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Comment by laweijfmvo | Hacker News Reader

I recently backed into a parked car — not a big deal, just left it in Reverse while waiting for someone and then forgot. Bumped the car parked 12 inches behind me the entire time. If my car can’t figure out to “not do that”, then I have zero faith in any emergency braking.

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Not sure how your backing into another vehicle gives you "zero" confidence in emergency breaking systems meant for entirely different situations

And keep in mind that it doesn't have to be 100% accurate to save more than zero lives

Automatic braking on my car kicked in to prevent something similar (it stopped me reversing into a tree, in the first week I had it, when I thought I was in first but was actually in reverse). In the following five years it has given me a false proximity alarm maybe two or three times, but never wrongly braked. I’d call that a huge success. (This a SEAT, so VW tech).

I keep having mine trigger from trying to park next to a snow bank. The system doesn't know that the snow isn't harmful and will stop me in a very sudden, jarring way.

This is on a MK7 Golf, so it's been around on a very common vehicle for well over 10 years.

There was no danger to life in this scenario. It’s not for the car to figure out how to “not do this”, it’s for you.

replace “parked car” with “child”. Would it have stopped then?

In cars with parking sensors, it would likely have beeped at you aggressively unless you disabled that.

It doesn't auto-brake but does do a good job of avoiding such impacts by alerting to objects nearby you might not see, including cross-traffic detection when backing out of parking spaces.

I've seen commercials specifically advertising automatic braking upon detection of a child. The technology seems to definitely be out there.

The level of automation in cars today is designed to _assist_ the driver, not replace the driver or absolve them of responsibility for their vehicle.

I have no idea what car you’re driving or what safety features it has.. but more importantly, your response to a crash caused by your own carelessness is to be morally indignant… towards your car?

Depends on your car. Some cars only activate these systems after a certain speed. Even then you can still overpower the system.

How is your negligence relevant to the topic of AEB in a highway setting?

I observed automating breaking save someone’s life recently. Driver was in a rage and attempted to run someone over. Automatic breaking kicked in and prevented them doing it.

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