Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

I resisted for years getting a vehicle with an automatic transmission. Then it was power brakes and steering. And so forth. . . BUT:

High tech has saved my grits a couple of times in the past few weeks.

Cruising down Santa Fe street in Weatherford at about 40 (legal). Some chick in a 'stang convert with a phone in her ear turns left from the oncoming lane right in front of me. . .maybe 20 feet. I jump on the brakes, HARD, and swerve around her without losing directional control or traction. Without ABS I would have skidded right into her and crushed her car. Maybe her, too, because she was not buckled up.

Couple of weeks ago I am coming home from reunion trip to NC. On I-20 going around the south side of Dallas. Four lanes doing between 70 and 80. Rain on a road that hasn't been really wet in a few months. . . slick. Halfway around a gentle curve the person next to me decided she needed to be in my lane and moved over. No brakes this time, just swerve onto the shoulder. The rear end made a twitch, then resumed traction. A triangular amber light with an exclamation point in the center flashed on my dash, advising me that the stability control program had just prevented me from spinning into traffic and making I-20 look like a NASCAR incident.

How many of you have been protected by high tech in your car or hurt by the lack of it when it would have saved your grits?

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

I think ABS probably would have stopped me from wrecking my jeep a couple years ago. The road I was on was very very narrow, with a big ditch right at the edge of the asphalt. When I had to slam on the brakes it veered into the ditch because the right brakes worked better than the left brakes. Oops. :/ Now I limp when I walk. An airbag or two would have been nice over that old GM column...

I'm finally going to order a new Jeep next week, I can't believe how many safety features they have. Basically the whole inside turns into an airbag. I think it even has autopilot. d

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

I have only ever had one occasion when I needed the safety features on my car.

I was driving down a two lane road at about 50 when a young lad ran out from a park and jumped over the safety rail right in front of me, I hit the brakes hard and swerved to miss him, the braking system and traction control on the car took over and brought me to a stop about 20yrds past the lad, had I not been driving the Daimler that boy would have been dead.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

Full time 4maticTC/ABS/BAS/ESP, gotta love it.
The traction control, ABS, braking assist (BA),electronic stability program(ESP) is a lot more sophisticated than those same systems in other manufactures.

I'm really into the active body control where body pitch and roll are done away with, no squat or dip.
I'm also interested in passive sound systems that are incorporated into the vehicles entertaiment/communication equipment. These sound systems produce noise and frequency that cancel out other noise while driving.

I attended a technical seminar with several top engineers from Mercedes Benz. It was explained that the goal was very defined and that technology was going to be taken to those defined limits to simply make all automobiles drive themselves, safely and reliably.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

You got to love ABS in the Vermont winters!! It is nice to maintain control while braking.

The only time I hate it is while towing and trying to stop on a hill.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

For any who don't already know it. My vehicle is a 1999 Mercedes Benz ML430.

The features I refer to are the ones Skinnywater lists, except that the ML has full time AWD, rather than the 4Matic. Might be the same thing with different name.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

I don't like what the technology is doing to the drivers. It is still proven that a skilled, attentive driver in a 'normal' vehicle will still be more safe and be in less accidents than a mediocre inattentive driver with all the safety bells and whistles.

I can think of several instances where ABS was a hinderance and the absence of it would have prevented the resulting "inconveniance". ABS does not shorten stopping distance, especially on ice. What it allows for is additional control when an average driver initiates a full panic stop. Being a winter driver, I see more ABS equiped vehicles in accidents because people think the vehicle stops more quickly or it performs the same in snow than on dry pavement. They don't know that the brakes are just going to modulate the vehicle right into an accident. Same goes with traction assist and all that other stuff. It is all technology that is put into vehicles with the end result of creating lazy drivers. In the end you are still limited to the laws of physics and four contact patches the size of your hand. No amount of technology can make up for that.

The tech I like is how the vehicle protects you when the accident does happen Crumple zones, airbags, seatbelts, all that stuff. Better efficiency, more power, better handling, that is good stuff. Technology that removes the driver from the driving process is only going to lead us to cars that we don't drive at all, we just sit in it and wait until we arrive. If I am going to drive, I want to drive, not have my car make the decisions for me.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

I have to agree with Jason on some of the points. The new cars do take the skill of driving out of driving.I think one of the problems with technology ,people get to feel an false sense of safety.For exsample a little off the subject :some one buys a boat that is more than capable of handling the waters it is in.So the operater takes her out thinking hes safe and get cought in some bad weather and does not know what to do.He now has put himself and his family at risk.I see people putting themselves and others at risk every day like this relying on the car/truck" ABS,airbags" to save them if things go wrong.People who know how to drive dont get themselves into the situation in the first place and will never need these saftey features.

Now saying that have you driven a 20 year old car latey and a new one with all the bells and wistles.The new cars/trucks are ten times nicer to drive than the older ones ever were.
pj

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

Well, I disagree with both of you.

Even an attentive and expert driver is safer when (s)he has ABS, ESP, BAS, etc. Most of those features appeared first on F1 racecars, driven by the best drivers on the planet. Most were subsequently banned.

The notion that those features make drivers lazy and inattentive is just so much mythology. The same was said about safety glass when it first appeared in autos in the early 30s.

Safe driving takes place mostly in the driver's head, but that driver cannot, as in the two cases I told about, control what other drivers do. Knowing that I have those features makes no change in the way I drive, but they kept me out of a couple of accidents caused by others' errors.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

Might be a bit off topic but will add to the list of things to think about, especially with ABS.I drive about 2500 to 3000 miles a week, been doing it for more years than I care to remember. Some of the times I am at grossing 80000 thousand pounds in the trailers, yes plural, sometimes triples.

In the old days we would have to be thinking which ditch we would rather go into on ice and snow packed roads, now it is have I got enough room to stop for the driving conditions. Takes a lot off of your mind.Only the dumb ones tailgate.

I remember coming out of Chicago it was Jan of 1992, coming back to St. Louis, everything going as expected until I ran into an icy patch on interstate I-55 at Maryville Ill. About forty miles north of St.Louis, I came around this curve and came upon this four wheeler doing donuts in front of me, I was looking down into the rear windowand I could see this baby strapped into a car seat looking at me thru the rear window.

Needless to say I took the right shoulder, thinking back I believe with modern day trucks I could have avoided taking the ditch, especially if I had ABS brakes on both the tractor, and the trailer, I was only running singles at the time.

Another time coming out of Albuquerque NM going to Oklahoma City on I-40 with a set of empty doubles, ran into a little ice at Klines Corner NM, seen a sign that said watch out for gusty winds right before I came upon this bridge, yes you guessed it no amount of technology would have helped me there, ended up spun out and facing Albuquerque, in the medium. At least I was out of harms way until the wrecker came and pulled me out.

In retrospect I shouldn’t have been on the road with empties, should have pulled off the road until the state came along with the salt shakers, nothing high tech about that entirely my fault.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

JB
Im not saying these features dont save lives.
Let me put it this way.You are driving your car and you have to do an emergency stop.In your car you would apply your brakes and keep applying them and the ABS does its job by applying and releasing the brake pressure to keep you from locking up the tires.
Now with an non ABS system how would you stop that car in the same distance?
The air bag can do more damage to the person in low speed accident than good.Ask any ambulance driver.
What about the seat belt.Car manufactures didnt want to put them in there cars becouse thay thought people would think there cars were unsafe.
I gess when i think of knowing how to drive comes from a friends dad who was a truck driver for most of his life.He told his son "who was becoming a truck driver"dont even think you know how to drive ontill he had driven an 1 000 000 miles and not even have to spike the brakes or swerved around something in a panic in that time.
pj

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

I agree that newer designs have much improved the ride and handling of later model vehicles through newer technologies.Now if law enforcement with the help of legislation can see clear of dampering the other higher technologies such as cell phones ,video screens etc;while driving,perhaps many other mishaps could be mitigated.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

You are driving your car and you have to do an emergency stop.In your car you would apply your brakes and keep applying them and the ABS does its job by applying and releasing the brake pressure to keep you from locking up the tires.
Now with an non ABS system how would you stop that car in the same distance?
The air bag can do more damage to the person in low speed accident than good.Ask any ambulance driver.

Click to expand...

The braking assist system (BAS) on JB's Benz applies just the right amount of braking force under panic stop conditions. It was designed to address your example.
And again the parameters of theses systems on his Benz are a lot more sophisticated than the ones on most manufactures. Airbag deployments are multi staged according to collision intensity. And the very latest system adjusts the multi staged deployment to the wieght of the occupant of that seating position.

except that the ML has full time AWD, rather than the 4Matic. Might be the same thing with different name.

Click to expand...

Your ML pioneered electronically controlled automatic
AWD (4matic as it is known today).

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

The most interesting part of AWD is that is was invented by Porsche way back in 1900. Each wheel had its own electric motor and the engine simply ran a generator to supply the power.

Daimler Benz started building AWD in 1903, any many of the models they produced had four wheel steering, such as this 1926 G5 which also had three locking differentials...

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

Daimler and Benz did not become one company until June 29, 1926 when the Mercedes Company (as Daimler was known then) was amalgamated with Benz.

The G5 shown was a Mercedes, not a Mercedes Benz. It was designed by Ferdinand Porshe, who was Mercedes Chief Engineer at the time. He "joined" Mercedes in 1923, when they acquired Austro-Daimler.

I would like to know more about the 1903 Porsche designed AWD vehicle. It was neither Mercedes (Daimler) nor Benz, but certainly an important milestone.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

You're correct on the DB history (except I think Daimler was known as DMG, not Mercedes Company), I did not mean to imply that it was one thing or the other but was only referencing the contemporary company that built it, but anyway, you got the obvious link between the two (Porsche). I managed to find a couple of pictures of Porsche's AWD (below). Porsche was improving on the current electric cars of the time (yes, believe it or not, in 1899 and 1900 more electric cars - many that were hybrids - were purchased in America than any other type of vehicle) . Most people think electric cars and hybrids are new technology but in fact the first electric vehicles were being built in the mid-1830's in Scotland. Not until 20 years after Plant&eacute invented secondary cells (rechargability) did any become commercially available (~1880) Anyway, Porsche joined Jacob Lohner and Co. (Austrian truck manufacturer) in 1898 and subsequently designed the car at the age of 25. That's all I know about it, but many of the electric cars sold between 1890 and 1910 incorporated both the hybrid design, the AWD, and many also had power steering!<p>

<img src="http://4x4abc.com/4WD101/img/lohner.jpeg" /> <p>
<img src="http://www.hybrid-vehicle.org/images/Raching-Lohner-Porche.jpg"/>

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

I just realized I may not have answered your question. This first 1903 DMG AWD would have probably been designed by Maybach, athough I do not know for sure. If you're really up on your MB history you'll remember that in the early 1900's Maybach was very busy trying to keep up with the demands of Jellinek and I don't know if he was working on their commercial vehicles at that time or not. I did some research and found out that although the work at DMG dates back to 1903, their first produced vehicle was 4 years later in 1907 and was called the Dernburg Wagen. For the first time it united in one car a gas engine, all-wheel-drive and all-wheel steering. It lacked performance due to the fact that the engine had to move its 3.6 tons with only 38 BHP! Its was primarily used by the police of the then German protectorate of Southwest Africa.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

Thanks, bjcsc.

I knew about the collaboration of Gottleib Daimler and Maybach on the cars for Jellinek, but didn't know much about Ferdinand Porsche's work before joining Austro-Daimler. DMG and Austro-Daimler were different companies until DMG acquired A-D in 1923.

Scott Moncrief, in "The Three Pointed Star" refers to DMG as "the Mercedes Company" after the first car for Jellinek was dubbed "Mercedes" for Jellineks daughter. Though it is thought to be a Maybach design, he claims Maybach only refined a design by Daimler's son. I think the first Mercedes introduced more technology still in use in automobiles than any single model since.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

That's neat, each wheel with it's own electric motor, and the engine to produce the juice? That's like a train, that's cool. Way cool.

Very cool.

Re: Why I am a big fan of high automotive tech.

JB said:

I think the first Mercedes introduced more technology still in use in automobiles than any single model since.

Click to expand...

No doubt, not to mention they were the first company to crash test vehicles and were doing it before it was even required, airbags, first diesel passenger car, the list is lengthy. IMO, most of the best cars ever built were MBs. Here's a pic of mine during a cool sunset last year, fitting your sig. Both are 82's, the black one is a 240D stick and the brown a 300CD.