If you have driven a vehicle made recently – within the past five or so years – you have probably wrestled with Lane Keep Assist.
Literally.
Lane Keep Assist is a “technology” (that word is becoming synonymous with something unwanted being pushed on us) that uses electric motors to correct your steering, as when you are not paying attention to your driving and the car is drifting over the painted yellow centerline (or off onto the shoulder).
It also corrects your steering when you aren’t drifting out of your lane. Example:
If you try to pass a car ahead of you without first activating your left turn signal, the Lane Keep Assist will exert countersteering force as you’re beginning your pass – as soon as your left tire touches the painted yellow centerline. It’s not enough to prevent you from continuing your pass, but it is more than enough to prevent you from doing it smoothly – and without the aggravation of peremptory correction.
It’s the same thing when you have finished passing the car ahead of you and begin to move back into your travel lane. If you don’t signal before you begin to ease back over, the technology will exert countersteering force – which in this case means it’s trying to keep you in the wrong (opposing) lane. Once again, it can be pushed through – so to speak – by using your own steering inputs to override the technology, but it will interfere with you just enough to make the move not smooth. That slight left (or right) pulling on the wheel in the direction opposite the direction you want the car to go is like having your mother-in-law grabbing the wheel and tugging on it every time she doesn’t like the way you’re driving.
It’s annoying at the least and dangerous at the worst.
Annoying, obviously. It is annoying any time that technology tries to parent you. In particularly, technology you probably didn’t want and wouldn’t have paid extra for, had it been optionally available (as it ought to be; more about that follows below). Even more so when the technology cannot be entirely turned off. Or turns itself back on after every drive. Both of those annoyances are becoming standard in new vehicles, too.
And dangerous? Arguably. Because interfering with the driver’s inputs – especially in a way that is counter to the driver’s purposeful inputs – is unsettling. Literally. It is difficult to drive smoothly when technology makes that difficult. Anyone who has ever had any real driver training – on a track, rather than in a DMV cubicle – knows one of the foundational things that’s taught is smoothness, which is essential to control. The object is to brake and steer in such way as to not unsettle the car, which can lead to loss of control. That is why Lane Keep Assist technology is arguably dangerous. Especially when it unsettles a driver who isn’t ready for the interference and who may over-react to the sudden, unwanted interference by over-correcting. The technology could – and almost certainly has – “assisted” some drivers into the ditch. Or into the path of oncoming traffic.
Some reading this will be chomping at the bit about now. Why not just signal before you begin your pass? And then again when you’re done and easing back into your travel lane?
Well, because it’s obviously unnecessary to signal every time you change lanes – and it might not be a good idea, regardless.
The car you’re about to pass is ahead of you and he’s probably not looking in his rearview and so won’t see your turn signal. In any case, it isn’t necessary for him to see it. You are behind and about to go around him. He is just continuing on his way. Your turn signal may be informative – assuming he is looking in his rearview mirror – but it is not essential. He doesn’t need to know you are about to pass him.
That brings up the other thing – about signaling your intent and it maybe not being a good idea. We live (unfortunately) in a passive-aggressive time. A time when Clovers abound. Some will speed up if they see you are going to try to pass them. Probably everyone reading this has has that happen to them atone time or another. This creates a dangerous situation because it forces you to increase your speed significantly beyond what would otherwise have been necessary to get around the obstructive slowpoke (a good working definition of “Clover”).
The potential danger is magnified if there is oncoming traffic. Though some may see it as rude, not signaling before you begin to pass is arguably safer – because you’ll probably have passed the slowpoke before he realizes what you’re doing and has had time to increase his speed, to prevent you from passing him.
Once you have passed him – and are moving back into your travel lane, ahead of him – it is (again) unnecessary to signal because it’s obvious you’re moving back into your travel lane.
Some will retort: But it is the courteous thing to do! Actually, it is the mindless thing to do. See that part above about necessary vs. unnecessary.
When it is necessary to signal, one ought to. Obviously. Just as one ought to wait at a red light when there is obviously cross-traffic that has the green. But should you wait at a red light just because it is red – no matter how long it takes to turn green? No matter that it’s obvious there’s no cross-traffic and that it’s safe to proceed? Same goes for stopping at stop signs. Of course you ought to come to a complete stop when there is other traffic at the intersection. But when you see there isn’t, why should you come to a complete stop?
Just because there’s a sign?
Isn’t that a good working definition of mindlessness?
This gets to the meat of the matter. What is wanted is precisely that – mindlessness. That is why the Lane Keep Assistance technology interferes with your steering even when you aren’t not paying attention but just because you didn’t use your turn signal. Even when there is no reason to use it.
Reasononing being the thing the pushers of this technology are really trying to “correct.”
Think about it. They don’t want you exercising judgment, according to the circumstances of each situation. They want one-size-fits-all and dumbed-down, based upon the least common denominator. They want to control your driving – and mine – to the nth degree, not because we need to be controlled but because they want to control us.
The distinction is important.
It also explains why this technology is not optional. As walkers and wheelchairs are – for those who need assistance walking. There is nothing shameful about needing assistance. But there is something cloying and deeply offensive about pushing it one people who do not need it.
The fact that it is being pushed is really all you need to know; i.e., that it is not about assisting us.
It is about assisting them.
. . .
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Yukon Jack, a lone voice from the wilderness warning you where the hell you are going … into a digital hell with no hope of return. Tech is a slippery slope to losing your mind and your very soul. Ai soon will have outsmarted you and made you believe whatever it wants you to believe.
The digital world is taking over, and soon you will be absorbed into the matrix. With each high tech “improvement” you are being removed from the organic/spiritual realm, and not to mention all the jobs going to Ai and robots. The tech revolution removed you from growing your own food, from sewing your own clothes, from milking the cow with your own hands. Much of your food is already processed in huge factories. Studies have shown that processed food is harmful to all human organs.
Soon, you won’t be able to exist without Ai and high tech, just one step away from being on par with a EBE Grey Alien. Why even have sex organs, soon high tech will grow your children in a test tube. Remember that 1960s song warning you about the future? It’s here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKQfxi8V5FA
“In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans is a chilling look at the future of humanity. Released in 1969, the song is about what might happen if technology replaces every part of human life. From thoughts to relationships to the human body itself, the lyrics push us further into a future that feels less and less human.
—————–
In the year Twenty Twenty Five
high tech satellites look down at you,
some operator in some underground CIA facility
got the crosshairs on you,
Some soulless operator got a missile trained on you
Trump didn’t like the post you made today
He’s got you on his patriot kill list
going to join Charlie Kirk in Vahalla today
Nobodies going to care if you’re gone
They are all watching the trannies on the tube
they gotta eat the processed chicken goo nuggets
they don’t wanna be the next flagged wrong thinker blown away
With gasoline selling for 4 cents per gallon right now in Caracas, we gotta have it! So on the eve of Orange God Emporer Trumpenstein’s war in Vietenzuela, time for some Creedence Revival:
Fortunate Son – Apocalypse Now Version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T-6vxLXj9M&list=RD6T-6vxLXj9M&start_radio=1
Since the discussion is on nany rubbish that does the opposite it’s supposed to do, lets look at
the ‘wakemeup’ ridges that are embedded on the right edge of the single right lane and in the divider to the left of said lane.
Physics causes these pos to force the car in the wrong direction.
Example: Your right wheel touched the right side ridges and what happens? The right front wheel SLOWS DOWN while the left front wheel continues at the same rate. Unintended right turn toward the ditch.
Example 2: Your left wheel touches the left side divided ridges and what happens? The left front wheel SLOWS DOWN while the right front wheel continues at the same rate. Unintended left turn toward the oncoming traffic.
I’m a civil engineer. Rumble strips, which is what they’re called, are highly effective in before/after studies in reducing accidents. The term we use is ROR, roll off road. It’s not a little bit either, especially at reducing head-on lane crossing accidents.
They are statistically by a wide margin the best option to marking lanes. I know safety is a four letter word here but you need some way to mark suggested lanes. Paint and reflectors don’t have the tactile impact. It’s like when you were young. Mom could tell you all day not to touch a hot stove but burning yourself reinforces it.
I know that sounds like treating drivers as children but it’s not. It’s a human thing, how we interact with the world. The touch of another person can be more powerful than just talking, that sort of thing. Feeling and hearing a rumble strip is a more immediate feedback than seeing a line. And if you’re drowsy or visibility is low (here in Wyoming this happens a lot due to snow and wind-driven rain) it’s MUCH more effective.
What I’ve seen in terms of coefficient of friction the typical FHWA suggested types are similar to the discontinuity you’d get with paint or reflectors, so not really significant. Some analysis even suggest the air pockets in pocket types (rather than the mini humps, which are rare now) actually reduce friction.
There’s downsides to rumble strips, I don’t want to suggest otherwise. They can cause issues (micro hydroplaning) when they fill with water, reduce the effectiveness of reflective paint and have a cost associated to milling or rolling them in.
I see more and more head on collisions every year, with more dying as well.
Differential speeds easily get to 80 to 120. All depends on both cars mass and how much they ‘overhang’ each other whether you live, get maimed or die.
I am a huge fan of these rumble strips, and in places they don’t exist I do not get to enjoy my driving.
There are just way too many distractions these days, all from inside the car.
Hate to say it, but it’s probably true. “Safety” equipment making cars more dangerous are a feature, not a bug.
I drove a Ford Kuga with Lane Keep Assist in Poland this summer, and it’s positively terrifying. Poland has a lot of narrow roads without lane markers, and it’s very common to straddle the grass on the side of the road to avoid a head-on collision from someone coming the other way.
The blasted thing would decide I’m too close to the edge, and it would nudge me towards the cars I was avoiding! This being the EU, Ford isn’t allowed to provide a disable option, all you an do is turn down the level of intervention. This system made an otherwise neat little car into an awful nag.
Same issue with a VW SUV rental about 5 years ago. I didn’t know any of this existed and driving from the rental office to the kid’s place out in the country on narrow roads was maddening. Too close to the edge the wheel moved on its own, drove me nuts. No permanent OFF that I could find, each restart required surfing a tiny print menu in the instrument cluster to disable that and the engine auto off. This should be a user programmable “on” or permanent “off”. PS: narrow lanes on the four lane try going past a truck it would pull left and it did almost dump me in the median.
Another reason not to use your turn signal when passing on a multi lane highway is that that the clover coming up to you in the next lane will speed up so that you don’t have room to pull out safely. One of the many reasons nobody around here uses turn signals.
Yeah I have noticed that as well Mike. I had a right turn signal on and was slowing down. Car in the oncoming lane did not have a green light arrow. I was in the middle of turning right when the fool decided to try and quickly get in front of me…and I nearly hit his front quarter panel. I learned after that.
My new 2025 Lexus has these lane assist features, most of which I can turn off. One that isn’t allowed to be turned off is the braking when vehicles exiting my lane are turning left or right, so when I am confident they will complete their lane exit I will slow but continue because I can see they will be clear of the lane before I get to the point they are at. However, my car will brake, HARD, if the vehicle in front of me has not totally cleared the lane, causing alarm and anger to me. I find the lane assist more fatiguing while I am fighting against it because it is not perfect at lane keeping, although it must think it is, it floats me all over the lane, and often on roads that are not lined well or dirt roads it is useless. I saw a video yesterday sent to me by my son, a quote that the driver says, “I am sick of the screens and self driving shit on my car, I am buying used, and if it doesn’t have an ash tray its too new.”
I drove a family member’s Honda Pilot over the holiday weekend on some back roads in MD and PA and every time I went around a curve the braking/shaking would come on. It unnerved the hell out of me, especially since it was rainy and I was not super familiar with the car. I described this to the owners when I returned and they said, “yeah it does that all the time”. I bet it causes more accidents than it reduces!
Amen, Tim!
I have a fresh video about this coming up! Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY5Eitc7ME8
Never bought a new vehicle, although I’ve been driving for almost fifty years. And with new vehicles’ annoying and dangerous driver “assist” and spyware stuff, I can’t imagine any situation in life now that could ever induce me to buy one. Not even if I, as a nearby neighbor did, won the $1.5 billion lottery and pocketed $787 million after gov-takings. Instead, I’d buy some rib-eye steaks, and then, if there was enough money left over, a 1970 El Camino Super Sport.
I have only experienced these passive-aggressive clovers in the past 5 years or so.
I am almost always driving faster than most, so I know for sure it’s only been recently. Been driving for 40 years.
I try not to let it boil my blood, just keep moving on.
Even have had some come back at me and tailgate me after I pass them, OMG…… Then it’s game on and fun (for me).
What the hell happened?
For some reason these clovers get offended, or see it as a hit to their pride if you pass them on the road. I encounter this as well and inevitably pass them anyway. Said drivers getting jabbed…and how that may play a part is always up for debate. I am sure it didn’t help.
WSJ: Consumers have had it with high car prices
https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/american-consumers-have-had-it-with-high-car-prices-0eb23424?st=aP7uoQ
I recently leased a new car because I had an issue with my 2008 Saab 9-3 that could no longer be repaired. I leased the car because I do not want to own a car that is a computer on wheels. In addition to all of the annoying tech, there is another sinister annoyance that my wonderful old Saab did not have. Driving the Saab, I was able to turn on features / conveniences as desired. This new car turns on features / conveniences automatically and I find myself wasting time turning off everything the car is programmed to turn on that I do not want activated.
In the summer of ’77 the wife and I went to the 6-Hour race at Watkins Glen. We camped in the state park nearby. Our site was on top of a hill and the drive down to the main entrance was rather steep. At the bottom was a stop sign which, after putting my ’77 Bug convert into 1st gear, I rolled through. I was the only vehicle at the massive traffic circle…or so I thought. A park ranger saw this massive transgression and proceeded to harangue me for over an hour in his little hut. At one point he stated, “I don’t care if you’re going one mile an hour or 100. You didn’t stop at the sign.” I quoted this to the magistrate the next morning because I had to see him to get my license back. The magistrate rolled his eyes but, still socked me with a $100 fine.
And people wonder why I hate GovCo.
Out here in the Wild West we’re finally seeing some freeze/thaw, and with that the potholes CDOT spent all summer filling are popping their Quikrete patches. Lane keep assist doesn’t give two s**ts about the suspension or rims, so it will happily “assist” you into the pothole.
The big picture issue with these system is that they push everyone into the same spot of the lane. Many areas with a lot of commercial trucking have wear ruts, because semis pretty much have to be in the center of the lane. When every vehicle is pushing itself into the center the problem will become much worse. If there were settings for lane offset it might help a little, but that’s not what the driving manual says to do.
“If there were settings for lane offset it might help a little”
Abstract from patent application US8977419B2:
A system and method for providing adaptive lane centering in an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle driving system includes activating a lane centering control system, detecting a driver steering override of the lane centering control system, monitoring a lane centering offset when a driver override condition is detected, determining if the lane centering offset represents a driver bias and adjusting the lane centering offset in the lane centering control system to compensate for the driver bias.
Already exists within OEM software.
Well that’s good. My 2016 Cherokee doesn’t do that. Either the patent was filed too late for my model year or Stellantis was too cheap to license it.
“The technology could – and almost certainly has – “assisted” some drivers into the ditch. Or into the path of oncoming traffic.”
This is a hyperbolic statement with no proof given to back it. This is just a raw appeal to emotion.
Unsubstantiated hyperbole like this has become so common with “journalism” that it is ridiculous. We rightly mock it when it comes to climate change, COVID, etc. Are we supposed to accept it when it’s advanced to suit our cause?
I’m not a particular fan of ADAS but making hyperbolic claims serves no purpose other than to discredit the underlying (and correct) premise that we shouldn’t be forced into accepting ADAS features like LKA. I fully agree that LKA behaviors should not be dependent on turn signal use.
Crash data is available from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), from the insurance industry, and state police databases.
There are questionable NHTSA studies that attempt to shown LKA reduces accidents. Unfortunately there is some real world data that actually supports that claim.
There’s plenty in these types of government and industry studies that is suspect and an easy target for derision. Making up unsubstantiated claims that LKA is forcing drivers into the ditch or oncoming traffic is a stretch. If there’s proof of this, point to the accidents.
https://tinyurl.com/42v87mn7
We all know NHTSA has been dragging their feet when it comes to investigating Tesla’s Autopilot flaws.
Pointing at the real world Tesla fatal crashes has been effective and is helping to turn the tide against some of this ADAS tech.
We need to do the hard work to actually refute these studies and their quasi scientific just the same as was done with COVID and is currently gaining traction around climate change narrative.
Unsubstantiated hyperbolic claims just make our position against ADAS look foolish. It hinders your message and your reach.
I wouldn’t consider it hyperbolic, and there will never be proof to back it if an official study is never made. We have to work off anecdotal evidence in that case. For this example, you countering an auto correct on an icy highway can absolutely send you spinning out of control. Smoothness is essential to any movement on ice. Of course the goal is to not have you drive at all. As it stands, I already over accelerate when the damn electronic gas pedal doesn’t do what I want when I want it, a non existent problem on cars with a cable pedal that I normally drive. I have no proof, but someone out there probably tried to make a left with too little room and got into a collision with a car going straight in a newer car, where an older one with immediate throttle response would have gotten through.
You’re responding with maybes and could have. He’s correct in asking to cite data when it’s presented as fact. You can’t have it logically both ways, either you can substantiate a claim or it’s conjecture. It’s fine to advance an opinion but that’s all it is without methodical rigor. The concept is presented as hyperbolic in this essay. That’s perfectly fine, a valid creative decision, since this is not an scientific or engineering blog afterall.
Morning BID!
I do not consider my statement to be hyperbolic. I am an expert witness as regards this subject as I am someone who has personally driven just about every new vehicle made over the past 30 years. I have driven a variety of different/make models that have LKAS. Some of these LKAS systems exert a definite tug – enough to unsettle the car’s line. I do not think it is hyperbolic to contemplate a scenario in which a driver not familiar with this tug is unsettled by it and over-corrects. Or how about an old person with weak grip/strength?
I am not saying it is likely. I am stating it is possible.
Most LKA systems exert less than 4Nm of steering wheel torque. This level of steering torque is easily overcome by even the elderly. All OEMs have done the human factors studies and have the data to defend their engineering decisions.
The other thing that you are not acknowledging is that with Electric Power Assisted Steering the torque felt at the steering wheel does not mean that there is a corresponding moment at the road wheels. You should know this from your years of driving these features and presumably from your understanding of the technology you write about.
Like you, I’ve spent 30 years driving and developing vehicles. I’ve driven product from all major OEM’s. I’ve driven global products from Europe, China, and South America that you don’t even have access to via the U.S. press fleet. One expert opinion vs another.
ISO 26262 and engineering FMEA’s are implemented to address failure modes that are possible and to implement countermeasures.
You regularly write about not wanting to have your insurance rates set by what damage you might cause. That we shouldn’t be judged by what harm you might cause to others until harm has actually occurred. Then you want to come up with unsubstantiated hyperbole about what LKA might do?
Neither of us likes ADAS. There is plenty to hate ADAS without having to make emotional appeals to what might happen. Isn’t that what MADD did with driving under the influence? Are we to resort to the same unsubstantiated emotional appeals?
Do what you will. Hyperbole may resonate with the audience and readership here but it doesn’t help you to expand your credibility and reach elsewhere. That is a shame because you have so much to say that is worth saying.
“Most LKA systems exert less than 4Nm of steering wheel torque.”
That 4 Nm translates to about 4.4 pounds of tangential force at the rim of a 16 inch diameter steering wheel. That’s a half a gallon of milk! I think that would have annoyed my grandmother. How much more than 4 Nm of torque do the other-than-most of them exert on the steering wheel?
Props for using real non communist units. Never cared for N and N*m myself, they don’t feel natural.
Rip.
Don’t trust the Lane keep Assist, here’s your warning
https://www.facebook.com/groups/7252826804759086/posts/30683123057969464/
I LOVE my 2020 but, I want to get the safety warning out there that lane assist works REALLY WELL. Too well for me yesterday. We have a spot on the freeway that has a left lane exit. If you’re already in the carpool lane, you just go straight so no need for a blinker. Well, Sueberry didn’t exactly like that and she just kept a going right, following the natural curve of the painted lines and the other car that she had locked on to who was not exiting. It scared me to death and I almost ended up with a front end in the divider as I tried to steer straight and she tried to follow right. Now I know I’ll just have to put on my left blinker even though I’m not turning left but, in the panic I didn’t think about that.
It’s a wide freeway right there and I would have had to go two more exits to get over if I didn’t just take the natural straight exit from the carpool. I’m not quickly familiar enough with the other buttons to just turn off lane assist for a second but, the blinker method seems to work in this case.
https://www.ascentforums.com/threads/lane-assist-warning-woah.8530/
Can lane assist cause accidents? Ask AI: “Yes, lane assist can cause accidents due to potential system limitations, driver overreliance, and unpredictable behavior. These systems may fail in certain conditions, interfere with necessary steering corrections, or cause the driver to become confused or fight the steering wheel, which can lead to collisions.
Potential causes of accidents
Driver overreliance:
Drivers may become complacent and not pay attention, assuming the system will prevent all lane departures, but the system may not work in all situations.
Unwanted interventions:
The system may provide unwanted steering input, especially on rural roads or curves, or when the driver is intentionally changing lanes for a valid reason, such as to pass a cyclist or a large truck.
System limitations:
Lane assist systems may not function correctly in poor weather, on poorly marked roads, or if lane markings are faded, covered by snow, or confusing.
Driver confusion and fatigue:
A driver who is fatigued or unfamiliar with the system may not react appropriately to its interventions, leading to crashes.
Unexpected or false activations:
Some systems have been reported to activate suddenly and unexpectedly, or fail to engage when needed, sometimes due to false positives, which can lead to accidents.
Interference with emergency maneuvers:
The system can interfere with a driver’s ability to make a sudden steering input in an emergency.”
BID:
Your gripe seems a bit nihilistic. Unless there’s a study to prove an assertion (and in this case a petty restrained one: “The technology could – and almost certainly has. . .”) you get your dander up. I’m not sure why in this case though. Lane keep assist is very intrusive. It’s akin to your buddy reaching over and tugging on the steering wheel. Do you not think this could cause a crash if the driver reacts with an over-correction? I do. Do I have proof? No, but this can be intuited.
Let’s try an experiment: Teenage passengers reaching over and tugging on the driver’s wheel “could – and almost certainly ha[ve]” caused crashes. Would you still exclaim “This is a hyperbolic statement with no proof given to back it. This is just a raw appeal to emotion”?
The analogy of a buddy tugging the steering wheel isn’t relevant.
With Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) which is foundational to LKA, there isn’t a direct one to one correlation between the counter steering effort you feel at the steering and the physical steering angle of the road wheels.
This comment is typical of those that don’t understand the details of how the hardware in modern vehicles works.
Did you know that most cars with EPAS are now doing drift & pull compensation to keep your steering wheel centered and to zero out the steering torque you would normally feel on a highly crowned road?
Is that the same sort of steering torque as having your buddy reach over to steer for you?
That is a “buddy” I neither want, need, nor asked for. A government force one to boot! I do not need anyone or anything steering, slowing down, or braking for me unless it also wants to make my car and insurance payments for me, as well, for their insistence that I need them when I don’t.
Shadow
I’m 100% with you. I don’t buy new cars because that’s the only way to avoid these ADAS features and to send a message to the OEMs.
Just because I understand the details of how this crap was engineered doesn’t mean I support it.
This may be my last new car for I can forsee where one will not be able to turn off any safety/ assist “features” in newer models. It is nice to know that in knowing the engineering details there is someone who does not think it is a great idea.
Well, I’ve driven cars with LKA and I end up fighting it. There’s a definite tug at the wheel, which causes the car to dart unexpectedly. My natural reaction is to counter it. If I were to overreact in a high-traffic situation of where the shoulder is small, I would expect a collision or crash.
According to BID, it’s a tug, but not like one from your buddy pulling a prank. It’s the same, only different. It’s totally harmless, you see. Good grief.
I still don’t want it whether it is “totally harmless” or not.
You can flip that non sequitur of a passenger yanking the steering wheel to suppose “What if your buddy grabbed the steering wheel and avoided hitting a moose?” It could happen, you never know. Anecdotes only carry the weight of a one-of and aren’t a measurable statistic. In this case consider that lots of things, driving schools and aircraft come to mind, have vehicles with two sets of controls so that the primary operator can be overridden. The question could be asked if a machine is a better driver than a human and in some ways they are unarguably. If you fly you’re putting your life in the hands an auto pilot and you don’t see many human pilots disagreeing that they are provably better in the tasks they are allowed to do. If OEMs presented ADAS in the same way, as an optional feature with defined parameters they’d be less controversial and perhaps even embraced. But the way they’ve been pushed and implemented rankles most of us more than the concept.
Perhaps machines drive better than humans but that assumes one can trust whomever wrote the computer program for the vehicle. Forgive me for not trusting in that respect. Also, modern day vehicles are like computers on wheels. Who is to say said vehicle is not open to hacking? Thrn you are really screwed. The FOBS certainly are. Also, though I would trust my buddy in the passenger seat to suddenly grab the steering wheel to avoid a moose. I would not trust a faceless computer entity with the same trust especially if it mistakes a squirrel (which i would run over) for a moose and takes the wheel/ slams on the brakes. It just seems like there are too many variables to trust such computer assistance.
Since GovCo is so determined to start a war; perhaps after it ends the returning Vets will deal with the corruption as has happened in the past like in Athens, Tennessee.
Either way I wonder how many people want to buy a new car these days; especially if you rented one for a week and saw how bad it was to drive a controlled car.
The vast majority of returning vets are completely bought off and on the dole. Every one of the many I know are on some sort of major disability or full disability, most are pensioned, most get subsidized or free medical care. Just like in the Soviet Union, military and vets are better compensated than doctors and dentists.
As much as I usually like them, they are very unlikely to rock the boat.
‘It is about assisting them.’ — eric
Some six percent of airline customers still show up at the airport without a REAL-ID or a passport. When they get harassed, delayed, or turned away, that’s bad business for the airlines. So there’s a new program to ‘assist’ these non-compliant folks:
‘As of Feb. 1, 2026, passengers without [a REAL-ID] will be required to pay a $45 fee in order to fly from U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administration announced on Monday.
“The current alternative identity verification process is time and resource intensive, limiting the number of individuals for whom T.S.A. can provide the service,” the agency said.
‘The verification process for non-Real IDs will differ airport to airport, the T.S.A. said.’ — NYT
https://archive.ph/Wglrg#selection-781.0-781.90
What ‘service’? I didn’t ask for no service. This is the kind of ‘service’ a stud performs for a mare. Smash the fedgov.
And, when they say it’s about safety, not the money…
They haven’t been able to get away with forcing it, so they hit the public into the pocketbook. The public will then clamor for a fix, a mandated ID. It’s clever and effective. It’s also corrupt and evil.
I see a day coming when such vehicles will simply shut down and refuse to restart or move until the government allows it whenever you forget to use a turn signal, orwhen you dare to turn off safety features, etc. Or…money will simply be taken from your bank account directly in the form of fines for every instance of not using a turn signal, speeding up to pass someone etc. Theses demons are damned determined to make driving as miserable as possible.
Morning Shadow!
I see it coming also. And I see myself punching out when it does. I cannot live under such conditions. So – when (if) it ever gets to the point that it is no longer possible to operate within the system without being utterly parented, I will head for the woods – so to speak – and live like a savage, per Huxley.
And go where? The only free-ish western country I can think of is Hungary. And that’s because of Orban.
I hear you, MH –
I don’t think there is anywhere left to go. So it’s on us to make it better right where we are – one refusal to comply at a time.