Do Automated Safety Aids Make Drivers Complacent? The NTSB Wants to Know

Thumbs up, Kyree. You are SO right there.

Kyree I don't know how to see my wife's driving skill, but it all seems to fit in these discussions on TTAC these weeks. I pass her on the road driving in the opposite direction many times. I see her coming and try to wave at her. She drives past, eyes coldly and studiously looking forward. I ask her about this and she says she just doesn't see me. How? So this whole discussion of complacency or distraction is really about driving skill. It is really about different levels of folks abilities to drive. With or without aids. Theresa IS concentrating. Hard. She simply cannot focus on anything that isn't directly in front of her. And so good luck for her seeing a deer in the ditch early and avoiding. She is just going to rely on her reacting to it once it appears in front...unless the driver assist tech of the modern era is allowed to be used. This is always, to me, going to come down to society dumbing down rules and laws to the lowest common denominator. We will only be allowed to do what the poorest drives can do. If they cannot change channels on their radio...out go the radios. If they cannot drink a soda...out goes the driving while drinking. Life is anything but fair and equal. And driving skill is as unequally distributed.

@TrailerTrash Well, yes. That's why you have decals all over your lawnmower telling you not to stick your fingers under the lawnmower...because someone actually did that, and lost a finger, and sued, and probably won. You know, even though it's common sense to 99.99999% of people. But I think we've come to the same conclusion through two different types of drivers. You're talking about your wife and her diminished senses, which are understandable. And, indeed, most people can't react quickly enough to a deer jumping out in the middle of the road. That's where autonomous technology and driving aids can really save a person's bacon...er, venison. Meanwhile, I'm talking about people who actively engage in dangerous driving by texting behind the wheel and such. My line of thinking is that since those people are going to do that whether or not they have driver-aids, why not give them the driver-aids? At least the aids will save them, since they were going to do it anyway. It's not the technology that makes them feel complacent enough to drive dangerously. Kevin in the next lane has already decided that he can drive just fine while his girlfriend, ahem, "services" him...and that's whether he's driving a new 7-Series with every radar and aid known to man...or a 1983 Ram that barely has a working alternator. Either way, the tech doesn't hurt.