Are you a responsible driver? Your response most likely will be a “yes.” Yet, the National Safety Board (NTSB) doesn’t think so. According to regularly released stats, most drivers are distracted, which leads to accidents daily. This urges the NTSB to push for more safety features installed in each vehicle.
NTSB is mandating technology to make driving safer – technology features that will make decisions for you. Then who will be to blame when accidents happen?
Decide to drive like an idiot and your car can hijack you!
The NTSB urges the government to “establish performance standards where still needed and mandate that these technologies be included as standard equipment in cars and commercial vehicles alike.” Here they talk about both personal and commercial vehicles. On the one hand, it would be great to have more safety features that could prevent accidents. However, this will make vehicles more expensive and complex.
Technology that will control how we drive.
And we are not talking about more airbags and safety belts. We are talking about technology that will control the driving process. Some of these systems are already available for some luxury vehicles. Most features cost thousands of dollars. If you can afford these tech safety features for your car, they are available. But if you can’t really afford such extras, what do you do?
The money for … more education or technology?
The NTSB claims that thousands of injuries can be prevented if more technology is implemented. They say that people are distracted and fatigued and technology can help. Why then they removed ‘fatigued’ from the “Most wanted” list though? It has been there since 1990. It is great that the government wants to make driving safer and prevent fatalities, but technology is not always the answer.
Technology that will let you drive like a moron.
The agency recommends driver assisting systems like lane departure warning, automatic braking, adaptive cruise control, and collision warning systems. The officials want to totally eliminate distracted driving by implementing technology that will disable cell phones while in the vehicle. The use of cell phones is the main cause of distracted driving and many accidents on the road.
Yet, what do you do if a friend or family calls with an emergency and they can’t reach you? Furthermore, let’s think about commercial truck drivers and their constant need to communicate with dispatchers and customers. They need cell phones all the time in order to keep the American industry running.
Vehicle safety technology is good, but it could be a little too much. Imagine if we have all these safety features in the car … distracted driving won’t be an issue anymore simply because it won’t be driving. It will feel more like being on a train.
Do you want a tech-loaded vehicle that thinks for you?
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