@britishtechguru I am 90% sure you're talking about stability control, not traction control? Traction control affects wheelspin when accelerating.
I'm pretty sure your first example is simply you aquaplaning as you were going too fast for the conditions. That's on you.
Traction control and ABS can be a problem in snow, certainly true, but it's incredibly easy to turn off in that situation, and the rest of the time it's a huge safety plus 99.9% of the time.
@drgrowmac when you intend to use aquaplaning to control your vehicle, suddenly having traction control blocking it is a dangerous thing.
My traction control defaults to on every time I start the blasted engine. It needs to be removed totally. ABS I can take or leave -:I can drive with or without that.
My vehicle has traction control not stability control.
@britishtechguru You're describing driving in an intentionally dangerous manner. Aquaplaning intentionally is absolutely ludicrous. Also, traction control wouldn't cause what you describe, that's likely just aquaplaning and then one wheel hitting grip again first causing the car to yaw.
Anyway, much like an acquaintance who hates the forward facing radar that stops him skim-overtaking cars with a 50 mph speed differential, I'm delighted that you're being kept in check. Safer for the rest of us.
@drgrowmac Aquaplaning might be strange for you but for the driving I had to do at the time, it was an essential skill. Don't assume everybody drives a car on paved roads from the house to the office like a vicar.
I drive an SUV. I drive dirt roads daily. I drive icy roads, icy and wet dirt tracks, cross country and there's always at least one pistol in my vehicle.
We are not the same even though we are both from Britain.
@britishtechguru Very true. Driving on a public, paved road is very different to offroad. Although I thought one of the basics of off-road driving was to turn all the aids off? On-road I stand by the fact that the benefits hugely outweigh the downsides 99% of the time for 99.9% of drivers.
Have a good weekend either way!
@drgrowmac I must be the .1% of drivers then. BTW I am taking a position as a driving instructor though not for cars as a sideline for the same government organisation for which I work here in the USA.
Happy weekend to you too :)
This weekend I shall be working on my electronics projects again.
*stares*
And there is no way to disable this "feature"?
Because if there is, well then the bill for wasting 911's time goes to the user if you can't turn it off send it to Apple... how much in fines before they work out a fix?
In the example the person saying its been doing it for 3 days is an idiot then.
He knows his phone is doing it.
He knows its done it multiple times.
He is not bothered enough that he is calling fscking 911 with whats a crank call.
He is an idiot, he should be fined.
Example of a ski slope false alarm:
https://youtu.be/WEFEom46zNE?t=826
@kashhill hey, at least they’re focusing on health & safety, contributing to mankind in a positive way, even if it is a good business decision.
Other companies at Apple’s level are focused on things like world domination (Amazon), or remaking The Sims 1.0 in VR (Meta).
Journalists: when we see big tech focused on things that serve humanity, let’s be more encouraging. Even if there are wrinkles in it.
@briandesmond @kashhill Personally, I'd prefer it if multinational tech corporations stuck to being normal multinational corps just trying to sell products and make money.
I don't want a company with the GDP of a medium-sized country to decide its mission is to save the world. Or have you forgotten literally the entire first half of the 20th century?
There is no shortage of people who want to change the world. It's just that most of them have horrifying ideas.
@briandesmond @kashhill Tying up the emergency lines is horrifying if there's a real emergency and people cannot get through to 911, or the dispatchers are busy dealing with other calls, or they make mistakes because they're overwhelmed.
Imagine a family member has a heart attack on that mountain, and it takes forever to get a 911 operator and then convince them that no, this isn't a stupid watch malfunction, it's a real emergency.
@kashhill @tchambers was it really a good idea in theory though? did anyone at Apple ask any dispatchers if it was okay to start spamming them with pranks? or even calculate the predicted signal-to-noise ratio or try to fine tune the d-prime and beta before rollout?
(related: those rent-a-scooters littering the sidewalk, or any biz using free public resources for private profit)
Apple today unveiled the iPhone 14 lineup, Apple Watch Series 8, Watch Ultra, and Watch SE 2. All of these new products bring with them a long-standing feature from Google’s Pixel lineup, Car Crash Detection, in a case of tech companies copying each other to the benefit of everyone. Google Pixel introduced Car Crash Detection […]
Do I remember correctly, riding a subway is enough for Apple to send ambulances to you, as you ride further downtown?
Maybe OnStar could give Apple some advice.
@kashhill Every tech company *should* have a government affairs or policy/regs department to keep an eye on this stuff to avoid showstopping liability problems (and this is one) before they hit the market.
But they won't. Because regs are boring and rules get in the way of moving fast, and they're certain that they've got it right anyways and besides, what's the worst that could happen?
When regulation comes for big tech, we'll need to find smaller words to use, I suspect.
> another example of a good idea from a technology company in theory
It was never a good idea. Any engineer I know would have told you, from the moment this feature was proposed, that it would generate far more false positives than it would detect actual accidents in need of assistance. No engineer thought this was a good, workable idea.
What it's yet another example of is an idea the marketing people in a tech company thought was good, despite being told in advance it wasn't.
@kashhill
As soon as I saw the ads for this 'feature' I said to my partner that this would happen.
For every non emergency call Apple should get fined. People who make prank calls to the emergency services can be arrested, I don't see how this is any different.
@kashhill This is not the first time and absolutely not the last time Apple releases something still in Alpha into the wild. Their track record is only superseded by their ability to obfuscate reality.
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