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Comment by hueving | Hacker News Reader

>It comes with automatic emergency braking, collision avoidance, blind spot detection, adaptive cruise control, and built-in backup camera, standard. Buy a used 2014? It has none of that.

Don't run into stuff? Most of that tech is only useful if you are an absent-minded driver and even then it only covers some cases (e.g. emergency braking doesn't help if the car in front of you slammed into something and you were following too closely). They are selling this tech by exploiting your fears, don't get caught up in it.

Getting in a wreck in a 2014 Corolla is still incredibly safe due to the crumple zones and airbags. The $10k you blew on those features in the new model could easily pay for the damages to a 2014 and would cover all of the cases those features didn't (e.g. someone running into your car in the lot).

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First of all, I think the word "accident" is crap. It should be called crash in most cases, and crashes are more often than not avoidable. Predominant cause: Driver error. If you glance in the mirror, something might catch your attention there, and if someone cuts in front of you at that very moment, that's when AEB (or the "normal braking" + warning from dynamic cruise) can come in real handy.

Also having Dynamic Cruise might teach you what a proper following distance is; hint, most people have no idea about what 2 seconds gap actually equates to. The DCC distance is typically set in seconds, or at least in the Mazda it is (1,2,3 or 4). Even 1 second is more than most people give, in Melbourne Australia.

Speaking as a 2014 Mazda 3 Astina owner, this tech works. Including if someone cuts in and then slams their brakes. Autonomous braking functions is the biggest safety invention since the Dynamic Stability Control. Try to Google effectiveness of AEB, and it's quite conclusive.

E.g. "The findings showed a 38 percent overall reduction in rear-end crashes for vehicles fitted with AEB compared to a comparison sample of similar vehicles." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275772651_Effective...

I'm excited by the new Tesla cars extra sensor and autonomous driver tech packages, which includes so many more ways of reading the environment than what my "mere" Mazda 3 radar + cameras offer. If I had the budget, I'd definitely be getting into that.

Don't run into stuff??? You realize it is called an "accident" for a reason. The backup camera and blind spot detection are worth real dollars in my experience.

> backup camera and blind spot detection are worth real dollars

I agree on the camera.. it's been especially useful in more than a few places on my work truck, but I worry that features like BSM go along with a trend of designing more "stylish" interiors that have significantly reduced visibility along certain angles.

The difference between my small Japanese car and my sisters American SUV is amazing. I can physically see everything around my car, in her car, there are huge chunks of surrounding space that are blocked by pillars and other design considerations. If you feel you need BSM, then you may just be driving a horribly designed car.

Generally,American cars provide awefull visibility of surroundings - high and narrow rear windows, and thick pillars make me feel claustrophobic

Calling it an "accident" is doublespeak so you can wave your hands and go "I had an accident, oops, it couldn't be helped."

Making it seem like it was just your fate that day. Which if it was at-fault, it certainly wasn't. It sounds a lot better than "I am either negligent or incompetent and shouldn't be trusted with piloting a 2-ton hulk of metal."

If you checked your blind spot every time like you ought to, the blind spot detection is at best a minor additional safety backup. I see a lot of people relying on it instead of actually doing that, and the systems aren't perfect. (One good example: Someone else is starting to merge into your blind spot but hasn't gotten in the lane yet).

> If you checked your blind spot every time like you ought to, the blind spot detection is at best a minor additional safety

This is not true. On some freeways in my country, idiots have a habit of driving 2x the speed limit. Checking your blindspot at the time you started the maneuver is no guauantee it will still be empty a half a second later. The blind spot detector is pretty helpful IMO.

Btw .. I don't understand what perfect world some people live in. Do you live in a world where programmers write bug free code every single time like they have been taught?

This is one of the biggest points that I have seen taught in driver training courses and repeated throughout my life. Most of the events people refer to as car accidents are crashes/collisions.

Yesterday I went around a sharp turn on a 4 lane highway only to come face to face with a box truck that had flipped on it's side moments earlier.

FAB slowed down my car enough for me to get a chance to maneuver around it.

I much prefer the array of red leds I had to face instead of dealing with a wrecked car and possible injuries.

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