Better cars, better drivers?

Better cars make drivers drive better. But that doesn’t mean they become better drivers.

In modern times, cars are thought to be “better” when they have Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD), Traction Control (TC), and God-knows-what acronyms out there. These so-called driver-aids are believed to make driving safer. And so we have this modern generation ticking all the boxes in the options list when purchasing their cars. The more the gadget, the safer they are, they think.

The number of accidents, however, went up from 341,000 to 363,000 within one year (2006 – 2007) according to a recent report by NST:

http://www.nst.com.my/Monday/Frontpage/2125950/Article/index_html

Of course, that’s not the only numbers we want to know. We want to know, what type of drivers (age, gender), what type of cars, what sort of driver-aids are involved in these accidents.

But if I may generalize that the accidents involved modern cars, then why is it that despite cars getting safer to drive, the number of accidents is increasing? I’ll tell you why. You don’t brake any sooner than you should because you rely on your ABS, You brake later than you should because you think your EBD will take care of it. And you don’t take a corner in the right gear because you are banking on your TC to hold the line for you. I'm not saying those electronics don't work. But the fact that you rely on it so much is killing your skills. You have no feel of your stopping power, no sense of how much steering or throttle input you should put in, and definitely not the slightest idea of when the car is going to snap out of line.

The current trend now is to buy cars that will do everything for the driver. Sad. This is the same case as people who would rather listen to bright and un-buffered deafening sound of their iPod because it’s more convenient than switching on amplifiers and ejecting CD drawers just to listen to high fidelity sound.

Another example – take the hand placement on the steering wheel. The greatest drivers in the world all learned to cross their arm when making a turn. But because of the stupid airbag, we have to relearn to place our hands at the outer rim of the steering wheel in order to avoid our arms turn sandwich between the airbag and our face during a collision.

If airbags are really useful, how come they are not in Formula One or Rally cars? Seatbelts are enough.

Go back to basics – learn how to drive. Hone your skill. Buckle up and enjoy the drive.