What’s that, Skip? Techno-fear?
In your last column you made the point that cars are becoming too clever for t heir own good. I have to agree. A few years ago my brother purchased a nice second-hand Land Rover Discover y 3 V8. One night, half way through a sweeping countr y bend that may, or may not, have been approached at a litt le over t he speed limit, a kangaroo made its bid for immortalit y. Bouncing into t he front bumper, t he ‘roo was safely despatched underneath t he vehicle, barely a ltering t he Landie’s l i ne.
But here’s where t he built-in technolog y took over, wit h potentia lly fata l consequences. Sensing a collision, both f ront airbags detonated, f illing the cabin with smoke and dust. The collision management system now helpf ully turned on t he inside light and activated t he hazard f lashers which, combined with the smoke, rendered any thing outside the windscreen inv isible. As a f inal insult t he system automatica lly shuts of f t he engine, severely compromising t he ef f iciency of t he power steering and bra kes. At night. On a bend. Luckily for my brother and his passenger, he managed to pull up safely, due in part to a ca lm head and extensive experience as a ra lly driver. Others may not have been so fortunate.
Julian Hembrough, Mount Richon, WA
I FEEL YOUR (if not Skippy’s) pain, Julian. And it’s stuff like this technology, when it’s applied in an inappropriate way, that is one of my biggest bitches with modern cars. I don’t know too many Aussie drivers with any real experience who haven’t had a close encounter of the marsupial kind, and as well as almost causing a crash, having both air-bags go off could possibly make the car undriveable, leaving you stranded in the middle of who-knows-where. Meantime, I managed to snot a roo last Christmas up in the Snowys in the 80-Series I was just talking about (re blown headlights) and the damage was precisely zero. Didn’t even bend the number plate. Skip did a pretty neat tumble-turn in the mirrors and disappeared with no obvious damage, either.
Don’t get me wrong, I know for a fact that air-bags save lives, but in a vehicle like an off-roader, they need to be calibrated so that clobbering half the coat of arms or nudging up to a dead tree (to fell it when the chainsaw won’t start) won’t set them off. Aside from the safety factor, having to replace two air-bags (not that it