Crash Proof cars of the future???

Agreed. When I say interesting, I mean thought provoking. When I say thought provoking, I mean not sure it would work. When I say not sure it’d work I mean, I don’t like it ;D

A car of the future, yesterday.

When one manufacturer was prototyping fly by wire throttles some of the evaluation cars went into wide open throttle when sat on the brakes. Due to the power of the cars and having auto boxes they would suddenly launch themselves.

But that said, I'd love it if cars could all drive themselves.

....but less variables that you've got right now, where seemingly an entire generation has grown up incapable of controlling a vehicle properly without relying on myriad 'driver aids' to extract them from bother.

Call me a curmudgeonly old b'stard, but in my book anyone who can't drive without Electronic Brake Force Distribution, Parking Assist, Satellite Navigation, Reversing Camera, Lane Change Assist, Side Assist, Blind Spot Assist, ad nauseum......shouldn't be behind the wheel. Ever.

They already make perfectly good vehicles to carry these people around in complete safety. They are called buses.

I'm actually all in favour of total control of vehicles by computer. Just not the system we have now, where morons use technology to supplant their own lack of driving skill.

{/rant}

While I agree with Brian that I'd rather more people were off my race track, I mean the public road and on busses or telecommuting, the era of driver aids has cut road casualties (alongside greater safety features such as pretensioned seatbelts, airbags, etc.)

We now have significantly more cars on the road than in "the classic" or retro eras, mostly doing significantly more miles a year too, yet we kill and maim less people a year on our roads and that has to be a good thing.

I also realise in my post above I seem to confuse drive by wire with autopilot - this was not my intent. Tens or hundreds of thousands of cars out there already quite happily and safely using drive by wire.

And yeah, as these automated systems are still pretty much in development they aren't perfect and that's why they aren't on general sale yet.

Very true, alot of moderns use them for throttle, ive had 2 vw's with it and it's been an issue on both. One stopped working altogther when it got wet lol.
Now I'm glad the clutch and brakes have mechanical things that move when i push them, id like to keep it that way to

Never had a clutch cable snap or a master cylinder seal fail? I had an accelerator cable frey and jam causing the revs to pick up and being young an inexperienced I stacked it.

Not arguing that any system is without fault...

I have had a clutch cable snap but I still like a phsical link between my foot and the the brakes, I just don't trust electronics enough lol