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The trend towards electric handbrakes, rather than retention of manual handbrakes on certain types of new cars.
I'm aware of two minor accidents, which would not have occurred if the blameworthy drivers had the facility of yanking up a traditional handbrake lever in time of need.
I'm aware of two minor accidents which would not have occurred if the blameworthy drivers had the facility of yanking up a traditional handbrake lever in time of need.
Thing is, how many minor accidents/incidents have been prevented by the hill start assistance that electronic handbrakes make possible, and how many cars haven't rolled away because the driver forgot to put the handbrake on or didn't apply it firmly enough?
The trend towards electric handbrakes rather than retention of manual handbrakes on certain types of new cars. I'm aware of two minor accidents which would not have occurred if the blameworthy drivers had the facility of yanking up a traditional handbrake lever in time of need.
You're going to have to provide a bit more detail about those accidents. How would they have been prevented if the drivers had traditional handbrake levers?
I didn't like the electronic brake because at first because I simply wasn't used to it. Now that I've been driving the car for a few years, it really doesn't bother me. It makes hill starts much easier and it's one less thing to worry about if I'm sitting at traffic lights on a slope.
In the very unlikely event that I was to forget to apply the handbrake when leaving the car parked, locking the doors also ensures that it's applied.
A friend of mine won’t have a car with an electric handbrake because he says it takes away the ability to do emergency handbrake turns…!! I’ve asked him when was the last time he had to do an handbrake turn?
As has been said, it took me a short while to get used to the electric handbrake, but now having one I wouldn’t go back to a manual handbrake lever. There are some who love the driving experience and like to be in control of everything in the car, but many also just want to get from A to B and anything which makes that a little easier is a bonus.
You're going to have to provide a bit more detail about those accidents. How would they have been prevented if the drivers had traditional handbrake levers?
I didn't like the electronic brake because at first because I simply wasn't used to it.
Both accidents occurred where their respective drivers were new to the concept of having an electric brake. In the first case the car was being driven along the Edinburgh by-pass in busy traffic and had to pause in a queue of traffic on approach to one of the many roundabouts. Due to a fault with the new car, power was unexpectedly lost and the car rolled back and collided with the car behind. The driver had panicked at the loss of power and she is sure that if there had been a handbrake lever as in all her previous cars she would have instinctively yanked it on quickly enough to prevent any impact with the car behind.
In the other instance a car was being parked in a car park, engine was switched off with electric brake on. Then the electric brake switched itself off and car rolled forward into a low wall in front of it. As in previous case the driver was sure there would have been no impact if the car had a traditional handbrake.
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Thing is, how many minor accidents/incidents have been prevented by the hill start assistance that electronic handbrakes make possible, and how many cars haven't rolled away because the driver forgot to put the handbrake on or didn't apply it firmly enough?
This is a good one. They are good if you are the driver in said vehicle, but not if you are the one in front of said vehicle. Fortunately our car has an auto-dimming rear view mirror, I honestly don’t know how much I’d struggle at night without it.
Electronic handbrakes and touchscreens. The former to me have no benefits over manual ones, only drawbacks, while the latter are as dangerous as mucking with a phone while driving, yet you often have to use them to control things you need to control while driving such as the demister.
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I want to see it made illegal for the sole way to control anything required while driving to be only controllable that way - stuff like the demister is on far too many cars.
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Thing is, how many minor accidents/incidents have been prevented by the hill start assistance that electronic handbrakes make possible, and how many cars haven't rolled away because the driver forgot to put the handbrake on or didn't apply it firmly enough?
Hill start assistance is usually done using the footbrake servo and doesn't involve the handbrake. My old Ford Kuga had a manual handbrake and hill start assist.
You can still forget to apply an electronic handbrake, not all of them apply automatically. And unlike a manual one you can't quickly glance through the window to check it is applied, nor feel down to the handle to feel that it is.
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Auto dim dip should be illegal. When reaching a corner at night, if doing it manually you do it when you see a hint of other lights round the corner, whereas the automatic feature waits until it has headlamps pointing directly at it as otherwise it would be confused by things like street lamps, so you get a momentary blinding. It is also hideously dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists, who it doesn't tend to detect at all.
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I have a relatively new car with electric handbrake, head and tail lights which come on automatically in the dark, parking sensors, ABS etc, and a twenty-odd year old one without any of these. I have to think which I'm in and drive accordingly. One day I may make a mistake and cause an accident but that would be driver error and not directly due to the modern safety features.
Hate ours (VW Golf) with a passion. Give me hard controls that I decide settings manually with, including lights, heating, radio and especially manual full beam dip.
I am already searching for pre-laptop Golfs so that I can be rid of this uncontrollable nightmare.
It was alleged that turning on the windscreen wipers in a Tesla would actually be foul of distracted driving law in some European countries. I can't verify that, but...
Autoo engine off with the tendency to do so just as I am about to pull onto a roundabout, which delays the process for long enough that I miss the gap. I don't object to auto engine off in principle.
Hill start assistance is usually done using the footbrake servo and doesn't involve the handbrake. My old Ford Kuga had a manual handbrake and hill start assist.
Yes, it is possible to do hill start assistance with a manual handbrake, but it's more difficult than with an electric one. Keeping it separate from the foot brake also makes it less likely that an electronic fault renders the vehicle unsafe or unable to be driven.
You can still forget to apply an electronic handbrake, not all of them apply automatically. And unlike a manual one you can't quickly glance through the window to check it is applied, nor feel down to the handle to feel that it is.
While not all apply automatically, I'd be willing to bet that the majority do. True you can't easily confirm visually that it's applied, but if you're feeling down how hard would it be to press/flick the switch again?
While not all apply automatically, I'd be willing to bet that the majority do. True you can't easily confirm visually that it's applied, but if you're feeling down how hard would it be to press/flick the switch again?
On at least one I've driven as a hire car operating the switch again releases it. Stupid design just like opening the door on train toilets if you press the lock button again.
Even so, my habit is to look through the window to check the handbrake is on and the car is in gear after locking but before walking away.
Both accidents occurred where their respective drivers were new to the concept of having an electric brake. In the first case the car was being driven along the Edinburgh by-pass in busy traffic and had to pause in a queue of traffic on approach to one of the many roundabouts. Due to a fault with the new car, power was unexpectedly lost and the car rolled back and collided with the car behind. The driver had panicked at the loss of power and she is sure that if there had been a handbrake lever as in all her previous cars she would have instinctively yanked it on quickly enough to prevent any impact with the car behind.
In the other instance a car was being parked in a car park, engine was switched off with electric brake on. Then the electric brake switched itself off and car rolled forward into a low wall in front of it. As in previous case the driver was sure there would have been no impact if the car had a traditional handbrake.
I am curious who has auto-dip headlights that do not go into fully dipped mode in urban areas. Mine only go back to allowing full beam when there are no street lights. That said we have a lot of roads here where the street lights are turned off and so I tend to turn off auto dip when in the urban confines of Swansea.
Auto-dip does not do much for lorries on the other side of the M4 so I turn it off for that as well. We have some very dark sections with questionable cats eyes, but i don't really want to blind anyone 6 lanes away.
Initially I was nervous driving with auto-dip, but now the car can switch off clusters of LEDs I had it confirmed the system reacts quicker than a human would. A bonus is you still get full lighting of the verge side (useful on a narrow road where it is a hedge/wall on the left)
Thing is, how many minor accidents/incidents have been prevented by the hill start assistance that electronic handbrakes make possible, and how many cars haven't rolled away because the driver forgot to put the handbrake on or didn't apply it firmly enough?
You don't need an electronic handbrake for hill start assistance, my car has a hill start system and a mechanical handbrake which I find works much better than the electronic handbrake with its unpredictable will it/won't it release. I've been in a couple of situations in a car with an electronic handbrake which is parked nose down and it's refused to release then it has released when I've let off the power almost letting the car crash if I hadn't managed to quickly catch it with a manual brake application. I much prefer having a physical handbrake I know has released so I can simply use the car's hill start off the pedal brake which will correctly hold the car in place. Also putting all that aside, electronic parking brakes add a significant amount of complexity to the car and known a number of people who have constant hassles trying to get them fixed even on cars which are generally considered reliable.
That along with the mandatory lane departure warning, auto stop/start, lack of physical controls, speed limit warnings etc. makes it feel oddly better going back to my older car which still has a decent set of features (including the very handy blindside monitoring) plus a manual gearbox which means for the first time a newer car is going to have more downgrades than upgrades.
You don't need an electronic handbrake for hill start assistance, my car has a hill start system and a mechanical handbrake which I find works much better than the electronic handbrake with its unpredictable will it/won't it release.
The decision not to have a spare tyre on board was never an improvement.
I have never had a puncture (across two cars we had five last year) and thought 'what a convenient time for that to happen, I have all the time in the world to use some gunk and wait until the tyre is fixed before I can use the car again'.
An arguable or controversial one could be keyless locks & ignition. Undoubtedly a convenience when entering and starting the car, but inconvenient that I need to store keys in a Faraday Pouch when not in use to hopefully prevent the car from being stolen.
Absolutely. I can see no benefit at all, only disadvantages, aside from a financial saving for the manufacturer which inevitably is not passed onto the customer.
There seems to be more cars now which are equipped with reversing alarms which on one hand could be considered to be a good thing from a safety perspective but as they are not mandatory others may feel that they are more of an irritant than a necessity. The noise can sometimes seem to be excessive and often carries far beyond the potential danger zone to the annoyance of neighbours well removed from the proximity of the vehicle in reversing mode.
I would prefer to not have electric windows. I often find them distracting when they don't do what I want them to, like opening fully instead of just a small amount. Also when parking having to turn the ignition back on when I've forgotten to close them.
