I don’t think the car was actually driving at 110mph down Southend Seafront, more a case that the car interpreted the speed limit as being 110, and attempted to accelerate. Getting to 110mph on the 'front suggests a car capable of low 10s on the quarter mile, ie no way in a base spec X5 SUV.
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lol yeah but it got a good NCAP 
Does anyone have a good idea of the difference between the EDR (electronic drive recorder?) and black-box?
Just reading this thread (particularly the cruise control bit) makes me wonder if I should not put the front headlights on automatic mode. Can you imagine the computer changing the setting mid-bend on a dark country road?
Thanks.
EDR is recording data like a dashcam would but it is not sent to anyone - it is capable of being downloaded by the police if they have need of the information following an accident.
Black Box is generally what the insurance industry asks for - it sends various driving data to your insurance company so you can be rewarded or punished for your driving standard.
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Thanks for that; so why have they decided to put black boxes into cars from summer 2024 when the EDR gave the most important information in the event of a serious crash/incident?
I think the media have decided to call everything a black box.
I have read about black boxes being fitted from July 2024 - but when you read the description in the article - they are talking about the EDR now being a mandatory fitment rather than optional.
I am not hot on the amount of new tech in cars these days. It gives drivers a false sense of security and this in turn reduces their attention. In my daily driving I see countless people looking down at their laps, cars merging on motorways without looking at their blind spot, lack of any logical usage of indicators.
Knowing the speed limit and being made aware when above it is good, but being more attentive and putting your darn phone away will decrease accidents by signifficantly more.
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I wonder if there is a database of cars with and without an EDR.
EDR have been fitted to cars for at least 3 decades
Beginning in the late 90s light vehicle manufacturers included electronic data recorders (EDR) in most vehicles; they are commonly referred to as ‘Black Boxes’. Despite alerts and warnings in their vehicle owner’s manual, many drivers are not aware of their vehicle’s recording capability
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Yes very interesting. Most drivers I guess would indeed be unaware. Which is why I was suprised at the media highlighting these black-boxes as mandatory from summer 2024 when in actual fact nearly all modern cars have these systems already installed. The most important part at least.
Call me old fashioned but I like using the pedal on the right to modulate speed and the one in the middle if I need to shed some quickly. So much of the technology that’s being added to cars is just not neccesary in my opinion, mostly solving problems that I didn’t consider to be much of a problem.
Things like automatic headlights, wipers etc are genuinely useful and simple additions (but even those are a nicety and not really needed). I find things like keyless entry, lane assist, blind spot detection, brake radar, stop/start etc are just unwanted extra tech (for me) that adds more to the cost and higher potential for faults or theft.
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Lane Assist/Blind Spot Detection/ Brake Radar you can put in the same bucket where you find disc brakes, anti-lock braking, traction control, electric handbrakes, airbags, seat belts, radial tyres, crumple zones, laminated glass etc. Some people complained when ABS came along, because drivers didn’t need to know how to brake properly. But on the otherhand, imagine returning to a world where none of this existed, but at today’s traffic densities. It would be somewhat like Delhi, circa 1995. Utter carnage.
Keyless entry; what people want. For 25 years, I have seen forum and the “list” posts on fitting a 2-door MX5 with central locking, how to fix a 2- door MX5 with central locking, how to add keyless entry to a 2-door MX5 with central locking, how to fix keyless entry on a 2-door MX5 etc.
The EU regulation on car cybersecurity should address car makers’ cynical attempts to gain market share through addition of convenience features. The 2024 MX5, which is more or less the same as the 2015 MX5, is fully compliant; Mazda has included cybersecurity in their design, in their involvement with suppliers (important, because virtually all the coding is subcontracted out). Porsche, on the other hand, with their 2024 Boxster, which is more or less the same as the 2016 model, is not compliant, and has now taken the model off the European and UK markets. Does that mean Porsche, who provide engineering and consulting services across many industry verticals, as well as making cars, knew less about cybersecurity in 2016 than Mazda in 2014? Probably not the case. Its more likely they didn’t think it all that important, same as JLR and others. Leaving it to the market wasn’t working.
Stop/start goes in the same bucket marked “environment”, where you will also find catalytic converters, EGR, electronic metered fuel injection etc. None of that personally benefits you, but it (hopefully) benefits other people. Imagine a world without none of that, but today’s traffic densities. Once again, India circa 1995.
Hi,
Thing with a lot of that though, is I kind of do know what ‘life would be like without it’- as I kind of don’t have it.
My ND has no blind sport of lane assist, no stop start, no elec handbrake, and (touch wood), I’ve never seen my ABS or traction control light ever displayed (again, touh wood). So I think the point some posters are making is whether they actually work and do what they are intended to do. ABS and traction in the background, not coming on unless it was an emergency, ditto a seat belt, is very different to, say, lane keep assist or something which on many a forum complain it sometimes wants to finish them off. I mean, there must be some reason why some users call this land kill assist lol
Ditto with that one which users say can slam on the anchors doing an emergency stop when it’s not needed. I was in a relative’s car just before xmas before last and I was in the passenger seat when his Leon slammed on the brakes going around a corner and another car was fairly close. I recall being jerked and going ‘what the ****’ and I thought he’d crashed. It felt dangerous. I’ve done the corner for 10 years prior in a multitude of cars without the ‘brake asst’ thing and nothing like tat had ever occurred. It was scary.
Is this stuff brought in also due to zillions of phone zombies on their phone when ‘driving’?
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Safety equipment is brought in to reduce injuries, and lessen the burden on society. Emissions controls are brought in to improve the health of the enironment.
When seatbelt laws were debated, there were opponants who argued seatbelts hindered the driver, and made driving less safe.
Some still think cadence braking is better than any ABS system.
Some people like to disable their traction control everytime they go for a drive. They don’t have a logical reason for it. I triggered by TC on the Jag yesterday at Tesco; greasy exit.
Complainers complain. Anyone going to praise lane keep assist when they nodded off?
Yes, there are zombie drivers. They use cruise control a lot.
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ABS and Smart City Stop are the only items I regard as essential on a modern car. TC is useful but not essential.
I paid £800 extra for the ABS on my new Astra in 1994. In the 205,000miles it kicked in four times, once when I tested it to see what it might be like. It paid for itself each time in three subsequent events.
The first time it paid for itself by allowing me to steer accurately into a narrow side road while braking on gravel to avoid a skip-lorry coming into my lane.
The second time it paid for itself was on black sheet ice approaching work, and I was already tiptoeing at 5-10mph approaching the top of the T junction where I had to turn onto the left arm. The Mercedes coming the other way from the right arm of the T noticed the cadence on my wheels and gave me a big grin and thumbs up. In my mirror was my IT manager approaching at speed. I managed to turn while his Sierra went straight on and ended nose down in the ditch. I met our HSM while parking and he soon had the tractor out to extricate the Sierra.
The third time it paid for itself was on my way home on the M25 down the hill from Reigate in the rain when only a couple of cars in front of me three trucks jack-knifed, blocking everything; instant red-lights and hazards everywhere. Amazingly no vehicle touched any other, and within a couple of minutes everyone was able to say “Phew, I’m still alive” and we all moved off again.
Now if my Niseko had the safety aid of “Smart City Stop” I’d probably still be driving it. As it was a VW undertook me on the left when I was turning right on the roundabout, cut close in front of me on our exit and then immediately brake-tested me. I failed the test because he was too close. Dashcam reckoned I hit it at about 10mph, but the airbags etc went off and therefore wrote off the Niseko even though I could drive it home.
Yes, that’s another one I don’t need. I’ve got that on all 4 cars in the household and have never used it once on any of them.
Blind spot assist is useful in the RF. Over my right shoulder the metal roof/rear side-pillar gets in the way and I cannot see anything. Still the technology is only a useful addition to the existing manual checks you have to make. I find the blind-spot assist only sees the coming car when it is really close to you and not far enough away…and the way people drive nowadays just zooming past you best not to rely on it completely.
Yeah there is more to go wrong nowadays. The start/stop is awful. Luckily mine does not have it. The keyless another disgrace (check relay theft).
Even automatic lights. Why? What if there is a malfunction mid-way through a corner in a dark unlit country lane. Or even an automatic adjustment of the light setting. That would be more than enough to put-me off.
The whole point of a car is being in control of it. That is the feeling of being alert, on your senses and challenging yourself. It makes you concentrate and focus and learn. If everything will be done for us then what is the point?
What is this talk of Mazda cybersecurity being good? It is still a keyless entry car at the end of the day.
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If everything will be done for us then what is the point?
You will get from A to B in one piece. The slippery slide started in 1910, when Delco invented the distributor, depriving the driver of the pleasure of advancing timing from the cockpit.
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That said, I’m rubbish at spacial awareness and love all the cameras I can have.
The blind spot monitoring I’ve got on one car is something which I wouldn’t mind on all of them as well.
Yeah I do like the blind-spot assistance/monitoring. Not sure if you have seen the Honda E; that has cameras for the wing-mirrors and it relays the images in real-time on LCD screens on the front of the interior dashboard. It is quite impressive actually.
Still you wonder with all those screens and cameras it is using the battery a lot and there are a lot of complex parts that could go wrong.
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