Sup fools,

As some of you know, I own a pretty solid Mercedes.  The car stops when it gets to close to something, it knows when I'm tired and plays trance music really loud, automatically adjusts depending on the weather, the windshield is built with electronics for other stuff to keep track of, and then it's also packing 400+ hp with proper racing setup to impress chicks.  It's ballin'.

Yesterday after the Philadelphia Flyers owned the fuck out of Buffalo, I went back home and took a lady friend with me.  We were still in the city and I had one hand on my iPhone 4 while I was stopping and going due to the traffic.  She ended up getting annoyed and I had enough.  Ended up speeding up when the light turned red and my car braked automatically to make sure I didn't hit the guy in front.  She went nuts, I spend a good time yelling at her telling her she was more of a distraction than my iPhone was.

" 

Realistically though, if you saw someone texting while they were in the city....would you prefer if their car had the driver assist or not?

"

Driver Assist is ok as long as people don't use it as a crutch for their driving (which it sounds like you do).  It only takes one time to fail for you to crush your pretty little car along with someone else's car.

@KaosAngel said:

Realistically though, if you saw someone texting while they were in the city....would you prefer if their car had the driver assist or not?

"

I know not of this strange technology you speak of, spaceman. My motor carriage was built in 2008 and is what we call an "economy" car. In my time, we had to actually use our feet to push the pedals and brake! Tell me, time traveler, have they yet made the hover board?

If you're the kind of dickhead that uses his phone when you drive, you don't deserve to. Then again, you're always so self entitled that problems like this probably go in one ear and out of the other. Just because "using phones has become a social norm", doesn't give you the right to encourage distractions of your own volition

I watched I Robot man, I know how this shit ends. 

" If you're the kind of dickhead that uses his phone when you drive, you don't deserve to. Then again, you're always so self entitled that problems like this probably go in one ear and out of the other. Just because "using phones has become a social norm", doesn't give you the right to encourage distractions of your own volition "

"@KaosAngel said:

Realistically though, if you saw someone texting while they were in the city....would you prefer if their car had the driver assist or not?

"

If i saw someone texting while driving i would hope they just kill themselves by running into a tree instead of take out a family when they crash. Seriously, I don't give a fuck if you have driving assist or not, texting while driving is unacceptable. "

" Let's be honest, it's 2011.  You aren't going to stop people from texting while they drive, it's gonna happen we're too connected as a society."

Driving assists are there to be used in addition to safe driving practices. Not so you can pay less attention.

" @NickL: @MatPaget: Let's be honest, it's 2011.  You aren't going to stop people from texting while they drive, it's gonna happen we're too connected as a society.  That's why these assists are needed, hell Google even hopes for fully automative cars so we can focus on our daily life while the car drives us. "

" Sup fools,
"

Also, for people who don't live in a major city in the East Coast, traffic is inch to inch on every block.  The vast majority do text and the worst that happens is a 100 dollar bumper scratch.  No one is stupid enough to text on the highway, this is about the city driving.

" @Aus_azn: But most cars now let you text while you speak it out to the car and it sends.  Cars are adopting to our live styles to keep us safe, these innovations are saving our lives.  Look at how many texting accidents there were over the past few years and none of them were with cars that have driver assist, so it works.   "

Driver assist helps free up your mind for more important things? More important things than driving? While driving? OK...

Good God. I envision a future where those fat-asses from WALL-E are sitting in those automatic cars from Minority Report. Sad.

" Also, for people who don't live in a major city in the East Coast, traffic is inch to inch on every block.  The vast majority do text and the worst that happens is a 100 dollar bumper scratch.  No one is stupid enough to text on the highway, this is about the city driving.

City Driving =/= Suburbs, etc.

"

drive assisst would be fine as long as cars dont become into personal, automated rail carts in the future.  if i dont want to drive ill take the bus or the taxi

I think that car companies should make their cars terrifying to drive again, and force people to really concentrate on not dying. The only thing you should be concentrating on while driving is driving. Safety devices are not an excuse for bad driving.

" I went back home and took a lady friend with me.  We were still in the city and I had one hand on my iPhone 4 while I was stopping and going due to the traffic.  She ended up getting annoyed and I had enough.  Ended up speeding up when the light turned red and my car braked automatically to make sure I didn't hit the guy in front.  She went nuts, I spend a good time yelling at her telling her she was more of a distraction than my iPhone was.
"

Driving assist will only work if everybody on the road were on the same network. It's either all or nothing....there is no happy (or safe) medium.

" Driving assist will only work if everybody on the road were on the same network. It's either all or nothing....there is no happy (or safe) medium. "

" @Wally said:

" Driving assist will only work if everybody on the road were on the same network. It's either all or nothing....there is no happy (or safe) medium. "

That's what the majority of companies are pushing for.  Each car has it's own network that talks to other cars, it's innovations like this that help society multi-task while they drive. "

Driving should be removed all together. We need trains and shit like Japan. 

I think you fail to understand the purpose of driving assists....

Until we get to the point where cars drive themselves, keep your eyes on the fucking road. It only takes one.

I'd prefer it if thousands of individuals weren't independently in control of the speed and safely of my commute each and every day. These systems could do a much better job than we do, especially since they could work together for more complex traffic patterns. No idea how something like that could ever be feasible in the reality of a modern transportation ecosystem, but that's at least where I hope it's all headed.

I don't understand why we need driving assists in the first place. Sure, I'm supportive of cars becoming mostly automated at some point but is it really that difficult to drive? Terrible drivers amuse me.

Someone crashed into my truck the other day, and for all I know, it could've been because the driver was texting.

" I don't understand why we need driving assists in the first place. Sure, I'm supportive of cars becoming mostly automated at some point but is it really that difficult to drive? Terrible drivers amuse me. "

I think driver assists are find as long as a) people still know how to drive a car without the assists and b) people don't overly rely on them.  I don't care what happens a computer can't keep up with 'in-the-moment' events as well as an alert human.  Let me direct your attention to Star Trek: The Next Generation.  In one episode, the Enterprise has to fly through an asteroid field for a mission but everyone is afraid of doing this as, in simulations, the computer was unable to pilot the ship safely through the asteroids.  Picard ends up piloting the ship himself, manually without any computer aids, and succeeds.  The lesson learned; computers can't make up for human intuition, instinct and reflexes.

When people I'm with text and drive, it pisses me off.  I'll admit I do it on rare occasions, but I try not to. 

It should be there, but you seem to be using Driver Assists as an excuse to be an asshole while you drive....they're there to help, not to let you text while driving. So yeah, driver assists are good, but stop doing stupid shit in your car.

" @Aus_azn: You have a fancy Android phone I take it, the majority of Americans own an iPhone and lack speech-to-text.  And yes, it is a cultural thing and it won't go away.  Millions of new tweens will start driving and they will be texting, they will become the standard and car companies will make sure more driver assists are there to stop accidents. So it works.  Newer Generation needs the technology -> Companies improve safety and assists -> Safer driving. "