Absolutely. I think the sadness isn’t that these things are available–as they should be, for markets that want and need them–but that they are pushing everything else out of the market. To be clear, I am not saying this is bad in a cosmic sense, or that I have any special right to particular products; the market has spoken, and even if I can’t see the appeal, money talks and bullshit walks. Fair enough.
And in truth, folks like me have never been a big part of the market in the USA. The difference now is that the SUV/crossover paradigm is firmly rooted in aspects of driving that are diametrically opposed to what I like, and thus the number of options that appeal to me is shrinking. Everything that makes the current paradigm appealing to most–high seating position, lots of ground clearance, isolation from the road, an aesthetic that emphasizes “ruggedness” and off-road aspirations, that sort of thing–is anathema to me. I like low, responsive, small cars that let you feel the physics of driving (when you want to; I’m not at all adverse to luxury ride at times!) that have no other ambition than to drive on pavement.
Well, I’ll say that then. I hate driving behind SUVs. They block my view completely. If I’m behind another car, I can see beyond that car to see what’s ahead. With more and more SUVs on the road, I feel like I’m getting less and less visibility on the road. I’ll be forced to get an SUV myself to alleviate the problem.
The other part that I hate about SUVs is that I’m convinced they are more dangerous in the sense that they effectively create an “arms race” with cars.
Everyone talks about how they feel so safe in an SUV. Yeah, that’s because if you’re in an accident, you’ll likely be cleaving through someone else’s normal car. In the meantime, you’ve made every accident much more dangerous for anyone not riding in a fucking tank. Likewise, if you actually do collide with another SUV, you’ve got just that much more mass screaming into your own vehicle.
It feels like the argument that you’ve got a handgun, so I feel so much safer with my automatic rifle. Yeah, that’s great. Then everyone has an automatic rifle.
I get that they may ultimately provide more protection even when being hit by larger objects like other SUVs, but at some point, we might as well just driving fucking tanks.
Well in addition to that kind of danger, these parents hand these cars over to their teen drivers and they wind up rolling them. I am under the impression they’ve worked on that problem before but giving new drivers that kind vehicle has lead to a number of deaths here… deaths would not have if it was kids driving a Camry.
Stats say SUVs are safer than sedans and actually less likely to rollover due to electronic stability control. Rollover fears are ancient history now. In a multi-vehicle crash you’re much better off in a big heavy SUV. The other participants in the crash probably see it differently.
I’m talking about the single-car rollover issues, when they turn. If they fixed that that’s great, but the single car accidents with teens was pretty bad for awhile.
It’s literally making yourself ‘safer’ at the expense of others on the road. Additionally, at least in Chicago, SUV drivers have a much greater tendency to be assholes, due to their perceived invulnerability.
Hey, dickhead, how about looking before you pull out of that parking lot. Did you not notice the car in that lane moving at 50mph?
The worst, most aggressive and inconsiderate, drivers tend to be SUV drivers. You can find jerk Prius drivers, sure, but the ratios are far lower.
At one point I was looking at stats on average passenger vehicle weight. Up through the gas crises in the seventies, the average weight of Americans’ vehicles kept going up, to over two tons or so. Then, it plunged, as folks got into lighter, more efficient vehicles. But over the past two or so decades, it’s gone up again, way up, as SUVs and trucks have become the norm. In isolation, modern lighter vehicles are much safer than the much bigger, heavier cars of yesteryear. But as everyone notes, it’s when the big meets the little that you have issues. A well engineered small, light car is still going to get the worst of a collision with a well-engineered, big, heavy car. Physics don’t lie.
And yes, I hate this and the inability to see around these behemoths as well. What is more, lane widths, lines of sight at intersections, and other aspects of roadway design are being warped now as the vehicles using the roads are bigger, taller, and wider overall than expected when things were engineered.
Add parking to that. All the big SUV drivers seem to ignore the “compact” label on parking spots and cram their big-ass cars in there, taking up two or even three spaces.
By the way, does anyone know whether the autonomous cars under development are equipped to handle large parking lots and parking structures? Can they find a parking space and park?
How much is available in current commercial models, I am not sure. But I know for sure several car companies have prototyped autonomous vehicles capable of navigating a parking garage.
I wonder what the logic is for what space to take and what aisles to cruise down. There’s actually a fair amount of decision making on the part of the driver when finding a parking space (e.g., cruise straight to the top or not, pass up a less than ideal space or not).
As far as I know the decision tree for choosing a spot? Limited. This is mostly about managing the physical act of parking, as far as I know. But I do know that they’ve done proof of concept for parking in a parking garage. But any more I can not divulge.
I naively assume that the actual control of the car (e.g., making it go exactly where the system wants it to go) is the easiest part (e.g., an auto car should be able to easily weave its way through those cone obstacle courses). I always figured it’s the decision making that’s the toughest part (e.g., what to react to, what to ignore, what parking spot to take, rather than how to get the car into a specific target spot).
You can already get systems on even relatively cheap cars that will park the car for you, usually parallel parking. I’ve heard of fancier systems that allow you to, theoretically, stand outside your car and use maybe your cell phone to order the car to park itself (or I guess unpark?). But this does require that you find the place.
I would imagine, though, that eventually autonomous vehicles would be parking in special autonomous lots, where the car simply hands off control to the lot AI which would then park it. You’d probably just pull up to a kiosk, get out, and the electronic equivalent of valet parking would take over, or something.
Head room is the one thing I don’t like about my Fusion. I notice my hair brushing the roof all the time if I am not wearing a hat and I am 5’11". If I was as tall as you it would have been a deal breaker.
