-
It’s Coming…Probably Sooner Than Later
-
The Corvette is pure however to the extent is has no features such as lane change alert, adaptive cruise control, self parking, etc.
I’ll predict those features will become available on the C8 Corvette. I’ll admit that one feature I wish was available on my C7 is blind spot monitoring.
-
The current Corvette is my last because the next generation is only available with an automatic transmission.
-
And, it begins. Driver-less trucks are already on the Florida Turnpike.
Note: This is from the Orlando Sentinel and like most newspapers, ads precede the content.
-
This is an interesting piece from ABC News. Towards the end of the article a “possible explanation” for the accident is given.
While the NTSB report came out recently, the accident apparently happened some time ago.
-
Ok here’s 2 cents from a California tech geek.
I have logged 1000 hrs in my own LearJet mostly on autopilot and 55,000 miles in my Tesla mostly on autopilot.
The benefit in both cases is very similar. Having a vehicle that is intelligent enough to handle the baseline activity allows the pilot to be more aware of the tertiary activities. For example when the Tesla is on auto pilot I can be looking further down the road and from side to side noticing any situations that might require my attention. The Tesla also has many more sensor and detection points than I do with just my two eyes.
My opinion on adding this type of technology to cars, trucks, and RVs is that it is a wonderful tool do you have at your fingertips.
BTW … I will soon have parking lot drop off and pick up added to my tesla…For all you old farts that are afraid of technology this means that my car will drop me off at the front door of the grocery store, then go park it’s self, then pick me back up when I summons it.
best
T.
-
Hi Todd,
Old Fart here.
You mean you got a Lear and you still go to the grocery store?
We old Farts just send our people to the store.
I never seen La Mirage spelled with and A, I thinks its Le Mirage.
That wasn’t you sleeping in the Telsa on the freeway was it? They showed him on the news last week.
Later
bv
-
Todd,
If you are talking about drivers and pilots that earned their stripes via experience and actually possess the needed skills I will fully agree subject to your acknowledgment that the experienced pilot / driver is in fact letting the equipment doing the mundane tasks while the driver / pilot is staying on top of unfolding situations. If the autopilot or cruise control is so the steering wheel holder can play with his smart phone I completely disagree.
But we know from airline experience the pilots who were brought up pushing buttons need that equipment now to save their asses. They lost first positional awareness skills when they started flying the magenta line on their GPS and then the hands on skills that were made unnecessary by a panel of buttons.
As cars, our coaches, and all sorts of other vehicles eliminate the need for skills we are going to see the loss of basic skills and when the equipment quits bad things are going to happen. We already know Boeing has a fleet of 737 planes designed to do for the pilots what they should be capable of doing for themselves, but apparently aren’t skilled enough to deal with stalls so Boeing’s planes will do it for them.
Jeff and Lindsay
91 Marathon XL -
LOL Bernie, well said. I guess when things are so automated maybe the only thing left is in a hammock standing up! I can’t think of anything we do that doesn’t get better with repetition and is certainly true of driving. I understand technology and think much of it is just great. But I for one would like to know a person knows how to drive with years of different driving conditions. Instead of jumping behind the wheel and say “Drive on Cheevs!
Harry
-
Well, glad to know a few old farts agree… technology should be used as a tool not a substitute for training, skill, or experience. I’m sure it does allow some unskilled operators to get into trouble, but I don’t think that should be a reason to resist implementing improvements.
best
T.
-
But if we old farts embrace technology and fail to retain our skills via constant practice then we are no different than those who never had to possess the skills because they always had the technology.
I have some flying skills and some driving skills and I have had to constantly work to feel comfortable knowing I was retaining them, A lot of pilots were all over me for always hand flying approaches. The BS I heard was the autopilot could do a better and more precise job of flying difficult approaches so for me to know how to operate it and get the most out of it I had to constantly practice using it. That was why I was supposed to use the AP.
But when I was dealing with approaches to minimums in snow squalls that often dropped visability to zero, and the wind was howling out of the north west while landing on a snow and ice covered runway pointing southwest and the turbulence was so bad my eyeballs were shaking so much I could barely make out the needles, that was not when I wanted to find the autopilot was going to take a break, so I hand flew knowing I was not ever going to rely on it no matter how bad the weather.
My point is I had the equipment, but only ever wanted to rely on it when I needed all the help I could get such as one time with a partial engine failure immediately after executing a missed approach. That was when me and the plane equipment were working together, prepared to bust minimums if necessary to get it on the ground.
How do we know we still retain the required skills if we aren’t exercising those skills?
-
This video is from last week’s Caravan Salon show in Germany. This is Europe’s largest RV show and can be compared to Tampa’s RV Super Show. Simply stated, it’s coming…
-
Hey Andy, It looks like something for a Prius owner to me.
-
Hey Jon, thanks for the well written response. I guess the answer to your final question is that we must keep our skills sharp even know the majority of the time many of them aren’t required. I guess I better get out my road atlas once in a while.
BTW habits are hard to break…although we switched over to electronic tablets we continued to carry paper copy’s of approach plates for 10 years.
-
Todd, I flew for 35 years, am an ATP but never flew for pay. I flew mostly out of the snow belt in western NY in the lee of Lake Erie, one of the greatest ice producers in the nation. And I was a chicken, always afraid my AP was going to quit when I needed it most so my practice was to hand fly ascents, descents and approaches.
I used my AP on approaches 3 times in IFR. I mentioned the one time when my engine was running rough, and two other times just because someone I greatly respected urged me to do it. But I felt so comfortable hand flying (same plane for 25 years and I flew 4 engines in it to TBO, a P210) I just never felt the need to use the AP to fly the fun part of my trips.
I also learned a great deal about icing and its avoidance and despite the plane certified for known ice I was able to fly to a schedule all those years with only rare cancellations by learning how to negotiate with controllers. I would insist on climb and descent clearances and altitudes to avoid such that I would not allow them to put me in ice. For climbs especially I would build up speed just below the ice, and then make a fast climb up through it. As a result I flew all my years only using the equipment 3 times to shed ice. I cannot imagine how push button pilots would rely on a plane to do their thinking for them.
-
Jon’s an ATP. Who knew. Single engine or mutli-engine?
I’m more impressed with him now than I was before.
Log in to reply.