" Driver Assistance " Technology.

Every new car model that appears on the market is relentlessly configured to deliver what the car industry describes as " driver assistance " technology.  The minor items include windscreen wipers that automatically turn on at the first hint of rain and automatic headlights that replace driver decision making and decide when they are needed.   The major items are automatic braking when the car's  computer senses an obstacle ahead, all manner of stability control to sort our road surfaces and whiz bang electronic navigation devices to get us to our chosen destination.

All this is part of the process of developing a car that will drive itself and such test cars are already undergoing proving drives in many parts of the world.  We may be sharing the road with a car with a human sitting behind the wheel, but the actual operation of the car controlled by sensors linked to an on-board computer.   The media gleefully reported a crash when a Google test car managed to collide with a bus and it seems that technology tasked with automatically handling a passing manoeuvre on a multi lane freeway was only saved from disaster when the human grabbed the wheel.

It seems certain that we will progress to cars that drive themselves without any form of human input - and they are probably a lot closer than we think.  But in the interim the mix of technology between models is delivering the sort of driver confusion that can be fatal.  The days when the basic automobile was something that anybody with a driving license could drive and control are long gone.  Jumping from one model into another can confront a driver with a host of innovations with which they are unfamiliar.

That sort of problem has been with us for a long time.  The fact that the world is divided on whether to drive on the right or the left of the road has delivered uncertainty on whether turn indicators and light control are the reverse of our expectation. Many car models which come converted to  right hand drive mode continue to have the turn indicators configured to the left hand drive mode. A driver unfamiliar with that car can cause confounding signal confusion when encountering city traffic, often with unfortunate results.

We are seeing similar problems in the aircraft industry.  Modern aircraft are fast approaching the ability to fly from one airport to another without human input, but some disastrous crashes have been proven to be confusion between human expectation and what has been programmed into the plane's computer - as a safety measure.   At present, the car industry seems to be somewhere in that same no-mans-land of having a driver behind the wheel and his or her car with a mind of it's own when it comes to safety.

This raises the obvious question of license grading, and that is already in place.  When we go for a driving license we either test in a geared or an automatic car, and we are granted a license accordingly.  The average person acclimatizes to the vehicle they own, but there is danger when they find themselves behind the wheel of an unfamiliar car owned by a friend, or supplied while their own car is being serviced.   Even a small difference - like the traffic signal indicator on the opposite side of the wheel column - can be critical to personal safety.

It seems obvious that as the manufacturers develop the self driving car each new model will include features that require new driving techniques and understanding.   It is highly likely that we will need to upgrade our skills and that someone with just the ability to drive the old clunkers of yesteryear would be very unsafe behind the wheel of what the car industry will see as innovation.

It seems that " safety " is a double edged sword !