Driver Assist Technology

 Some or many of you might be already familiar with this type of system if you own a relatively new car or a Tesla.

So, my experience driving up from Los Angeles in such a car was that it was sort of like the feeling if you put your 4 to 8 year old on your lap and let them steer the car and maybe brake too sometimes. But, the system makes sure you are holding the steering wheel after a few Tesla Drivers let go of the steering wheel completely and either died or were seriously injured because they left the car to it's own devices. You cannot really do that and live. So, the car I was driving checks about every 15 to 30 seconds to make sure you have at least one hand on the steering wheel and it prefers if you are in the 10  2 position. In other words your left hand is at 10 o'clock and your right hand is at about 2 o'clock on the wheel. This is what the technology prefers. However, if you have the automatic braking synced with the cruise control and the automatic steering there are still some kinks in this kind of system. For example, the steering often wants to be further right in the lane when passing other cars on the freeway than I prefer. So, I steer to the left or the right of where they are so there is more clearance if there is a gust of wind or if one of us hits a rock or a board or whatever might be on the highway so everyone survives it. But, the technology often wants you to be to the right of where I like to be. But, I like the system where yellow lights tell you on both sides when someone is in your blind spot and sometimes there are little beeps that accompany this.

Also, you can set your cruise control and set your automatic braking system so that they work together. So, in your lane if someone is going slow or slowing down often the car will slow down by braking too and you can set the distance as 1, 2, 3, or 4 car lengths distance. Because I'm older and used to driving a truck I set mine at the maximum of 4 car lengths for safety.

So, learning to interact with this technology isn't for everyone.

For example, I love regular cruise control on all my vehicles and in fact about 90% of the time I'm on cruise control if I'm above 25 miles per hour where it can kick in. So, for me at least letting the car drive and brake when needed seems somewhat 2nd nature to me. However, once again getting proficient at this requires some training if you want to stay alive doing this just like you have to train yourself to be effective at cruise control also.

But, like I said it's not for everyone because some drivers would be completely terrified trying to do this. But, for me, it's sort of 2nd nature for me to learn to do something like this which reminds me a little of learning to be an airplane pilot in some ways. In other words, if you are capable of flying or piloting a plane without peeing your pants or worse, often you can do this too.