cities. But yes, let's scare away that future with FUD so that my parents can still rely on me to get them places instead of technology. Let me guess: Anthropgenic climate change isn't happening, Prius's pollute more than Hummers did because of their batteries, and a first generation Crown Victoria is the safest vehicle on the roads because of its size and lack of modern crap inside it, correct?

@orenwolf Read the 2016 Subaru Legacy manual section about its pre-collision braking system. They list numerous situations where it doesn't work. Just a small sample of when it could fail: - When the detected object is something other than a vehicle, motorcycle,bicycle or pedestrian • A domestic animal or other animal (a dog or deer, etc.) • A guardrail, telephone pole, tree, fence or wall, etc. - Even if the obstacle is a motorcycle, bicycle or pedestrian, depending on the brightness of the surroundings as well as the relative movement, and aspect or angle of the object, there may be cases when the system cannot detect it. • When driving at night or in a tunnel when there is a vehicle in front that does not have its taillights on • When the detected object is a fence or wall, etc. with a uniform pattern (a striped pattern or brick pattern, etc.) • When there is a wall or door made of glass or a mirror in front • When driving on a bumpy or unpaved road when a vehicle is viewed from the side, oncoming vehicle, vehicles approaching in reverse, small animals or children, or walls or doors are not likely to be detected. See the actual manual for the full list. This is just a small subset.

@orenwolf Your trust in the reliability of consumer-grade electronics designed and built to a cost target is touching, but probably understandable in one so young. However, you still seem unable to grasp that continuing to load up cars with increasingly complex, unrepairable or prohibitively-expensive-to-repair computer stuff is going to have serious side effects on the mobility of the working poor in the future. Let's assume that the vehicle continues to be operable once the auto-braking system, or another similar system fails. If you can't get it inspected, you can't insure it either, probably. Now you have an increasing population of people who cannot afford to drive vehicles that pass safety inspections and carry insurance. The income threshold where that starts to happen will continue to rise and will rise all the faster, the more of this kind of feature is included. What do you propose be done about this?

Planning to flee to where exactly? You don't suppose they'd, oh, stop you at the border first if you were wanted so badly they'd disable your car? Bad news. Shady dealers already disable cars for non-payment with ignition interlocks. They don't need to touch your braking system to do it. Some people CHOOSE to install these systems as theft deterred systems so their vehicles can be disabled remotely. None of this involves automatic braking systems. Sorry.

@orenwolf Lol, a driving flee. So Canada, then?

@Corey Lewis If anything Canada will disable your car first. Some provinces have breathalyzer ignition interlocks for repeat drunk driving infringements. :)