Outside of Chicago, IL
I think that is still how driver's ed happens here.
Outside of Chicago, IL
I think that is still how driver's ed happens here.
When did they start doing that? It certainly was not a graduation requirement in Illinois when I went to high school there. It was offered in most schools, but only as an extra cost after school activity.
Society has been changing the standards for participation as a driver. In the wrong direction.
My grandparents were born before the automobile, but had absolutely no problem monitoring a cluster of analog gauges with no lights or audible warnings in their early cars. Just read the newsgroups for a while today, and you'll see countless questions from idiots to the effect of, "My car won't run anymore and my oil light's been on for a while, do you think it might be related...?" There are people so ignorant today that they can't even tell you whether the car won't start because the starter won't turn the engine, or whether the engine is cranking but won't fire. They don't even seem to know the difference, its actually a real-world manifestation of the "I turn the key and it goes" mentality we used to make blonde jokes about, but didn't REALLY believe existed.
And the fact that basic driver's education is not offered in schools anymore in many states (I'll vouch for Texas, we've already heard from NJ and CA) is further evidence that "society" tolerates really lousy drivers on the roads.
Yes... but does it make a difference? If the computer shuts the car off 'now' or 'in 30 seconds,' its still out of the driver's control. I know you mentioned an override switch, but I can still see the lawsuits flying. "I got all scared when the warning went off, I couldn't find the switch, so I looked around for it and hit a guardrail while I was looking down, and then a truck hit me, my passenger was killed and I'm paralyzed. The carmaker owes me 300 million dollars."
Driver's ed was not a HS graduation requirement when I went to HS in IL either, but it was for my 3 youngest so the change was put in place some time after the 1970's.
What do these idiots do when the ignition module cuts out?
Or better yet, when the engine ultimately siezes up from overheating?
tolerates? I say encourages.
Don't know when they started. I recall they were permitted at 15 - at school - got initial instruction at school, and had to spend some hours driving with a licensed driver - it was sometimes me, sometimes my wife - then did the test at school when they were 16. They just picked up the license at the DMV. DMV randomly tests some dates - my son caught that so was tested twice. They didn't even offer it when I was in school. My last two graduated in 2002 and 2003. It was required. Just like the Constitution test.
--Vic
Brent, you're making sense. Stop it. Now think like a lawyer:
Those incidents you mentioned are "acts of God" and you can't win a lawsuit based on them.
But if the computer SHUTS DOWN the engine BY DESIGN, well my-oh-my, that's willful murder on the part of the manufacturer! Now we've got a CASE!!
I guess I'm just too old. There was no constitution test when I went to HS in Illinois either (class of '68). I do remember the last time I had to drive in Illinois I observed a near universal disregard for virtually all the rules of the road and near total lack of enforcement that would have blown our minds back in the '60s.
A good lawyer could sue for faulty water pump design or poorly made ignition modules too ;)
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