Hmmm....
another example of the "dumbing down of a nation"?
Well... perhaps not....
BMW (and competitors), know that the hapy-go-suie-army of attorneys in the US would love for them to be able to blame the manufacturer because they "should have known" that the barely capable American driver [who is given a driver's license without a true test of capability to operate an ever increasingly sophisticated machine]... is really incapable to actually operate it properly, let alone take advantage of their technology...
For example....
pistonheads.com
Personally....
I like cars that I do the driving instead of a machine...
meaning... for example
The "launch control" developed in F-1 to somehow "tame" the beastly 950 plus HP of the F-1 beasts on a standing still start is designed (and almost necessary) so as to avoid the excessive "rubber burning" that the racing clutches force you to do... instead, a computer takes over and you see in every F-1 start today there is no rubber burning (so popular in the heydays of F-1 racing of the 70's where it required a great finesse and skill to start these monsters giving them just the right amount of throttle (about 9,500 RPM in a Formula Atlantic), and then literarily "drop the clutch" hoping that a) you would not over-spin the tires and b) you would not stall the machine....
This launch control has to be switched-off for the rest of the race so it does not interfere with one's ability to corner properly without a machine's interference...
In all honestly, I am no longer familiar with the latest gadgetry and tremendous amounts of electronics that go into today's F-1's (the FIA Supremo Max Mosley have now verboten all these new gadgetry for the 2004 season) so it is good riddance...!
In any case.... excessive electronic gadgetry into cars take a little of the fun of what the fast cars were designed to do and that is ... to drive them....
When it comes to all the added stuff... such as GPS, Maps, directions, to me it is all rubbish... I just want a fast and raw car to drive and yes, it requires some skill and basic knowledge of what one's car is capable of doing... but that is part of the fun of driving a wild beast.
An example of this ....
The 911 turbo is 4 wheel drive.... yes, it is great safety feature, particularly in the rain.... but it is no fun... and it is heavier because you have all that extra weight to deal with...
the 911 GT-2 is only two-wheel drive.... so be prepared, the factory settings favor an understeer condition, particularly on slower corners... BUT one can change such settings (it has 4 adjustments in the front anti-roll bar and 3 in the rear)
Soooo.... the point is...
I prefer to drive the cars and not the machines driving me.... yes, it is entertaining and all that.... but... I suppose when it comes to driving car, I am still a cave man -ggg
Then when you input the possibility that there will be an army of lawyers ready to sue based on the fact that ...
Ms. Mimi or Mr. Goofy could not figure out the settings of his/her iDrive BMW and he....idrove himself into the post lamp.... LOL !!
I would say that the car manufacturers better think it over...
the "should have known" thing could bite them in the arse....
I mean... I am waiting for a lawyer to figure out that either the government is negligent for imposing a low speed limit for these new super-cars (given the capabilities of the machines,,,) causing the drivers to go numb and fall asleep.... -ggg-
OR...
Sue the manufacturers for producing cars that are capable of going nearly at three times the speed limit (certainly twice).... creating the possibility for a million morons to break their neck for being incapable of handling these machines....
In the bizarro world we now live in.... anything is possible...
More details about iDrive....
popsci.com |
