I forgot how to drive a car...

[vicrider 0]

Coming up on 80, been driving since I was 14, and now have a new fishing car and can't figure out how it works. I only drove our Outback a few times and always with wife in car doing things with it. Much of the time we had that car I was having various health problems and she did almost all the driving. The last vehicle I drove on a regular was my 2004 F-150. which I still have. She went to the big city and came home with a new Subaru Forester literally right off the showroom floor. Had it a week and I only rode in it to doc app't once. Well yesterday while she doing her aerobics I decided to go see how one of our local ponds was holding up in drought. It was way low but not dangerously low to lose fish yet.

Okay, my Ford had cruise control on the steering wheel. It had an AM/FM radio with knobs and scan button. Other than that it had a cup holder. I got in the Forester and used all the controls on the seat and mirrors and steering wheel to use Setting 2 for automatic adjustment when I get in. I had the FOB in my pocket which is some sort of key I guess. I pushed the Start/Button and nothing happened, I had to put foot on brake to get it to start. Being in Park wasn't good enough for it. I tried to move and there's some electronic parking brake I had to release. I got going watching my rear view camera thinking that will be nice when I get a hitch on it. Well I pulled out and found that all the fancy stuff shuts off when car does. I got going down highway to Dead Indian Lake about 15 miles down highway. It's quiet, firm, and that little 4 cylinder boxer had me at 85 while trying to figure out some of the controls. On one side of the steering wheel is a lever with two buttons on top of it and two below it. There's symbols on them that might as well be hieroglyphics to me. Got to the lake, saw the island was now a peninsula with some guys fishing off it.

Going back I did figure out the radio to find Syrius and put 70s tunes on. Pushing the buttons and throwing the lever on right of wheel I got it into cruise control at 65mph. I guess I hit some other stuff that works with cruise control because the thing was now driving itself. The road back to Cheyenne is good highway with several easy curves and a couple marked 55mph. One of the buttons I hit was Land Centering and it would read  stripes and adjust the car with no input from me. I held the wheel very lightly to see and sure enough it took every curve on the way back and there's several including the ones at 55 it drove through at 65. If you did take your hands off wheel completely a beep would go off and a big warning light "KEEP ALERT" would flash on dash. 

The one thing I did not like was the lane centering favored the center stripe. It was like it was a foot from center stripe and 3 feet from right edge. My wife is actually scheduled for a class to discuss all the things available behind all the icons on two different screens and one of the things I want to know is if the centering can be adjusted to favor right edge instead of center stripe. I'm sure I will like this car when I get a feel for it but his old guy is in a whole new world of tech just driving a car.

[DFoster 0]

You're not the only one VC- a 60 year old coworker of mine who is very tech savvy, inherited a brand 2023 Mercedes after his father in law passed.  It's got all the new standard features and a few he can't guess at.  The trouble is that it's still at his father in law's house because he can't figure out how to start it- even with the owners manual.  Maybe it's got some type of facial recognition system like my iPhone?  I told him to get to the dealership for some "training" before he accidently engages the antigravity warp converter and disappears forever.  😁  

[Poopdeck 0]

I hate the lane centering. I had the dealer shut it off completely.  I like driving where I want to drive not where the car does and I didn’t like how the wheel would fight me. I can’t take the car shutting down  when at stop. Fortunately you can shut that off yourself but you have to do it every time you get in the car. House lights turn off the auto high beams so I shut off  the auto high beams off as well. All the self driving and auto stuff ain’t there yet, far from it, so until they perfect it, I’d rather not have it. Seems auto makers are just rushing inferior options out just to say they have it. Be very careful with all the auto stuff, it’s still seriously flawed and misleading. 

[Steeldrifter 0]

Funny you posted this now, because just yesterday a buddy & I were just talking about these things. We went fishing locally for a couple hrs yesterday and he had his wife's car which is never drives. It's a new Honda (Civic I think? cant recall). But he was showing me how he doesn't like that it has a FOB and not a key to start, which I agree, I wouldn't like not having an actual key to start a car.

Then when were were packing gear in the trunk and closed the trunk, it kept popping back open and would not stay closed. Finally figured out for some reason it was where he paid his FOB, it was too close to the trunk and it wouldn't stay shut because they car "thought" the FOB was being locked in the trunk. Personally I don't want a car "thinking" for me lol. Another thing I didn't like about it was it shuts off every single time you stop. I don't see how that is supposed to be a good thing. To me that is just added wear & tear on the starter/ignition system of a car.

I dunno, maybe I'm getting old, but give me an old Chevy Blazer with a key and vent windows and am/fm radio and I'm happy.

[Mark Knapp 0]

Uh, Oh, are they going to let you out?

[Mark Knapp 0]

5 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

Funny you posted this now, because just yesterday a buddy & I were just talking about these things. We went fishing locally for a couple hrs yesterday and he had his wife's car which is never drives. It's a new Honda (Civic I think? cant recall). But he was showing me how he doesn't like that it has a FOB and not a key to start, which I agree, I wouldn't like not having an actual key to start a car.

Then when were were packing gear in the trunk and closed the trunk, it kept popping back open and would not stay closed. Finally figured out for some reason it was where he paid his FOB, it was too close to the trunk and it wouldn't stay shut because they car "thought" the FOB was being locked in the trunk. Personally I don't want a car "thinking" for me lol. Another thing I didn't like about it was it shuts off every single time you stop. I don't see how that is supposed to be a good thing. To me that is just added wear & tear on the starter/ignition system of a car.

I dunno, maybe I'm getting old, but give me an old Chevy Blazer with a key and vent windows and am/fm radio and I'm happy.

I'm glad you guys are fishing. I was out yesterday with my Nephew, teaching him to trap beavers. We had to cut through 30 inches of ice to find water.

[mikechell 0]

Guess I'm the odd man out here.  An old man who loves the science fiction-y stuff on new cars.  Getting close to the complete self driving cars I read about in sci-fi novels of my youth.  I'd love to get an extra hour's sleep on my daily 4:00am drive to work.  I drove a few of the lane following vehicles during my travels and they're great.  Not so good if you're heavy on the accelerator pedal ... but fantastic if you're in no hurry, which I rarely am.  A little irritating when you get behind something REALLY slow because it'll follow at the required distance, but otherwise, almost self driving on long highways.

I like the fobs, too.  Wife's car is proximity fob, and set to shut the car off if the fob is more than 30 feet from the car.  She, literally, cannot be carjacked.  If she gets out and someone else drives off, they'll get 30 feet, and the car will shut off.

I'm ready for it.  Give me a car I can sleep in while it takes me to work, or to a distant fishing hole.  Give me an implanted interface, so I can access the internet without typing on this keyboard.  Hell, give me a cyborg body that will let me live forever and see all the other fantastic things the future may still bring.

[DFoster 0]

On 3/14/2024 at 7:23 AM, Poopdeck said:

I hate the lane centering. I had the dealer shut it off completely.  I like driving where I want to drive not where the car does and I didn’t like how the wheel would fight me. I can’t take the car shutting down  when at stop. Fortunately you can shut that off yourself but you have to do it every time you get in the car.

My wife has lane centering and I hate it.  I have that dumba$$ auto shut off in my Jeep- the dealer told me it's now mandatory on new vehicles because it's saves fuel.  I wonder if the fuel I'm saving by having the engine shut off each time I stop will cover the cost of a new starter? 

[SilverCreek 0]

Second reason for auto shut off is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reduce global warming.

[Mark Knapp 0]

20 hours ago, mikechell said:

Guess I'm the odd man out here.  An old man who loves the science fiction-y stuff on new cars.  Getting close to the complete self driving cars I read about in sci-fi novels of my youth.  I'd love to get an extra hour's sleep on my daily 4:00am drive to work.  I drove a few of the lane following vehicles during my travels and they're great.  Not so good if you're heavy on the accelerator pedal ... but fantastic if you're in no hurry, which I rarely am.  A little irritating when you get behind something REALLY slow because it'll follow at the required distance, but otherwise, almost self driving on long highways.

I like the fobs, too.  Wife's car is proximity fob, and set to shut the car off if the fob is more than 30 feet from the car.  She, literally, cannot be carjacked.  If she gets out and someone else drives off, they'll get 30 feet, and the car will shut off.

I'm ready for it.  Give me a car I can sleep in while it takes me to work, or to a distant fishing hole.  Give me an implanted interface, so I can access the internet without typing on this keyboard.  Hell, give me a cyborg body that will let me live forever and see all the other fantastic things the future may still bring.

If you out live us all, who's going to change your batteries?

[SilverCreek 0]

His robot.

https://youtu.be/5_jp9CwJhcA?si=azEfcscHB7Oz-rAx&t=275

[vicrider 0]

Damn Silver Creek!!! Put long sleeve dress and gloves on her, blonde wig, and you couldn't tell which one was the interviewer and which the robot.

DFoster: "The trouble is that it's still at his father in law's house because he can't figure out how to start it- even with the owners manual.  Maybe it's got some type of facial recognition system like my iPhone?" ... The new Subaru has that but they had it turned off before they left dealership.

Poopdeck: "I hate the lane centering. I had the dealer shut it off completely.  I like driving where I want to drive not where the car does and I didn’t like how the wheel would fight me. I can’t take the car shutting down  when at stop." ... If it didn't favor center left of road more than shoulder side I kind of like it but agree with the pulling against me when I try to drift right as trucks are coming in left lane. It has auto shutoff at lights but that is turned off. Our county does not have a stoplight and only a couple of stop signs people just roll thru.

Steeldrifter: "Then when were were packing gear in the trunk and closed the trunk, it kept popping back open and would not stay closed. Finally figured out for some reason it was where he paid his FOB, it was too close to the trunk and it wouldn't stay shut because they car "thought" the FOB was being locked in the trunk. Personally I don't want a car "thinking" for me lol. Another thing I didn't like about it was it shuts off every single time you stop. I don't see how that is supposed to be a good thing. To me that is just added wear & tear on the starter/ignition system of a car. I dunno, maybe I'm getting old, but give me an old Chevy Blazer with a key and vent windows and am/fm radio and I'm happy." ... I screwed up our self-opening hatch some way when I drove and opened the hatch to put my walker in. I couldn't find the button to close it and pushed everything on the bottom of the hatch until it shut. Next time I use it It would only open foot or so. Tried to push it open and kept going into shut down mode. Found it could open it if I moved it SLOWLY. Next time I went out to car with wife to go somewhere and it wouldn't open she said it has a setting to make the hatch only open to place you want it to stop and I'd screwed it up somehow. She pushed it to where I wanted it and reset it somehow and showed me how to open and close it without messing it up. My 2004 F-150 is very basic but it doesn't have vent window. Since I quit smoking a long time ago I don't mess them.

The problem I found. among others, was having cruise on automatically brings other things into like lane centering and automatic distance spacing as far as I can tell but I just keep hitting buttons on right side of steering wheel until it goes into cruise. Also, in bright sun it jumps in and out of lane centering if new white stripes "blind" the camera. I'm sure there are dozens of cool things on the car for Mike Chell to play with but I won't know much about them until wife goes to Subaru Flight School.

 

[Poopdeck 0]

On 3/14/2024 at 5:10 PM, mikechell said:

Guess I'm the odd man out here.  An old man who loves the science fiction-y stuff on new cars.  Getting close to the complete self driving cars I read about in sci-fi novels of my youth.  I'd love to get an extra hour's sleep on my daily 4:00am drive to work.  I drove a few of the lane following vehicles during my travels and they're great.  Not so good if you're heavy on the accelerator pedal ... but fantastic if you're in no hurry, which I rarely am.  A little irritating when you get behind something REALLY slow because it'll follow at the required distance, but otherwise, almost self driving on long highways.

I like the fobs, too.  Wife's car is proximity fob, and set to shut the car off if the fob is more than 30 feet from the car.  She, literally, cannot be carjacked.  If she gets out and someone else drives off, they'll get 30 feet, and the car will shut off.

I'm ready for it.  Give me a car I can sleep in while it takes me to work, or to a distant fishing hole.  Give me an implanted interface, so I can access the internet without typing on this keyboard.  Hell, give me a cyborg body that will let me live forever and see all the other fantastic things the future may still bring.

Oh I’m with you. I want all of those things but it’s no where even close to that and won’t be in my lifetime. The technology just isn’t there yet but dumbasses with more money then brains are out there killing themselves and others because they think their cars can drive themselves. I do like the FOBs. 

[essequamvideri 0]

Last fall my wife said it was time for me to look for another vehicle. The old Jeep was costing too much in repairs. To that point I had owned 3 Jeeps, all stands and all with manual everything. 
This latest, new to me, has power everything. Auto, power windows and a crap ton of controls on the steering wheel. The biggest oddity I still haven’t gotten used to is the placement of the power widow controls. They are in the middle of the dash just under the radio. Every time I reach for the crank to roll down the window. It reminds me of SAAB when they had the ignition in the console between the two seats. 
VR I can relate. 
 

Cheers 

 

Michael R. Earle 

“Esse Quam Videri”

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I love my 2017 Subaru Outback, but Nick you're right, the controls took a little getting used to, especially seeing as it's the first foreign car I've ever owned. I thought the self-correcting and lane centering features were neat in theory, but I ended up turning them both off because I didn't like feeling the wheel "fight" me while driving, and the beeping was driving me crazy. 

Subaru's focus on safety is, I think, a good thing, but sometimes the lengths they've gone to in their attempt to ensure that you drive safely amuse me a little bit. For example, mine has a heated steering wheel (which is fantastic; all my future cars will have this feature if I have my way), but it doesn't heat the entire steering wheel -- only the ten- and two-o'clock and five- and seven-o'clock hand positions. You want warm hands, you have to be in one of the "safe" positions. 😄

Speaking of safety, here is my idea for a feature that I think all cars should have: in addition to all the safety features, I think there should be what I call accountability features as well. For instance - if you do something dangerously stupid--tailgating, cutting other cars off, pulling out in front of oncoming cars that are too close, forcing other drivers to change lanes to make room for you when you refuse to correctly merge onto an expressway, etc.-- you receive a mild electric shock through the pedals, seat, and steering wheel, then a full-autopilot feature takes over, pulls your car safely off the roadway to a complete stop and shuts the engine off. The steering wheel retracts into the dashboard and is replaced by a display screen, that then plays you a recorded video of the dumb thing you just did, complete with a scathing voice-over (ideally done by comedian Wanda Sykes or that scary lady that used to host the British t.v. show "The Weakest Link") explaining in graphic detail the way(s) in which you just endangered other human lives. There follows a mandatory "time-out", the duration of which corresponds to the severity of the driving infraction (tailgating =10 minutes; reckless speed/maneuvering = 20 min., etc.) When this period expires, the display screen will re-activate and administer an interactive driving safety quiz, which you must pass with 100% accuracy before the steering wheel will re-deploy or the engine will re-start. 

It's a work in progress, but I think it has potential.