Re: Last week
I had a small Muntjac deer decide to wander from the hedge to play at being a chicken and stop in the middle of the road. I braked hard (after all deer+car=mess). No anti-lock and the back end started to come around - so deer or me rolling down the road and potentially wiping out myself and any oncoming traffic? I accelerated to pull the vehicle straight, hit the deer full on, bent my steering rods and the vehicle following got a crumpled front end from the rolling carcass. No-one apart from the deer was hurt, there was vehicle damage but that's just money.
What would "autopilot" be expected to do in that situation? What if it wasn't a deer but a child? What if a child was in the car?
Spurious hard braking is dangerous (though in the UK it is the lawful responsibility of following drivers to keep a safe distance, I don't know about the US) but that is not all the plaintiff says - he also uses the phrase "slowing the vehicle" which may be a pain for a 30-year-old driver but is no different to Uncle Albert who brakes before every sharp bend "just in case" ... so do we ban Uncle Albert too? Decisions on when to brake are not simple and clear cut "brake" "don't brake".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
