Trailer assist

Limey57 · 2014-12-19 16:12

You may have heard of "park assist" where some cars have the ability to reverse park themselves, VW have gone a step further in removing common sense from motoring with "trailer assist". No, it isn't April 1st!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ruB5XYObtQ#t=198

Note, European travel trailers are a lot lighter than US trailers and 99% of trailer towing is done with family sedans and wagons.

BP57CUSTOM · 2014-12-19 16:26

That's cool , what'll they think up next

hiball3985 · 2014-12-19 17:18

All the new gadgets may be cool, either geared to the mindless or lazy. I think when the day comes that I can't park or back up a trailer I'll give of my license.

Limey57 · 2014-12-19 17:53

As much as I find technology interesting, reducing the driver control of a car is craxy IMO. I can think of many occasions when my phone/PC has crashed and needed rebooting, inconvenient but not life threatening. Imagine a car needing rebooting on the freeway?

I have to reverse our trailer up our road then round the side of our house, the day I rely on technology to do that is the day I get rid of it

petew · 2014-12-19 18:43

Can you imagine the bill to fix that little option after the warranty is up and it ****s the bed ? And of course it would knock out some other mandatory system when it went. I have owned a VW Passat and can tell you that wiring and electrical systems are not a strong point for them.

All of these automatic features are great on a rental or a lease vehicle but I don't want to own any of them.

Jeff Norwell · 2014-12-20 07:29

I can see lawsuits in all these new car gadgets.People are truly stupid.

RICH MUISE · 2014-12-20 09:29

I agree, but you still can't have my GPS.

lalessi1 · 2014-12-20 10:25

I believe in simplicity. I still like maps and directions. My "other car" needs a steering angle sensor so the "Electronic Stability Program" is not functioning neither does the cruise control for the same reason. They only want $826 to fix it. REALLY?

Since the '57 has a manual transmission the pool of possible car theives is substantially reduced since few people these days can drive standards! Pretty soon people won't know how to drive period as cars become "smarter".

"God is great, beer is good and people are crazy"

RICH MUISE · 2014-12-20 14:41

I always still carry a map....still easier to plan MY route, not the GPS's...however there's nothing like a GPS when your in a big city you don't know that well, lots of traffic, and your not sure where your turns are....kinda hard to look at a map doing 60 in traffic. Before GPS's, I'd have to pull off the highway someplace where I could stop and look at a map. Don't have to do that anymore.
Rich

Limey57 · 2014-12-20 14:55

Quote from: RICH MUISE on 2014-12-20 14:41
however there's nothing like a GPS when your in a big city you don't know that well, lots of traffic, and your not sure where your turns are....kinda hard to look at a map doing 60 in traffic.

Agreed! I occasionally have to go to France (on my own), I dive across and have to drive through the middle of Dijon, after being behind the wheel for many hours. Wrong side of the road, strange road signs, distances in km instead of miles, if it wasn't for sat-nav I'd be stuck! However, I also always carry maps in the trunk, occasionally the sat-nav freezes and the last thing I need is to be in the middle of somewhere unrecognisable without hving a clue which way to go.

lalessi1 · 2014-12-20 17:04

OK guys, I guess I'll cave on the GPS.

I dont have one and I drive the state going to rural water systems. I have driven in New York before GPS so I get what you're saying. You would think as an engineer I would look at technology differently but it seems like these days if we can do it we are doing it whether there is a need or not.

RICH MUISE · 2014-12-20 17:15

"I occasionally have to go to France (on my own), I dive across ...."
We've heard about you guys swimming the channel..lol

lalessi1 · 2014-12-20 17:27

They got that chunnel thing....is that diving over....

hiball3985 · 2014-12-20 17:31

A better gadget would be a system to relieve yourself so you didn't have to get off the hiway.

Now I do that and read the map at the same time..

Limey57 · 2014-12-21 10:07

Quote from: RICH MUISE on 2014-12-20 17:15
"I occasionally have to go to France (on my own), I dive across ...."
We've heard about you guys swimming the channel..lol

WANTED, fully functioning keyboard with an R key that works all the time.

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Trailer assist