In the automotive world, electronic "nannies" continuously monitor our driving habits so as to "ensure" that as drivers, don't do anything we didn't intend to. There's no doubt it's saved countless lives and property damage - remember there are no such thing as an "accident". But with these technologies becoming increasingly commonplace in the modern automobile, is it really making us safer and better drivers? I reside near an university and have had more then my fair share of close calls by young, inexperienced drivers. It made me wonder if the drivers knew just how close they were to causing injury and damage?
In my world as a Safety Engineer, I often see "Personal Protective Equipment" being dispensed to reduce the possibility of an injury or fail safe systems that are designed to reduce the possibility of a catastrophic event. In vehicles however, it seems to embolden drivers as it does in an industrial setting. Taking unnecessary risks, making turns way too quickly, stopping late, inappropriate application of either the brakes or the accelerator in certain situations, etc. If it weren't for these systems interjecting as they did, the Darwin Theory of survival of the fittest would have most certainly rid of these poor drivers and acts of stupidity.
Although I'm not one to propose that all safety systems in an automobile be removed, these safety related technologies has taken away some pleasures of driving. Hopefully automobile manufactures will continue to allow the drivers to manually override such systems in the future because if they don't, I see no point in paying the extra dollars that I do for "performance orientated" cars that may not perform any better then a Dihatsu or a Yugo.
