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A big red button which when hit,
will cause the car to
automatically brake to a stop in
the shortest possible time safely
(a computer may be able to
determine the optimal ABS rate
etc). A smaller green button to
override this mode to resume to
manual braking.
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Annotation:
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The centre pedal does this on my car. Press it as hard as possible; ABS does the rest. |
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And does the same computer determine the optimal travelling speed when you press the green button? I agree with angel, the centre pedal wins, feet down. What makes you think you could react faster with your hand to hit a big red button (what about colour-blind folks?) than with your feet to press the brake pedal? And what about those "drivers" who insist on holding their morning coffee in one hand while pressing the cellphone to their ear with the other hand, how quickly could they hit the button? No, _dragonfly_, this idea is not worthy of pastry. Here's the fishbone - |
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Points noted, angel and Canuck,
but... |
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A front seat passenger can hit
the big red button too.
(instead of shouting "Watch
out!", the passenger can have
better control of his destiny) |
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I think some paniced drivers
step hard on the accelerator
instead of the brake. |
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Peace of mind for parents who
are letting their newbie young
adult children take over the
wheel after just getting their
license. |
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It seems that the reaction time
for hand is faster than the
feet in a seated position.
hmm... need to convince a few
people to play a game of snap
with feet versus hand to verify
that... |
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The bigger button is the "dead
stop", which is also green in
color. (also the big red button
should be easier to reach and
hit than the smaller green button).
The green button merely cancels
the "dead stop" order. |
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The red button is like a macro,
it tells the car to "do
whatever it takes to stop
safely immediately", which the
computer can do things like:
regressively drop to lower gear
and use engine brake + apply
maximum brake, but not neck
breaking etc decisions which
the computer should be able to
perform faster than the speed
of human thought and reaction... |
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1) If a passenger cannot trust the driver, he shouldn't get in the car. Having two people controlling the same car is a recipe for disaster, and if any passenger of mine expressed a desire to have such a device, he should expect to walk home.
2) The accelerator is the one on the right, the brake is in the centre (or on the left). This is fairly basic stuff as far as driving skills go. If a driver is inclined to get the pedals confused, he really shouldn't be driving.
3) Likewise for children; try a few more lessons, with a qualified instructor.
4) Hands are doing other things, and the range of places they can go is far greater than for feet.
"Whatever it takes to stop safely" is exactly what "stamping hard on the brake pedal" does in ABS-equipped cars. |
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Nope - I'll hit the big middle pedal
quicker than I'll hit a big red
button on the dashboard. Why?
Because I do it instinctively. In an
emergency I'll brake hard before
I've even consciously noticed why
I'm doing it. Your big red button
will be used rarely and so is
something which I'll need my
conscious mind for ("Hmm, a
pedestrian is in front of my car -
I'd better hit that button"). It's like
Cruise Control - I almost never use
it, so I have to concentrate on
what I'm doing when I do use it. |
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Your big red button control is yielded to the driver of another car that is closest to you and her button control is yielded to you? |
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Might as well make it truly interesting. |
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I don't know the first thing about driving a car, but you have the Monkey's guarantee that as he hurtles towards the edge of a cliff at 80mph, the last thing on his mind will be to press a big red button. One e-fishbone. |
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I can just see my mother (who has a habit of setting my wipers to high when I prefer low, reaching over and flashing my brights at oncoming traffic, twiddling with the air conditioner, etc...) reaching over and slapping this button the next time some yahoo in front of me steps on his brakes a little too hard. She's already been scolded by me for trying this with the hand-brake, but fortunately my handbrake cable is so stretched, it didn't do much more than slow us down a bit. My situation may be a bit unusual, but I'd imagine this big red button would cause far more accidents (the guy behind you running into your suddenly stopped car) than it would prevent. |
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You need a big red "mother-into-the-backseat" button. |
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-reensure, now that I've got so many fishbones, there's plenty of fishbone diagrams to make.
Thanks for all feedback.
So I gather it's not wise for such button system because:
1. The driver loses total command of the vehicle.
2. Much less intuitive to use than brake padel. |
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OK, the question now becomes:
Is there a need for computer aided E-braking in the first place? |
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I mean, suppose if the big brake padel has the computer E-brake button feature, but is triggerred when the driver jams the brake (at some statistically determined critical force applied to the pedal). Would that be better? (the green button feature may similarly be triggered when the force on the brake padel is, say, zero Newton?) |
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-hippo mentioned about the Cruise Control being a white elephant. How many of you car buyers think that you should not pay for this feature and scrap it altogether? |
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I think that most car manufacturer are perpetually trying to improve on the car, I mean like tweak it better (not revamp).
Since they have allocated funds to do R&D on this, what do you think needs to be improved? I mean it can be like removing some feature that you never use or gripes about something that is lacking, although you may not have a suggestion to improve on it (if you have a solution, I think you'd probably posted in Halfbakery. Hmm... maybe we can have a gripe section in Halfbakery, but let others offer their solutions).
I wonder how the R&D folks knows what to R&D on. Do they ever ask you (car owners) for feedback? |
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This reminds me of when I was
learning to drive. I thought my
mother was groovin to the tunes,
until I realized she was pounding
the floor boards with her right foot
even after I turned off the
radio.
We need a placebo
brake pedal for passenger seat
drivers. Maybe coupled with the
kind of seat-motion controllers in
virtual thrill rides that emulate G-
forces, so mum thinks she's
actually slowing things down and
calms herself a bit.
I
don't know how they do it in other
countries, but here in the U S of A,
the sole aim of automotive R&D is
to sell more cars, and they employ
more market research people than
ergonomic design engineers. |
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The sole aim of any commercial R&D effort is, unsurprisingly, to sell more of whatever it is they sell and marketing usually represents a large percentage of any successful corporation's workforce. In fact, outside of academic or pure research institutions, I would be surprised if any R&D division staff or budget exceeds the marketing arm. |
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With maybe one exception. |
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[_dragonfly_] I use cruise control a lot. I use it on city streets and arterials where the speed limit is very low, like 25 or 30 and the streets are speed trap havens. |
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If I didn't have cruise control, I would have a lot of tickets by now. |
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Any product marketing/ R&D folks around to comment? |
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At least bristolz finds Cruise Control useful. I was thinking, about the gripe section in Halfbakery should also have the voting system to find out how many people find that the gripe is relevant or otherwise. (at the same time, improvement can also be separately posted, or just annotate). |
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BTW, please continue to add fishbone to the original idea of E-brake button if you think it's not workable. I think it's very interesting to get the most fishbone award if I can, for then more folks might be curious to read what you guys think. |
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Let's say it again. Your 'computer-aided E-braking' (assuming that means 'emergency braking') already exists; it's called ABS. Pressing hard on the brake pedal results in maximum braking. The ABS system detects imminent wheel-locking and momentarily releases the errant brake, independently of the others, until the locking condition no longer applies.
[Freefall], I suggest you hand-cuff your mother to the rear head restraint next time she gets in your car. Or put her behind the dog-guard. |
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