The problem I found with this site (and why I gave up after a few questions) is that it needs an ‘About Average’ response option. I couldn’t answer some of them because neither ‘worse than’ or ‘better than’ felt right.
Yeah, I ran into that too, although in some of those cases, I found that the percentages suggested a pretty even split, which suggested to me that others were in the same situation.
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You’re probably right. This is the first vehicle I’ve had with many “smart” features, and I don’t know the nomenclature. To me, the effect is the same. Whether the median barrier is near because the road is curving sharply or someone pulls in front of me, the vehicle slams on the brakes. I understand this could be collision avoidance in both cases.
What is definitely (I think) the adaptive cruise control is when my vehicle overtakes a vehicle in the same lane. My vehicle will not slow down, as in easing off the gas, until it decides that it needs to slam on the brakes. Since it slams on the brakes in this situation, I extrapolated to the median barrier or car pulling in situation.
That sounds like automatic braking. There usually isn’t a way to turn that off, as it’s a safety feature. I agree it can be abrupt when it kicks in (i.e. it slams the brakes). It usually only works at low speeds (20mph or less, for example).
I often encounter it when the car in front of me turns off the road into a driveway or another road. It will slow down to do that and its backside is sticking out in my road slightly, but it’s not stopped. It’s moving and turning out of the way. I would slow but not brake, but auto-braking will slam on the brakes even though I’m nowhere near clipping the other car. It “sees” the other car even when it’s outside of my lane. Very annoying!
But I have had a few times when cars in front of me stopped unexpectedly and I didn’t realize soon enough, but my car automatically stopped, which saved a potential collision. So it can be useful!
Tee hee! As I said earlier, it’s best to try this “survey” with a glass of wine in hand.
First, it’s a self-selected survey (they did not request you to join it or offer a fee in recompense). So, the “survey” is surveying people with internet connections, people who read sites with recommendations for fun things to do, and people who delight in taking surveys and just happened upon it.
Second, it’s sneaky. It’s not grading you on whether you are above or below average, it’s reporting your and thousands of others opinion of whether you or they thought they were above or below average.
So, it’s showing you how you and a mostly random selection of people feel about yourselves. It is not showing you how you compare to a statistically correct view of the global population.
That said, it is fun to do it (and you should try it again if you blew it off) because you get a faint dopamine rush when you decide that you are above average and another one when you sturdily admit that you’re below average thereby showing your integrity.
Like I said, it’s fun!
Dave
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Couldn’t agree more. The site creates false dichotomies by denying the participant the right to respond, “Pretty much somewhere in the middle, I guess.”
There no modern “feature” in motor vehicles that can’t be disabled by a friendly and willing auto mechanic with a pair of wire cutters.
I purchased a VW Beetle (you know, the one that came after the New Beetle, SMH) ten years ago, and while waiting for the car to be delivered, discovered though online videos that the Beetle came equipped with VW’s “Soundaktor,” a “feature” which makes loud vroom, vroom noises that can be heard inside the care (at least) when the quiet engine and excellent firewall soundproofing would otherwise prevent it. Since I abhor vehicles that are noisier than necessary to alert nearby pedestrians to my proximity, when the call finally came from the dealership that they expected delivery to them in a week or so, I told them, “Great, but I’m not signing anything or paying for it until the Soundaktor is permanently disabled.” They were decent enough to demonstrate that it had been done before I signed the paperwork.
Hmm. I can (and do) turn mine off in my Honda Accord.
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Years ago, my dad created a cartoon character called “Mediocre Man” who was just okay! (“Can leap tall curbs with a single bound!”) He helped me understand that I may be exceptional in a few ways, but I’m certainly below average in others, and just average in most ways. I realize now how shocking a perspective that is, in a culture that seems to say we all have to be great all the time.
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