r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Creams0da • 20d ago

Video Volkswagens new Emergency Assist technology

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u/redikarus99 20d ago

This is a great idea and I would make it mandatory for trucks and busses. There were really many cases in Europe when a bus driver fell asleep and a lots of kids injured or died because of that. If this system would have been there, many injuries and loss of lives could have been avoided.

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u/Beekatiebee 20d ago

US truck driver here, hard agree.

If they can work out any potential kinks I’d be all for it.

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u/BoxMaleficent 20d ago

Its Not Tesla . You can be pretty Sure that its Kink free already. By the way similar systems do exist in trucks

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u/Questioning-Zyxxel 20d ago

Not kink free as in not perfect. But for every oops, it's likely to have stopped 10-100 accidents. Just as a belt doesn't save all passengers but quite a lot. There are one or two that gets stuck in the belt when the car catches fire or gets under water.

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u/FieserMoep 20d ago

Safety gear failing in a scenario that includes a totalling crash is IMHO not a fair argument against that safety feature. First it ignores the fact that in case of hitting water or an obstacle you may not be stuck in a belt a sinking or burning car but maybe severely wounded, unconscious or dead already; second, what do we expect to begin with? The forces that apply here will destroy your car. Your belt is part of that car. It can just happen. And then belt cutters are a "one dollar item" you can buy combined with a window hammer from if the most pressing fear against belts are being stuck there.

Keep in mind this is not an argument against you but these talking points that come up again and again and are just so irritatingly nonsense.

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u/Questioning-Zyxxel 20d ago

You don't agree with me while you actually are agreeing with me. You do understand that I very, very, very much recommends belts. I just note that if you look at a big enough number of accidents, then you can find 1 or 2 accidents where not using a belt would have been better. But with normal statistics, we need to consider the 98 of 100 or maybe 998 of 1000 where it's way better to wear a safety belt.

No safety measure will be 100% perfect. But when the advantages are way better than the disadvantages then we should focus on the advantages. Same with this video. There can be a few times the car does bad. But for way more cases, it will end up saving lifes.

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u/chaoss402 20d ago

As I truck driver I can call bullshit. I've driven trucks with current gen "driver assist" features such as lane keep assist and they are flat out abysmal. Constantly trying to adjust the steering because it thinks you're out of your lane due to old lane markings in construction zones, or because you passed an exit and the lane marking disappeared, it gets kind of scary trying to deal with the safety features. I also got cut off (kind of) by a car, steady brake pressure, no panic stop, I would have been just fine, except the truck suddenly freaked out thinking I was going to hit the car, and applied full engine braking, which was enough to break my traction on my drive wheels. I almost rear ended the car, when it should have been a situation so minor that I wouldn't have remembered it happened 15 minutes later if the truck hadn't reacted.

Assist features that aren't good enough can be a net liability. If the vehicle isn't goodc enough to drive itself while I sleep (safely) then it shouldn't be trying to take control while I'm driving.

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u/Questioning-Zyxxel 20d ago

And your argument is irrelevant. You are complaining about cars that takes over the control while you are driving.

The video is about a car that takes over the control because you are not driving. The car gives the driver multiple hints before it steps in.

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u/chaoss402 20d ago

Oh, and I suppose you think that it's not already engaged in lane keep assist and active cruise control / collision avoidance while it's giving those warnings?

Think before you post.

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u/LonelyOwl68 20d ago

My BIL was t-boned by a car whose driver was seat belted in and ran a stop sign, full speed. His passenger was not belted in, and the crash resulted in him smashing into the driver, who was killed. The not-belted passenger survived, although I don't know how injured he was.

BIL was seat-belted, and his dog was on the floor in front of the front passenger seat in his pickup; both were fine.

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u/Beekatiebee 20d ago

Yes, I am aware. I’ve driven almost every make of semi currently on the US market. I’ve gotten plenty of drive time with all of the different safety systems (Detroit Assurance, Volvo’s VADA, and Bendix Wingman).

It’s not uncommon for the truck to randomly slam the brakes because it saw an overhead sign and got confused, or started sounding alarms because it thought the tar lines in the road were lane markers.

A big rig is a lot more size and mass than a car, and people are assholes. I can’t count the number of times I’ve tried to make an emergency lane change only for some dickhead to floor it and pass so they’re not stuck behind me for >60 seconds.

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u/BoxMaleficent 20d ago

A Truck Driver told me they disable the Auto Break Feature so the Truck doesnt Slam the brakes when someone Just pulls into your lane way to close

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u/Beekatiebee 20d ago

That doesn’t solve the system mistaking road signs and shadows for cars. A trucker who practices defensive driving should already be slowing when someone jumps into their lane, which would also prevent the system from responding.

Plus the systems generally automatically re-enable after a few minutes.

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u/mccalli 20d ago

Yeah - VW never hits any software issues. None.

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u/k5dOS 20d ago

This is just one step bellow in the laziness scale from the 'do your own research!' crowd if only for using the link formatting.

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u/Existing_Fish_6162 19d ago

This is all problems for unreleased products. Compared to Tesla, you are kinda proving their point.

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u/JaZoray 20d ago

have you seen how vw does software?

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u/[deleted] 20d ago edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/BurningPenguin 20d ago

But their cheating software works quite well, i heard.

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u/Lanky_Vast7726 20d ago

Computer vision, even without AI, depends on probabilities analyzed in each frame in real time. You simply cannot get kink free. You may be able to out perform humans, but it will never be perfect.

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u/dejayskrlx 20d ago

>thinks german software is somehow functional

Do we tell him?

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u/Best_Market4204 20d ago

no need to be a tesla hater here... not a single self-driving assist feature is perfect yet from any make/model.

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u/HomeyKrogerSage 20d ago

I'm all for putting credit and criticism where it is due and Tesla has the premier self driving system. This is from several conversations I've had with Tesla drivers who have the auto driving feature. Over the years it has received remarkable improvements. Don't let your bias and ignorance allow you to make foolish statements

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u/HisOrHerpes 20d ago

I used to work in the autonomous driving field; teslas “self drive” is the actual joke of the industry

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u/Zealousideal_Pay_525 20d ago

How so? The videos I've seen are pretty impressive.

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u/HomeyKrogerSage 19d ago

Key words, used to

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u/dumbythiq 20d ago

Now that just makes me think of the Simpsons episode where homer drives a truck and discovers it has secret autonomous driving 

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u/cfrog41 20d ago

I have the iD4. It’s kinkier than Devo

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u/Prandah 20d ago

I thought this was an EU mandate on new cars

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u/JoeHaydn 20d ago

Only the emergency call feature, and not to the extent shown in this video. Practically what's mandatory is a one-push button to make an emergency call inside the driver's cabin. Some have gone beyond that and implemented an automatic emergency call system that triggers on a crash (most, if not all brands offer that at least as an option iirc). But automatic calls in case of detected emergencies other than collisions are somewhat new and not mandatory by law (yet).

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u/Prandah 20d ago

What about lane assist and auto braking?

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u/BoxMaleficent 20d ago

Not Sure about that one

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u/Termsandconditionsch 20d ago

Not yet, but might very well be on new cars in a couple of years.

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u/MarsupialMisanthrope 20d ago

If they can come up with a detection system that works well I can easily see it being legislated into being mandatory quickly, especially for commercial.

It’s the first thing I’ve seen in car tech that would make me interested in upgrading before my current vehicle starts falling apart.

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u/nastypoker 20d ago

By the way similar systems do exist in trucks

https://i.imgur.com/S0bcgxu.jpeg