EDITORIAL EMINENCE

Driving vs. Riding (long rant)
Posted by Ron Radko on Thursday, 22 January 1998, at 5:53 p.m.

Ah, ok. So you got me started.

This is my favorite rant. Why did I buy a Boxster? Short answer, because you drive it, as opposed to ride in it.

The difference you ask? Participation. I bought the car so that *I* can control it. Whether that control is good / bad / whatever, it still (mostly) does what I ask. It still has a rev limiter, reverse lockout, and ABS, but most of these systems are fairly inobtrusive.

The problem is, mostly people don't want to view their car as an experience, and a skill that needs constant work and improvement. They want an appliance. They get in it, turn the key, (don't have the faintest clue what happens when they turn the key, and they don't care), put their coffee in the cup holder, unfold the newspaper, and then cruise along to work. They don't want to have to ever maintain anything, and they certainly don't want to put any effort (or *shudder* money) into training themselves to drive. After all (most of them) have a license, they passed a license test, so they should be great drivers ...

My favorite scenario is to remove Traction control/ ABS blah blah blah, and all the other things that try to override what I tell the car to do, and take all those development / component costs, and send the driver to driver training with it instead. I wonder which would result in fewer accidents?

Same with airbags, side impact beams etc. etc. Why not save the money, send for training, and also save the weight in the vehicle? Sigh.

On the same line, how many people do you know of who would say they are a poor driver? Pretty much everyone you ask would say "They are above average" or maybe just maybe "average" Personally, I'll admit that my driving needs tons of work, that's why I want to go take performance schools. (And, er, go out and practice tons in the Boxster of course!) I've learned from Motorcycle racing just how much more there is to know about vehicle control. My favorite reminder of how far I have to go in a car is tuning in to European rally car driving.

Anyway, as a result of this, I'm generally opposed to the car ever having the ability to override my input.

2 reasons: First, even if it *is* wrong, I want to learn from the mistake so I don't do it again. Second, I work for Microsoft. I'm familiar with complicated software. Specifically, I do device driver work. Exactly the kind of programming that goes into, say ABS control, EFI control etc. Hell, I designed and built an EFI system in college. You'd be amazed at how much software of this kind can still work (apparently well) with massive bugs in it! I sure don't want to find the bug where my car thinks it needs to override my input (say, back off all brake pressure) when there really wasn't a need for it.

I'm just amazed an how much control over the Boxster we still have. One of the things I love about the car. That feeling of being in complete control while pushing youself just a little bit more. I also love how forgiving the car is. If you make a mistake, it lets you know, but generally you can correct for it without catastrophic results.

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