But what about the other 99% of the drivers who can't? Driving in the DC area means taking your life into your hands every single time. Between the Type A "I'm the most important thing on the road" asshats and all the helicopter parents moving Jimmy and Sally 45 miles in 5 minutes or less, I'm quite frankly surprised that there aren't bodies stacked 15 deep along the side of the Beltway. Cars have gotten too safe, they've taken the evolution out of driving. Maybe the spike in the steering wheel would put it back.

I agree but that way of thinking is the reason they call us eccentric old farts.

Bah, in my day I would have been respected. Kids, tchoh.

another thing that would make driving safer would be to drop all speed limits
then all drivers would be driving fast enough to scar the ?hit out of themselves
so badly nobody would dare tack there eyes off the road not even to check the gas gauge

Apparently, many auto manufacturers (Mercedes, anyone?) are already marketing cars that automatically apply the brakes when approaching an object; it's only a matter of time before we have cars that automatically avoid accidents by, say, judging when another car is about to back out (by automatically looking for backup lights) and automatically turning the steering wheel to avoid the car.

And still then, there already is such thing as a robotic car race (it's been held every year since 2005), isn't there? Robotic cars already exist, and they certainly aren't programmed to drive people off cliffs. And if any of them become street-legal, they will probably have manual overrides like that of Will Smith's car in "I, Robot" to avoid such programming glitches.

Such cars could ultimately mean the end of all speed limits or road rules, since they will automatically abide by them. But here's what I'm really excited for:

I'm sure you've heard of "Roadable Aircraft", right? Such vehicles could also become commonplace, albeit a little farther into the future. Combine the idea of roadable aircraft with robotic cars and you get not only the laws of the road removed from your liabilities, but also the road itself! You could now take shortcuts through the air to get from Point A to Point B, without having to do a thing for the vehicle!

One time I was installing cable/phone/internet services in a customer's home with my vehicle parked out front, during a tropical storm....

BOOM!

and by the time I'd gotten out to see who hit what, the guy was gone. About 2 hours later, though, after talking to the cops and being told, "Probably can't help ya, buddy... Our system sucks at life, and isn't really about stopping criminals but punishing people for defying the state, and generating revenue for the state so we can get new shotguns, paintjobs, and UAVs.", the guy's son came to the scene and explained the situation.

Lincoln Town Car vs F-150.. By the damage done to my vehicle, the guy must have been driving pretty fast down a residential neighborhood during a tropical storm, and just happened to rear end the hell out of my truck.

7500$ repair bill... Thankfully dude had insurance.

He was/is 83 years old.

Yeah, thankfully here in California, we don't get tropical storms. We do get (occasionally) thunderstorms, however, that can really reduce visibility.

An example of this occurred this past February: I was at one of my schools when suddenly the sky was turning grey, then an eerie twilight blue, and then green -- around noon! Then, suddenly the rain came down in buckets, and the wind was so hard that water was blowing under the eaves of the roof, over the balcony, under the door, into the classroom! The windows were getting pummelled, and water was leaking under the door and flooded a good chunk of the classroom by the time it was done. When I got in my private transportation to go to my other school (El Toro HS) and ended up on the road, when suddenly we found out that suddenly El Toro Road was flooded and a car was stuck! So, we tried Moulton Parkway. Same thing, and this time, even a Hummer was among the submerged cars. Lake Forest Drive? No relief. There was so much congestion (and cars stuck in floodwaters) that by the time we were able to cross the freeway, it was too late for the class at ETHS. When I finally got home, I found out that the thunderstorm cell was so bad there was even a tornado warning (but no tornado) issued!

My point of this is: You never know just what road conditions are during low visibility. If ever you feel that the road may be slippery (for example during rain), be sure to adjust speed accordingly. I learned this in Driver's Ed.

MAN DO YOU GUYS HAVE IT SO EASY !!! THUNDER STORMS Pfffff!
we get freezing rain around where I live
that forces us drive on a 1/2 inch thick smooth as a baby's ass coat of ICE on the road
no body but no body even thinks of tacking there eyes off the road
or even one hand off the wheel
to top it off
we try to forget we even have brakes hit your brakes you just lose your steering
we down shift to slow down and use the parking brakes to stop
when driving on freezing rain
30 mph is considered reckless operation on when driving on freezing rain by the cops
we also get snow but snow is way easy to drive on compared to freezing rain
I had a car that could do 50MPH on fresh snow but I wouldn't do over 20MPH on freezing rain

Hi,

Just recently I was hit by a 86 year old lady while getting into my vehicle. Broke my left ankle & foot. I've got several other issues & injuries from that accident. Concussion has caused continued headaches over the last few weeks. I see another physician this week to hopefully get some answers.

Turns out that this lady shouldn't be on the road to begin with. She has been using a physicians note to exclude eye tests for driver's fitness & license tests. How & why question to the state?? Several individuals have officially requested that the police do something about her having a license. She will be tested now, injuries involved in a vehicle accident requires that action.

My truck is totaled & I'll be laid up for another 4-6 weeks with a farm & animals to take care of. I'm pissed! Fighting with her insurance company for everything. I'll speak to the adjuster again today. Undervalue my vehicle, plus took the past two weeks to get a replacement rental vehicle. The insurance industry here in the USA is a scam. If things don't change for her insurance representatives then a lawyer will be in the picture for me.

I don't like lawyers.

BTW, it was a beautiful clear calm day when this accident happened. The old lady didn't even attempt to stop or prevent this accident. She claimed that there was on coming cars. There were parked cars but no opposing traffic. She thought that her mirror was broke and that was the only damage. Big hurry to get to appointments else where. Coherent but very dismissive with the accident. I was in shock and didn't realize my injuries until about a 1/2 hour later.
This sucks!

Yeah, that sucks.

That is strange, I didn't know a medical note could exclude eye tests for a driver's license test ... I can't imagine why this would be. People still have to see to drive. Either way, it's probably more than just bad vision.

Indeed the insurance companies always try to find a reason to not pay you anything, but eventually they will have to. They had to pay about $25,000 for my totaled car, and they did, all of it, because we kept all maintenance receipts and other receipts too. I used the money to get another new car, no loss really. Luckily I wasn't injured, otherwise it would have cost more.

Anyway, get well soon and good luck.

Hi,

Yes, maintenance records do provide a good history for this vehicle. I did provide all the maintenance record for this vehicle and still a lot of hassle. I got one number from their on-site adjuster then another from the local office adjuster. I replied to the local office the discrepancy between the two and their reply was the local office set the points.
Go figure! Right now I'm concerned with my present health situation(s) because of this accident and injuries.

As for the 86 year old eye exams, I'm told that the Illinois Secretary of State requires testing every year for the age group. This individual does travel to a bureau office that's twice the distance from a local office just to circumvent. The Chief of police, is still investigating and assures me this same individual WILL be tested and will not have a driver license if indeed her sight is this bad. I want the facts!

I want to know who the doctor is that can legally do this type of assessment to provide someone the potential risk to others. Where does that doctor stand with his/her oath? Do no harm!

Yeah, "Primum non nocere", if a doctor doesn't do anything else, at least do no harm. I think that it should be the most important part of the oath (I think it is), and yet few follow it, not sure why not, maybe the money ?

And here I was upset because the car locks my doors and rings the bell until I get my seatbelt on. For some reason this future car reminded me of the OSHA cowboy cartoon...
http://www.contractortalk.com/f59/co...rements-32593/

slide the hitch out of the receiver, the receiver part bolted to the truck frame still provides the protection, modern bumpers are nothing. I've scraped the paint from more then one car off my hitch receiver, every time I was completely stopped and had been for a while.

There are two maximums for tires, one is a maximum to seat the beads and the other is a maximum operating pressure. Now you only want to run this if your running the maximum weight, if you inflate to the max (operating) pressure and drive like that the center of your tread will wear faster so you'll need to replace the tires more often so what you save in gas you'll spend in tires. you want to search on how to do the contact patch test and inflate as high as you can will still getting a perfect contact patch any less and your mileage drops as well as wear increases on the sides ,more and mileage will increase but center wear will also.