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Mods you're wasting money on...

Chogokin

Chogokin

Autocross Champion
Location
So Cal
Car(s)
GTI Sport | Audi A3
These cars seem to drive pretty well stock. Removing the low mileage stock parts...that you paid for and removing them and replacing them with new aftermarket parts seem like a waste of money...but I did do it.

I felt pretty bad taking off my stock suspension for some coilovers after a month. They weren't even dirty! Same with my tail lights. Car was four months old when I took them off. I just got a piggyback for the engine...don't want to risk the engine warranty with a tune. It think that would be the biggest waste if I had to pick up the repair bill for my engine if my warranty was denied because of a flash tune.

Modding a car can be a huge money pit and you'll never recover anywhere near what you spent. I've been there and done that.
 
ElectricEye

ElectricEye

Autocross Newbie
Location
Central NJ
KevinC said:
The human co-driver was clearly not doing her job, and the car apparently SHOULD have been able to at least "see" the jaywalker with its lidar and apply the brakes, but pretty clearly didn't. Looks like there's blame all around here. But the fact that both the car & human attendant didn't perform is quite troubling...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/03/uber-tempe-video/
Click to expand...

I would doubt if the human co drivers job was to be continuously at the ready and expected to jump to alertness in an emergency situation.
 
Strange Mud

Strange Mud

Autocross Champion
Location
Small Town CT
Car(s)
Assorted
serious? If not what was their job?

on the other forum is a interesting discussion about it. I've mentioned how difficult it is to be backup and always ready.....

on topic I agree with these cars seem to do alot right the way they are sold.....although shifter/clutch could use some improvement in my (and others) opinion
 
ElectricEye

ElectricEye

Autocross Newbie
Location
Central NJ
Strange Mud said:
serious? If not what was their job?

on the other forum is a interesting discussion about it. I've mentioned how difficult it is to be backup and always ready.....
Click to expand...

She's there to be in the car, monitor the vehicle, drive it if need be.
They are not sending the car off on its own.
What I'm saying is the human is not there to be hair trigger ready to leap into action.
And this accident illustrates one of the fallacies of self driving cars:
The human seated at the wheel in an autonomous car will never be at the ready in the same way one would be if they were actually piloting the car.
The reaction time just wouldn't be there.
What would be the point of an autonomously driven vehicle anyway, if the human in it was expected to maintain the same level of alertness as one who was actually driving?
You might as well drive.
 
imthanick_a

imthanick_a

Autocross Champion
Location
Ohio
ElectricEye said:
She's there to be in the car, monitor the vehicle, drive it if need be.
They are not sending the car off on its own.
What I'm saying is the human is not there to be hair trigger ready to leap into action.
And this accident illustrates one of the fallacies of self driving cars:
The human seated at the wheel in an autonomous car will never be at the ready in the same way one would be if they were actually piloting the car.
The reaction time just wouldn't be there.
What would be the point of an autonomously driven vehicle anyway, if the human in it was expected to maintain the same level of alertness as one who was actually driving?
You might as well drive.
Click to expand...


I watched the video and she was looking down at her phone or napping using her 8 chins as a pillow or something. While I generally agree the driver will never be as you said, a hair trigger, I think she should have been paying attention a little more than she was. Neglect on her part, as well as a system failure of the autonomous car. This is a strange case, it's hard to determine who is at fault. Glad I'm not a lawyer or on the jury for this one
 
ElectricEye

ElectricEye

Autocross Newbie
Location
Central NJ
imthanick_a said:
I watched the video and she was looking down at her phone or napping using her 8 chins as a pillow or something. While I generally agree the driver will never be as you said, a hair trigger, I think she should have been paying attention a little more than she was. Neglect on her part, as well as a system failure of the autonomous car. This is a strange case, it's hard to determine who is at fault. Glad I'm not a lawyer or on the jury for this one
Click to expand...

I don't know...
I'm not trying to give her a pass, but I don't know what the rules are or were governing a person siting in an autonomous test car.
I'm assuming that it is not to maintain continuous vigilance as a driver would.
I do believe that a driver would have seen the woman with the bike.
We are seeing dashcam footage, and it looks way darker than it should.
I drive my car on some very dark roads, and I see way more than that footage shows.
I also believe that the car failed to do its job, as the woman with the bike didn't leap in front of the car like a deer.
If the car can't detect a human in the roadway and react accordingly, what good is it?
 
cb1111

cb1111

Newbie
Location
Virginia, USA
Wrath And Tears said:
That study is about a company designing a special hood and bumper to help increase pedestrian safety. I get what you mean, but it's legal to drive around without a hood or bumper or doors or windows.

So if you want to link to the US federal or even a state law that says removing engine bay covers is illegal citing pedestrian safety, then I guess you would be right. I found this about pedestrian safety, and all the changes are due to European and Asian guidelines and not US guidelines.

https://www.caranddriver.com/featur...rian-protection-regs-make-cars-fatter-feature

This article then backs that up saying that the US doesn't really care.

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2017/12...designs-for-pedestrians-america-does-nothing/

All the European safety regulations are for low speed impacts, like 5mph. Bumpers have been designed in a fashion to send the pedestrian onto the hood, instead of under or backwards. The bumpers also crumple slightly to help prevent damage to the pedestrian's limbs. Hoods are now softer and crumple easier to help absorb the impact and prevent damage so, like you said underhood clearance is important. That being said older cars were not build with these regulations and had very hard hoods that wouldn't crumple. If you want to talk about new laws and regulations, do it about new cars that were built to conform to those laws and regulations, otherwise it doesn't make much sense.
Click to expand...
European pedestrian safety laws have been in place for many years - they are just getting more stringent again.

My point was that manufacturers do everything for a reason - and that reason may not always be cost-cutting. You may recall the brouhaha here on the MK5 when people were complaining about cost cutting because US models didn't come with the change cubby.

It turned out that the cubby was removed because it didn't comply with occupant protection requirements here in the US. Removing that cubby actually cost VW extra money - they had to redesign brackets and panels to meet the standards.
 
AtlantaDad

AtlantaDad

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Cumming, GA
imthanick_a said:
I watched the video and she was looking down at her phone or napping using her 8 chins as a pillow or something. While I generally agree the driver will never be as you said, a hair trigger, I think she should have been paying attention a little more than she was. Neglect on her part, as well as a system failure of the autonomous car. This is a strange case, it's hard to determine who is at fault. Glad I'm not a lawyer or on the jury for this one
Click to expand...
Wait...that's a woman?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
imthanick_a

imthanick_a

Autocross Champion
Location
Ohio
ElectricEye said:
I don't know...
I'm not trying to give her a pass, but I don't know what the rules are or were governing a person siting in an autonomous test car.
I'm assuming that it is not to maintain continuous vigilance as a driver would.
I do believe that a driver would have seen the woman with the bike.
We are seeing dashcam footage, and it looks way darker than it should.
I drive my car on some very dark roads, and I see way more than that footage shows.
I also believe that the car failed to do its job, as the woman with the bike didn't leap in front of the car like a deer.
If the car can't detect a human in the roadway and react accordingly, what good is it?
Click to expand...

I agree with everything you mentioned. I definitely don't give her a pass, but the designers of the car should have measures in place to keep her focused on the road. I believe Tesla has those features, where if it cant see your eyes it yells at you if you look away for too long or close your eyes.

Well, I will stop derailing the thread now - I'm being a hypocrite as I always call people out for doing it, now look at me :p :rolleyes:
 
ElectricEye

ElectricEye

Autocross Newbie
Location
Central NJ
imthanick_a said:
I agree with everything you mentioned. I definitely don't give her a pass, but the designers of the car should have measures in place to keep her focused on the road. I believe Tesla has those features, where if it cant see your eyes it yells at you if you look away for too long or close your eyes.

Well, I will stop derailing the thread now - I'm being a hypocrite as I always call people out for doing it, now look at me :p :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I'm with you.
And at the risk of further derailment, as a guy who is hugely skeptical about the application of self driving cars:
If we have to still pay that much attention, what's the point?
Might as well drive.
I personally, would never put my full trust in an autonomous system that was not locked into some kind of lane specifically engineered for such a thing.
Some kind of dedicated autonomous HOV lane.
Putting these cars out in the mix of the real world is the wrong way to go.
 
imthanick_a

imthanick_a

Autocross Champion
Location
Ohio
ElectricEye said:
I'm with you.
And at the risk of further derailment, as a guy who is hugely skeptical about the application of self driving cars:
If we have to still pay that much attention, what's the point?
Might as well drive.
I personally, would never put my full trust in an autonomous system that was not locked into some kind of lane specifically engineered for such a thing.
Some kind of dedicated autonomous HOV lane.
Putting these cars out in the mix of the real world is the wrong way to go.
Click to expand...

I like the dedicated lane idea. As of now, its just risk mitigation that we still have to pay attention. As the tech gets better, that will slowly go away
 
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