For our family trip in 2018 in Germany the car hire company forced an SUV on us (brand new diesel Pug 3008), and for low speed manoeuvring the dash display gave me an amazingly accurate overhead view of all around the car allowing for inch-perfect parking. As an engineer who worked on Virtual Reality a couple of decades previously, I was impressed.
Alas, this outstanding parking aid was essential because driverās visibility from fat B-pillar back was appalling , and when at normal speeds the blind spots behind and to the sides were enormous no matter how I adjusted the mirrors.
Never again. I added it to my long list of French cars to avoid!
Related, but I think the modern-day mobile; the āsmartā phone is a devastating invention. Of course my opinion, but when mobileās started to get really started, say the late 90s, they were great in a means to be able to phone someone, especially if in trouble, and of course text. Now they seem a mass addiction on a scale no one could have envisaged. A pure law of unintended consequences. Without even starting on stuff you read about how they impact childhood, but out driving today, I lost count of how many ādriversā I saw on them. One totally serial situation was, on my route, there were temporary traffic lights. My heart sinks when I see those as they usually result in poor timing causing long tailbacks, but worse the obligatory mobile phones out when waiting. Up behind me comes a guy in his late 30s. Here we go I though, and right on time, out comes the phone, the head up and down, totally oblivious to the world as the traffic starts moving. I detest it and think Iāll get rear ended by some total Muppet like this. Then, the āworksā, needing the temporary lights, was digging. 6 'workāmen were cangoing, stopping after about 5 blasts to check their phones which they held in one hand lol. All of them doing it- quick blast, check the phone, quick blast, check the phone again.
IMO the smart phone is a nightmare invention. Addiction beyond comprehension.
Weāre firmly in āguns donāt kill people, people doā territory here.
Itās not the invention thatās the issue, itās the operators. Personally, I remain grateful they were invented and I can somehow manage to not operate one whilst being in charge of a motor vehicle. As I know many others here are also capable of doing.
I too donāt think the invention in its self is to be blamed but the people using it. Just like with many things in life, overdoing something can cause trouble. Refraining from using them is where the key trouble is. With lack of policing and punishing those who do it, we cannot expect the behaviour to change.
True. But itās more I guess of a universe and everything else discussion. The 'workāmen having to check their phones every 5 or so blasts with a cango. Nothing to do with driving, but a indicative of the mass addiction prevalent in society. Like why canāt someone even use a cango hammer without having to check their phone lol. Childhood impacts you read and hear about. Just a mass societal train wreck invention, imo.
Our ND has been hit twice by people not seeing the small car next to them. I installed a louder horn. Hopefully we get time to use it in future as people tend to change lane whilst turning on their signal. Also both me and my wife have always driven to allow for fools by passing quickly and not being next to someone in a lane approaching decisions.
Still didnāt help the first couple of times. But I imagine that there would have been more times if we didnāt drive like that.
I am constantly aware of the need to avoid blindspots when driving my ND, and i drive in the same fashion as youā¦passing quickly to avoid fools, mobile phone users etc. Having said that, i would rather have the mobile phone user/driver in front of me rather than right up my a*se.
To add this topic, I have only owned this car for two weeks and I am very aware that all my neighbourās cars make it look like a toy.
When I am alongside these SUVs the roof of my car is below their window line and I have to pull out completely blind as it is impossible to see past them. This is also an issue in the multi lane one way system where I live with people switching into my path.
I really donāt understand the need to have a vehicle for a rural farm holder in SW London!
I have a tendency to park with plenty of contingency anywhere I can to avoid door dings and scratches from bags etc
Everyone else parked down by the hedge in the background
Walking up to the village for my Covid jab yesterday I realised Iād picked the wrong time of day.
All the grannies were shooting out of their drives in their gigantic SUVs, probably to collect a youngster from the junior/infant school quarter of a mile away, the other side of the dual carriageway.
My random survey concluded they were all less than five feet tall because all were looking through their steering wheels. Three of the six lived almost next door to each other, maybe one car would have been sufficient for their collections?
However most were driving carefully and were courteous to an elderly pedestrian, waving me across with a smile instead of anxiously watching for a gap in the traffic, four were Asian grannies one Chinese.
However the exception Iāve witnessed from a distance over the years is a classic hard-bitten Londoner with a broad vocabulary to match, and she drives into busy traffic without even looking for a gap, and devil take any pedestrian. Always with a new car; does she write them off? Does she know a car dealer?
Last incident I saw I was amazed the bus managed to stop and not hit her. The driver looked at me, a potential witness and shrugged. Maybe he knew her too.
