The Danger of Autonomous Cars

One of the newest trends to come out of the automotive world is the autonomous car. Autonomous cars are cars that can drive themselves. While this is nothing new to most Americans, having been part of our culture thanks to T.V. shows like the Jetsons and movies like I, Robot, up until recently, the notion of a car that drives itself has been pure fantasy. But thanks to companies like Google and Uber, the autonomous car might be a reality long before anyone thought it was possible. But there are problems with autonomous cars, and that is what this article is going to be about.

Take a look at the picture below. It is a scene from the science fiction movie, I, Robot. The movie is about robots that come to life and attempt to take over society. But one interesting thing in the movie is that everyone, like actor Will Smith is doing in the scene below, has cars that drive for them, rather than cars that they drive:

So what's the big deal, I can hear some people say? A car that drives itself would be a blessing. People could sleep on the way to work. People could use the drive time to get ready for work or to catch up on reading or to finish shaving or putting on makeup, and do it while someone else drives, instead of doing those things and driving, which happens all too often today. All of those are valid points, and if we ever get to the technological level of the society in I, Robot, I will yield to them. But we are nowhere near that society. The autonomous cars that we have now are limited in scope. Some will need the equivalent of wires in the road to guide them (Honda and Mercedes-Benz were two car companies working along those lines in recent years). The Google and Uber autonomous cars essentially use lasers and sensors to see obstacles in the road, identify them, and then move the car in the safest possible way, or stop it altogether if the computer deems driving at that point to be hazardous. Here is a graphic of how the Uber self-driving car works:

As you can see, the Uber car primarily relies on Lidar, which is a system which uses laser beam pulses to measure distances and essentially see. That is how the Uber can drive, know when to stop, and know when to turn; the laser pulses, measuring distances, tell it when to do those things. The Google system is very similar to what Uber uses. Here is a video showing the Google self-driving car at work:

Ok, so again I can see people saying, what's the problem here? These cars have enough cameras and enough lasers to see through anything, and they both have a computer to organize that information much quicker than a human could and make decisions that will be free of emotion and ego. So what's the problem? The problem is apathy, and to a large extent, atrophy, at least in regards to driving skills. I  want to bring to your mind a movie called Wall E. Wall E was a movie set in the future, very similar to I, Robot. A future where mankind is so technologically advanced that machines not only drive us, they feed us, clean us, clothe us, and do basically everything but breathe for us. In Wall E, makind has become lazy, and ambitionless, due to technology doing things that humans used to do as a matter of course. In this clip, the robot WALL-E ends up on a cruise ship, and he is going along a corridor, passing two men who are talking to each other about their day. 

 I don't know if you noticed it, but the two men in the clip are having a conversation with each other, via some sort of electronic device, while lounging on chairs that move them around, all while being only five feet from each other. While this might sound like a stretch in comparison to self-driving cars, I don't think it is. What will happen to our driving skills if cars start doing all the driving? Already there are mainstream cars that have automatic parallel parking. In the past, parallel parking was one of the hardest parts of the driving test, because of  the difficulty new drivers had in learning how wide their cars were and how to brake and accelerate smoothly. Now the car does it for you. If all cars do this, how well will drivers be at parallel parking in 50 years? And the driver aids won't stop there. We already have automatic emergency braking. How soon until totally automatic braking, so that a driver doesn't need to worry about stopping distances or think about how his or her car is handling? And how soon until cars are accident proof? It's not as far fetched as it sounds. In fact, one author, Richard S. Foster, tackled that very subject in his short story, "A Nice Morning Drive." In the story, the government has mandated that cars must survive a 30 mile per hour crash with no damage to the car or the occupant. As a result, cars start to be built like tanks, with 30 mile per hour impacts bouncing off the cars like water balloons thrown against a brick building. The story talks about the main character, who has an MGB roadster that, even though he knows it's illegal, he still takes it out on the road for nice drives as often as possible. In one instance in the story, he encounters one of these cars that can survive 30 mile per hour accidents (called MSVs or Modern Safety Vehicles) and as happens with human nature, we no longer respect that which we believe can't hurt us. So the drivers of MSVs treat non MSV cars as objects in a demolition derby, and do their best to destroy them, knowing full well nothing can happen to their cars. As the story says:

"people became accustomed to cars which went undamaged in 10 mile per hour collisions. They gave even less thought than before to the possibility of being injured in a crash. As a result, they tended to worry less about clearances and rights-of-way, so that the accident rate went up a steady six percent each year....most of the non-MSV owners were kept busy dodging the less careful MSV drivers."

This is what happens when people don't have to worry about their safety and the need to drive well. In the story, MSV cars, which by the end are mandated to survive 60 mile per hour crashes, drive as if they were tanks, running over anything, not worrying about being hurt, not worrying about damaging the car, because it can't be damaged. If we enter a world where the car drives itself, and we don't have to worry about being hurt, or being drivers, can anyone say that our society, in time, will not be like the society in Richard Foster's short story? Will drivers in cars that drive themselves become arrogant and forget the danger that exists any time someone drives a car? I hope not, but it is a future that I don't think is as far-fetched as it might seem. Until next time...

Driving Rental Trucks

Moving can be an exciting time: maybe you are on your way to your next job, house, or apartment. Maybe you are starting at a new school. Maybe you are finally getting that dream house in that dream state that you have always dreamed of. No matter which of the above the situations apply, you still have to move. If you have the money, you can hire people to move you, and then all you have to do is focus on driving yourself to that new place. But most people don't have that kind of money, and have to rely on doing their own driving, at the wheel of a rented moving truck. Here is the way to do it safely.

The first thing to do is leave your ego at the door. Yes, I'm talking primarily to the guys who are reading this, but this could apply to the ladies as well. We are born with this notion that we should be able to do anything just because we have to do it. This is wrong, and gets guys in to lots of trouble. It is OK to admit you don't know a lot about driving a moving truck, and that you need to take it slow and feel things out. In fact, this is the best way to approach the moving truck, as it is those people who treat the moving truck as a car who end up ripping the corners off of parking structures, hitting cars, or running over curbs. And guess who gets to pay for all of that damage: yep, the driver. So respect the truck and what it represents, and be OK with the fact that this is new for you and that you need to go slower until you are comfortable.

 The fact of the matter is that for most people, a moving truck is the largest thing they will ever drive. And most people apply the width, following distance, and braking distance of their street car to a moving truck. This doesn't work. A moving truck has twice the turning radius of a street car, and needs much longer to stop, especially if it's fully loaded. The visibility out of the windows and mirrors of a moving truck is terrible, and you just can't turn you head to see if someone is in the blind spot. It is a much different beast than a street car, and as soon as the driver realizes that, and respects it, they are on their way to a safe driving situation.

Let's look at some of those differences between road cars and moving trucks. The first thing we are going to look at is visibility. You will notice first off that you are higher off of the ground in a moving truck, and that your mirrors are bigger. You need both of those to help you see. But while you have bigger mirrors, you don't have a center mounted rear-view mirror like you do in your car (because all you could see in that mirror, if they gave you one, is the front end of the cargo compartment). You need to get in to the habit of checking your mirrors often, and relying on your blind spot mirror to help you figure out if you can pass or not. Below is a typical U haul mirror.

A typical U-Haul Mirror

This mirror setup is much different from most cars. The side view mirror is the one at the top The mirror at the bottom is a large blind spot mirror. This blind spot mirror is what you are going to look in before you attempt to make a lane change, as that is the only way you can check your blind spot in a vehicle this big. You will need to get in to the habit of checking mirrors often, and studying that  blind spot mirror for a couple of seconds before any lane changes, because while not only are stopping distances and turning radiuses bigger on a moving truck, you guessed it, the blind spot is as well!

Next is stopping distance. If you came from a regular street car, your stopping distances just went from stopping on a dime, to taking  football field length spaces to stop in a moving truck. This is because your weight just went up, due to all of the things your moving truck is carrying. It takes driving the truck to know this for sure, but a good rule of thumb is that if you get the biggest moving truck U-haul rents (which I believe is a 26-foot truck), you should triple your stopping distances to start. And always stop smoothly. Stopping smoothly and in a controlled fashion will be the difference between braking for a stop, and breaking all your stuff. Start off with triple the stopping distance, and then you can lessen it if you see that you are coming to a full stop before triple the stopping distance of your car. I'd bet you end up with a stopping distance between two times and three times the stopping distance of your road car.

The turning radius is the next thing we are going to look at. Your road car has a relatively tight turning radius (turning radius is the size of the circle that the vehicle makes as it turns. The smaller the car, the smaller the turning radius. The bigger the car, the bigger the turning radius). A moving truck has a bigger turning radius than a road car, much bigger in fact. You need to keep this in mind as you complete left or right turns. It will take longer for the car to complete a turn than it does in your road car, and if you try to negotiate a turn in a moving truck the same way and with the same turning as a road car, you will run over cars and sidewalks, guaranteed. You need to give your moving truck more room to stop, as well as more room to turn.

Lastly, lets look at something that has nothing to do with driving, but can have a big impact on you being able to drive safely: the way you load the truck. You should follow the  instructions that the moving truck company gives you as far as loading goes. But one rule of thumb is that you want to make sure that there is no way that the stuff you have in the moving truck can move, or shift. If you try to take a corner in your moving truck, and the turn makes the stuff you have in the back of the moving truck shift, not only will it damage your belongings, but it could push the truck one way or another based on the excess force that the load moving puts on the truck. There is a correct way, and an incorrect way to load a moving truck. Let's let the folks at Penske truck rentals, a major moving truck rental company, show us how it should be done:

If you respect your moving truck for it's size, unique requirements regarding mirrors and vision, extra room needed to turn and slow down, and you load it just like shown above. Your moving truck experience can be just as magical and exciting as hopefully your move will be. Until next time...

How to Avoid A Carjacking

It's difficult to find accurate, nation-wide statistics for it, but whether Carjackings are up, or down, they remain a serious threat to drivers everywhere. Sometimes, a carjacking is simply an attempt to get a car, and once the driver is out of the car and away, the carjacker doesn't pay any more attention to them. But other times, carjackers take the car, and the life, of the driver they carjack. Let's take a closer look at carjackings, and some steps to prevent them.

Carjacking is the attempted theft of a car from its rightful owner, usually using a weapon or other kind of threat. According to the U.S. State Department, most carjackings occur in urban areas, or in areas where there are not many people. Most of the carjackings that occur in the United States deal with urban drivers, so that is where this article will focus.

The State Department's  Carjacking, Don't be a Victim page (found at https://www.state.gov/m/ds/rls/rpt/19782.htm ) gives great information about the kinds of carjacks, how to avoid them, and how to decide whether or not to fight back. That website will be the main source I will use in this article, and even though the webpages focus is on international carjacking, there is much there that can be used with carjacking in the United States.

First off, the State Department says your first best weapon against carjacking is to not put yourself in a situation where it can happen. They say to be careful of urban areas, intersections or anywhere you have to stop, and areas that cause traffic backups and trap cars, such as cul de sacs, or gated driveways. There is one other major way that a driver can avoid a carjacking, and that is to not make themselves an attractive victim. This is done by first off making sure that all the doors are locked as soon as the driver gets in the car, and making sure that all the windows in the car are up.  It's also done by not having anything in the car that could be attractive to a robber (in other words, cover your valuables. Imagine driving through a dangerous downtown, with a new TV in the front seat. That is what you don't want to be advertising anytime you drive).

But that's not all a driver can do to aid avoidance. The other thing is to keep your focus. Many times, drivers use traffic stops or traffic tie ups as chances to check their phones, or to just zone out as an escape from the monotony of driving. This is a very bad idea. The average carjacker has two things in his or her favor: surprise, and fear. The driver that is going through their day oblivious to their surroundings is just what a carjacker is looking for. And make no mistake, like other thieves, carjackers are creatures of opportunity. They might see a Mercedes with all of it's windows down a quarter of a mile away, but if they walk by a car with its windows rolled down, and an oblivious driver at the wheel, who do you think a carjacker is going to go after first? That's right, the oblivious driver.

Sometimes though, avoidance is not enough. There are times when a driver is just at the wrong place at the wrong time, what then? Well this is where your preparedness will come in to play. If you have your doors locked and your windows up, the carjacker can't get in to your car. But that is not their only weapon. The State Department lists four ways that carjackers, using cars, can get your car:

• The Bump. A bump occurs when a group of carjackers, driving behind the target car, intentionally hit the target car. When the driver of the target car gets out to inspect the damage or to see if the person who hit them is OK, a carjacker jumps in to the victim car, and drives away. 
• The Good Samaritan. This one is clever. A group of carjackers will stage a fake accident. A driver will see the accident, stop, and try to render aid, While they are out of the car, a carjacker takes the car. 
• The Ruse. A carjacker uses the car's lights and his or her voice to indicate to the victim's car that there is a problem with their car. The victim, being concerned, pulls over to investigate. While they are out of the car, a carjacker takes the car.
• The Trap. This one occurs when carjackers use daily things, like gates, to trap the victim car. Once the car is trapped, the carjacker can go up to the victim, flash a gun or a knife, and get an easy car as the driver will know that there is nowhere they can go.

Spare a quick thought to the potential innocent bystander in all of the above mentioned scenarios: passengers. Very often, there are children in a carjacked car, and more than once carjackers have been known to either throw children out of moving cars, or place them on the side of the road. The carjacker is more interested in getting the car, a kid is a nuisance that is quickly dealt with. 

So what should you do if you are bumped? Drive until you get to a safe, public place.  Then stop. If the person doesn't follow you, it might be a good indication that you were a victim of a bump. Call the police, tell them what happened, and get instructions from them. If  you see an accident by the road, don't stop unless you are a doctor, and even then, be wary. Call the police or 911 to report the situation. .But don't get out of your car. Call for help, and  then wait if you feel you must, but do so from a safe distance. If you see someone pointing to your car or gesticulating that you have an issue, do not follow them to where they want to go. Just like with the bump, go to a safe, public place, and check your car out. Above all, follow your gut. If you get a feeling that this doesn't seem right, follow it and get out of there. 

Now how do you fight back if you are carjacked? If you have followed my advice here and kept your windows up and your doors locked, you will be a tough target for a carjack, especially if the carjacker is on foot. I remember a carjacking that happened in Phoenix about ten years ago. A car thief was running from police. He pulled a gun on a woman who was pulling out of a store parking lot. Luckily, this woman was smart. Her windows were up and her doors were locked. The carjacker tried to open the doors and banged on the window, but it was as much use as the Fox trying to blow the brick house down. The driver of the car acted instead of waiting, and took off as fast as she could. She ended up throwing the carjacker to the ground as she drove off, potentially saving her life and the life of anyone else in that car.

The State Department has a list of things that a driver should go through to determine whether or not to fight  back when carjacked, but I feel many of those are a bit beyond the scope of this article. My fervent hope for anyone reading this is that you will get in to the habit of keeping your doors locked, and your windows up. Yes, I understand that it will be tough if you don't have air conditioning in the summer and you have to roll up your windows. Yes, I know that when it's 75 and gorgeous outside, you want to drive with your windows down, the radio up, and you want to put all of your focus on how good it all feels. But be careful, because those are just the kinds of people carjackers prey on. And you won't see them coming. Carjackers are desperate men or women. Only you will know your situation, but according to the State Department, the best thing to do is give them the car. This might hold true for most situations, and most times, and once the carjacker  gets the car, you might never have to see them again, but there are enough other cases to make one question the validity of doing what a carjacker wants. Take a look at the following incidents reported in Curt Rich's excellent book, "Drive to Survive"

• Incident 14: A woman was getting gas at a self-service gas station. A recently released parolee demanded her keys. She gave them to him. He shot and killed her and took the car. The car was a cheap, common, Japanese sedan.
• Incident 16: A young woman was waiting in a drive-thru line at a fast food restaurant. A young man shot her, dragged the blood-soaked body out  of the car and drove away. At his trial, he admitted that he killed her. He had run out of gas in his getaway car from a convenience store robbery, and needed a car with a full tank of gas.
• Incident 17: A young mother, as she got in to her car in a parking lot was thrown to the ground by an attacker, who proceeded to take her car and drive off. Her baby was strapped into the back seat, so she tried to hang on to the car to rescue her child. The carjacker, seeing this, brushed the car up against a guard rail in an attempt to dislodge the mother, killing her. Later, they threw the baby, car seat and all, out on to the median of a freeway. The child survived because it was in a car seat.

The above incidents might be one in a million shots, or they might be more common than is reported, but I would advise anyone reading this to not trust a carjacker to do what they say they will do.

The moral of the story: stay aware, stay focused, stay behind locked doors and rolled up windows. My advice, and take it for what it's worth, as I'm a person who has never been carjacked, and has never worked in law enforcement, is to not yield to carjackers. My suggestion is to fight back. The first step in that is keeping your windows up and your doors locked. The next step is to always remain focused, and not get yourself in to situations where you could be carjacked. If you do get carjacked, drive off if you can like the woman in Phoenix. Above all, do not make yourself an easy target. Make the carjacker have to look elsewhere for his or her ride, and stay safe. Until next time...

GM Stories: The Day Looking Behind me Almost Got me Killed

Today's GM story involves one of the strangest, and most heart-stopping occurrences I've ever had behind the wheel. To set the stage, let me say that one of the things that we often did while testing for GM was drive off property. Some of the more popular spots for the engineers to send us to were Payson, Superior, and where I was going to for this story, Globe.

Globe is an old mining town in central Arizona. Billy the Kid is one of the more famous residents of Globe in years past. And while that famous resident shot up saloons and killed people, my mission was much more mundane, and boring: log test miles in a car and run certain sections of road to see how certain parts of the car performed. But Globe is not where my story today takes place. For that, you have to go back to the sleepy hamlet of Queen Valley, or more precisely, the railroad crossing just past town.

The road to Globe goes through this particular railroad crossing, and the route the GM engineers wanted the test driver to take also ran through there. This particular route had stops at certain pull outs, where we were to stop, and then accelerate up to a certain speed. This one particular one at the Queen Valley railroad crossing was at an asphalt pad just past the railroad. I pulled in to the pullout, stopped as instructed, and then as soon as I was stopped, I made ready to accelerate hard up to the speed limit, as the engineers desired for that test.

So just as anyone would do, I pulled up close to the edge of the road, and looked behind me. The time was a bit past 5 PM as I recall, and as always at this time, the road, AZ 60,  a two lane highway, was busy. There were many cars behind me, and many cars on the other side of the road going the other direction, but I wasn't too concerned with them, as the fact that they were on the other side of the road meant that they weren't going to effect me. 

So I looked behind me, patiently waiting for my chance to enter the traffic stream and make my way towards Globe. One car...then another...then two more... and finally, a gap. I get ready to hit the gas, knowing that I have to accelerate hard to get out of the pullout and get up to speed so that I don't impede the traffic behind me and cause a dangerous situation as I pull out.

The last car I had to wait for passes me, and I get ready to hit the gas. I've done all I need to do for safety, and since I'm sure that  behind me is clear, I turn my head to the front, and hit the gas.

But as soon as I hit the gas, I shifted my feet and slammed on the brakes for all that they were worth. For just as that last car went past me that I was waiting for, a car on the other side of the road, seeing that same gap, took that same opportunity to go that I was waiting for, but for him, he entered my side of the road to  pass the slower car in front of him. Had I not looked forward for that split second before hitting the gas, whoever that driver was, and I, would have been involved in a very nasty head on collision. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I had to take a second to compose myself, as this was the last thing I was ever expecting on that road.

This was such an odd occurrence that I have never seen it since, nor have I ever heard of it happening to anyone else. But it did happen to me on that day. The moral of the story: do not assume that anything is safe or that any part of the road does not need to be looked at when you are entering traffic. While what happened to me is pretty rare in my experience, the notion of assuming that a driver only needs to focus on one direction can be since to be working pretty often actually, anytime someone attempts a U-turn at an intersection. The next time you attempt a U-turn at an intersection, take a look at the cars turning right at the  same intersection that you are going to do your U-turn at. Most of the time, the people turning right will not even look up to see if someone is going to try a U-turn that might end up in the same lane that they are in,  and I personally have had some close calls with people turning right  just as I start a U-turn who didn't have a turn signal going and for whom I thought they were waiting for the light to turn green to go straight. So this example isn't as extreme as it might have first been thought to be, but it does do a great job of illustrating just how important it is to not assume anything and to know what's going on all around you at all times. Until next time...

DRIVING SKILLS NUMBER THREE: Negotiating Medium and High-Speed Turns

Today we are going to look at something that causes a lot more headaches, and a lot more accidents, than most people realize: turning a vehicle at medium or higher speeds. At first glance this is no more difficult or should take no more thought than it does starting the car: take keys out, put key in to ignition, turn, drive. But there is much more to it, as we will go over now.

There is a reason why there is a Formula One car from the 1960s at the top of this blog. Formula One cars, then, as now, operate on a knife's edge of adhesion. What that means is that it only takes an unsmooth motion or jerking of the wheel to make the car lose control. And it is exactly this jerkiness that causes most of the accidents that take place while turning.

Accidents that occur while turning in either a medium or high speed corner can be attributed to one of two things. The first is a mechanical failure (tire blow out, suspension failure, hitting a pothole which causes damage to the car). And the second is the driver aggressively operating the steering wheel while the car is being turned. Apart from making sure you keep up on maintenance of the car, not much can be done about the first kind of accident. Therefore, all of our focus today will be on preventing the second attribute to corner accidents: aggressive operation of the car while turning.

I can imagine a potential question right away: Why would a car that weighs around one and a half to two tons (as most modern cars do) have an issue with being turned aggressively?  The mass of the car should be able to resist that, shouldn't it? Not really, actually.

What is important to remember about a car is that all cars run on four tires. This you already know, what you may not know about is the contact patch of those tires. Whether you are talking about a donut spare (that little rubber thing you have in your trunk that resembles a black Frisbee, yet is supposed to be a spare tire!) or mammoth off road tires fitted to a one-ton truck, all tires have a contact patch which is not much larger than the palm of your hand. This contact patch is that part of the tire that is in contact with the road while the car is being driven. But that doesn't actually tell the whole story. Remember, tires have tread, that means that the contact patch isn't a solid oval, it is an oval that is not connected at all points because of the spaces between the tread blocks. These spaces are necessary because they allow water to be removed from the road surface by the tire going over the water. (but that is a subject for another post.) What's worse, that contact patch can move, because unless your tires are bald (and in that case you have bigger issues for sure) those tread blocks will move side to side depending on how aggressive you steer the car. So a car that might be fine at 60 going at a straight line (where the contact patch, and the tread blocks, are being pushed in the direction the manufacturer intended them to be pushed, in line with the direction the car is travelling) will be totally different when the car is turned at 60 miles per hour. At that point, not only does the contact patch shift  because of what we already discussed with the tread blocks, but the outer tires have more weight on them because of the g-forces of the turn. This causes the tread blocks to be both pushed down, and out. If too much force is applied, and applied too quickly, it can cause the tread blocks to be pushed further than they can go and still maintain grip with the road surface, and in a worst case scenario, those tread blocks can slide along the surface of the road altogether, meaning that there is no longer any control of the car. Here is a picture of the tread of a modern tire.

In this picture, you can see the individual tread blocks, and the large open spaces between the tread blocks. Remember that contact patch that was about the size of your hand? That patch is made up of what you see in the picture above. That is why driving smoothly, or unaggresively, is so important. By operating the car in a smooth manner, you allow the car to maintain the level of grip that it was designed to have, which results in a safe trip.

So, how does a driver operate a car smoothly in a turn? A driver does this by first off being prepared  to steer in to a fast turn, and then knowing how to turn in smoothly, and safely. 

In my experience, most accidents involving medium to high speed turns are the result of surprise. The driver was either daydreaming or focusing on a song or their phone, or just wasn't paying the attention that they needed to the road. Other factors are drivers not believing turn speed limits, and drivers being overconfident in their abilities to drive a car. Regardless of the reason, most drivers who have accidents while turning were not ready mentally for the turn they were entering. A driver gets ready by first off always being prepared for a turn. At no time should a driver enter a turn of any kind without knowing in the back of his or her mind that at any time in the turn, the car could lose traction if the driver operates the car aggressively in the turn. A good driver is prepared for this, and whether they are entering a 20 mile per hour turn, or a 60 mile per hour turn, they drive with the same focus and caution, knowing that it is most likely going to be their fault if an accident happens due to poor driving. So the first step in turning safely is being ready and prepared for the turn, and knowing that the turn could go bad if the driver is too aggressive.

The next way that a driver negotiates a medium or high-speed turn safely, is in how the driver turns in to that turn. All turns should be done smoothly, and deliberately. There should be no sawing of the wheel (the rapid back and forth movement of the steering wheel in a turn that is sometimes seen in auto racing), nor should there be sudden movements. A driver should enter the turn, see where they need to move the steering wheel, and once the driver gets to that point, they move the steering wheel in a smooth, but deliberate way, in the direction of the turn. Now don't let that word deliberate confuse you. What that means is that the wheel is turned not in a weak or indecisive way, but in a solid way. Not in a way that is jerky or abusive, but in a confident way in the direction that the car needs to go. 

One question that might come up is how do I know when to start steering in to the turn, and when to start steering out of the turn. That can be judged by the curve itself. Take a look at the turn below.

This is what a typical high speed corner looks like.

The above corner is a corner that has a suggested speed of 45 miles per hour. This is quite typical of many of the high-speed corners you will come across in the United States. So pretend for a minute that you are approaching this corner in your car. How will you get through it safely? Well first, slow down to the recommended speed for the corner before you enter it. Yes, I know that most people can safely get through a corner like this by going ten or sometimes fifteen miles an hour over the recommended speed, depending on their car, but they risk more than just a quick accident at those speeds. Stay with the recommended speeds. Even if you can get through the corner ten miles an hour faster, you will save maybe five seconds off your trip. The danger is not worth that short of a time gain.

Ok, back to the corner. You see that there is a 45 mile per hour corner coming up. Let's say you are doing 55 miles per hour. The way you begin the corner is by braking for the corner and being at the speed you need to be at for the corner BEFORE you enter the corner. This is a piece of advice that came straight from Sir Jackie Stewart, a British Formula One driver who earned three Formula One World Championships and survived Formula One at a time when it was common for three or more drivers to die every year. He knows what he is taking about, and if you take a second to look at what he is saying, the logic is sound. By being at the speed that you need to be at before you enter the corner, the forces working on the car will only be going in one direction, the direction the car is turning (if you brake in to the corner, then not only are cornering forces working on the car, pushing it sideways, but braking forces are working on the car, pushing it forwards. This can lead to a loss of traction much easier than if braking is completed before you enter the turn.) It also frees the driver up to do nothing but focus on steering the car through the turn as smoothly as possible, instead of having to juggle braking and releasing the brakes, and turning the car.

The next thing is when to turn. My rule of thumb is that for a medium or high speed turn on a street or highway, I start to turn in to the corner just before the road begins to change from straight to curving. I do this because the corner was made to be taken at the speed the yellow sign indicates. If I am already at that speed, I should be able to safely turn in to the corner as soon as the corner begins, if I am doing the speed that is recommended for the corner. Of course allowances might have to be made if your vehicle has a high center of gravity (like a delivery truck), or if there is an issue with the car, but those are things that you should be mindful of before you even start driving the car.

Next comes the final part: turning out of the corner, and returning the steering wheel to straight ahead. This action should be done as if it were the undoing of going in to the corner. If you are at or very close to the recommended speed for the corner, you should start turning the wheel back to straight as you see that the corner is ending and the road is becoming straight again. Just like with the braking issue going in to the corner, you shouldn't accelerate past the suggested speed of the curve until the car is all the way out of the curve. This will again give the forces acting on the tire the opportunity to only push the tire in one direction, and will allow you to focus on one thing at a time, which can be important if you approach the corner on a busy traffic day or if you are a new or older driver.

The diagram below gives a good overview of the forces acting upon a tire (and a car) in all situations:

When the car accelerates in a straight line, the forces acting on the tire are in a straight line, and forward. When the car brakes, the forces acting on the tires are in a straight line, but backwards. When the car is turned either to the left, or to the right, G-forces are applied to the tire, which is what causes the tire to slide if the G-forces have a strong enough effect upon the car.

Slip Angle is the amount that the tires slide when a sideways force is applied to them.

The above diagram  gives a good impression of what happens to the tread blocks of a tire when the tire has a sideways load, or G-force applied to it. As already said, these forces will cause the tread blocks to slide, or slip, and the Slip Angle is the amount of slip the tread blocks endure. This is why it is so important to always keep your tires in mind as you turn, because any corner taken to aggressively could lead to a loss of control.

Lastly, let's look at an example of a car loosing traction. In this case, the car is a Ford Escort MK. 1 Rally Car. Look at how his aggressive driving causes the rear end to oversteer, or slide:

As you can see in the video, the driver enters the corner aggressively, and as soon as he gets past the middle of the corner, the rear tires loose traction, and the car slides. On a racetrack, this is no big deal, as cars are often designed to slide around corners because it is the fastest way to negotiate a turn, if the slide can be controlled. But in a motor car, at night, by yourself, this is the last thing anyone would want to experience.

The way to negotiate a turn safely is to first off recognize the importance of the tires and the forces acting on them, and how they could be made to lose traction if a driver is too aggressive. Then it's important to take corners at the speed that is suggested for them, brake fully before entering the corner, turn in to the corner smoothly, but deliberately, and don't accelerate until you are through the turn and your tires are straight. Hopefully these tips will help you negotiate any corner you come across in your driving. I can tell you from personal experience as a test driver that sliding a car on a racetrack or closed off proving grounds is incredibly fun, but it is only fun because there are no other cars or people out where the cars are being tested, and the people testing them are trained professionals. The street is not like that at all, so keep the sliding to the pros, and negotiate turns in such a way as to get you, and your car, home in one piece. Until next time...

Why Flipping Someone Off is a Bad Idea

It happens every day, on roadways all over the world: someone does something while driving that someone else thinks they shouldn't have done. So to get back, they flip the person off. Flipping off someone (or giving someone the middle finger, as it's also known), is a very popular way of expressing frustration and expressing the way someone feels about another person's driving. But flipping people off has consequences that I've not seen with any other form of insult, and those consequences are what today's article is about.

I won't lie, I have flipped off many drivers in my day. Usually, my flipping the other driver off was as a result of that driver cutting me off, tailgating me, or doing anything else which I judged rude or dangerous that I felt needed a response. I have also flipped off people who have flipped me off first before, and that has been the situation when I seem to have used the middle finger most often. But the expression of giving someone the middle finger causes something primal and offensive in us, and it can, and has, led to road rage incidents, intimidating driving, and dangerous maneuvers by drivers who felt offended by getting the middle finger by another driver.

On the surface, this gesture shouldn't be a big deal. What is one rude gesture when we are surrounded by negativity all day long? We are deluged by cuss words and offensive actions almost by the minute thanks to memes, Facebook or Twitter feeds, movies, songs, or YouTube videos. But there has always been something about someone giving the middle finger to someone else that makes us almost literally lose our minds as humans. I have seen minor road rage incidents caused because someone flipped off someone else. I have seen fights started because of middle fingers. There seems to be something about the middle finger that triggers an almost instant reaction of hostility in most people, and it is this reaction that is the most dangerous, because if you've read any of my other articles, you have seen that emotions are rarely controllable, and the stronger ones, like hate, are even less so.

So what's the solution? It comes in two forms. The first part is to not use the middle finger yourself when you drive in reaction to someone doing something to you. The second part is doing your best to control your own reaction when someone gives you the middle finger.

So you are driving along, and all of a sudden someone swerves in to your lane, or they cut you off, or they pull a quick right turn in front of you, and then slam on their brakes to enter a driveway. In any of those cases, you would be justified for being angry and wanting to react to the person who wronged you. But if you take a second, remember the danger of the middle finger, and choose not to use it, and instead use something else to show your frustration, something that carries far less offense, you will go a long way towards diffusing a bad situation. What I do when I feel I need to react to another driver's bad actions is to simply put my hand up, kind of like in a "did you seriously just do that? Seriously?" pose. Somewhat like this:

Did You Really Just Do That?

I've never had anyone react in any way similar to the way they react to this gesture like they would if I flipped them off. In fact, using a gesture like this seems to be a far less offensive, and less dangerous, way of expressing disapproval of another driver's actions. Of course, you might have other gestures, depending on where you live and the culture you were brought up in, but anything will likely work better than a middle finger. Do your best to retire the middle finger from use when you drive. Driving will be much safer for you if you can.

Now what about the other issue: your reaction when you are flipped off? Just like with the first situation, do your best to ignore a middle finger. This situation can be a bit harder to do, because I've noticed that people seem to have an automatic response to being flipped off, and that is to flip off the person who flipped them off. Oftentimes, it seems like it can't be helped. But I have found that by making a conscious effort to not employ the middle finger, and some practice, I have almost completely eliminated it from my driving.  I have done my hand wave, like the picture above, when I've been flipped off, and I can say from experience it works much better. It gets the nervous energy and anger out,of me but doesn't seem to inspire the same kind of hatred in other drivers. And that is the best way to go.

I am not saying that giving up the middle finger is going to be easy, especially if you've been using it for a long time. That is especially going to be true in a culture where the middle finger and profanity are found all over the place, all day long. But if you keep in mind the information in this article, especially those points about road rage incidents being caused by middle fingers, and the rage that the middle finger seems to bring out in people that get it, I think a driver can train themselves to not use that gesture. It will be hardest, in my opinion, to not be tempted to use it when it is first used on you, but if you try to employ another gesture, like the hand one I mentioned, and you use that one when you feel you need to, it can replace the middle finger in time. Of course, the best situation would be to not have to use any gesture in response to something another driver did to you, but that takes time, patience, and a calm spirit, which are not things that everyone can have all the time. The best thing to do for all involved though, is to remove the middle finger, and the potential harm it can cause, from driving altogether. Until next time....

Lessons from Jon

 I am writing this article on the day my friend Jon moves from Arizona, back to his adopted home state of Montana. The fact that he is moving is not the reason for the article, rather the events that transpired right before his move, are.  Jon was supposed to move in mid-December. He had his apartment situation all sorted out: had the place checked, had all utilities cancelled, and a moving van and movers ready to go. That was supposed to happen around December 18^th of 2016. Unfortunately for Jon, that move never took place on that day, for a week before that day, he was involved in an accident that still shakes him to this day, and this accident that my friend went through has good lessons for us all to learn and remember.

Jon was driving back from a mini vacation in the Prescott, Arizona, area. In the car with him that night was his sister, and his sister’s daughter. Jon had been driving on dark state routes that were for the most part deserted. It was the perfect time of year for a drive like this from a safety angle: the migrating elk had already reached where they would winter for the year, it was a typical cold-weather December two weeks before Christmas, so the roads weren’t crowded. And it hadn’t snowed yet, so none of the Flatlanders from the Phoenix, Arizona area were on the road hunting for snow, something that tends to happen a lot in northern Arizona during the winter.  Apart from the fact that it was dark, it was a pretty safe time and place to be driving.

This safety continued for Jon for many miles: first, up the 260 from Interstate 17, then on to Arizona State Route 87, towards his home in Payson, Arizona. During this time, Jon had lowered his speed as anyone should on dark roads, and he was doing a great job focusing on the road and looking out for hazards. Jon is an expert driver, and his skills showed on that night.

------Imagine this, blocking the entire road, unlit, unwarned of, and very dangerous--------

This safety continued until Jon was about a mile north of the Tonto Natural Bridge, the largest natural tavertine bridge in the world (if you haven’t been there, you should go, it is amazing). Here, coming out of a dip in the road, Jon saw what he never expected to see blocking the road in front of him: the bulk of an old UHaul truck, those large rental ones with the special, “Mom’s Attic” over the cab. Jon is still not sure what the person was doing, but he was almost fully blocking both lanes of traffic, and doing it in a spot that was hard to see from the road either ahead or behind him. To make matters worse, there were no taillights or marker lights, or reflectors on the truck at all. Jon had a split second to react, and as luck would have it, there wa just enough room on Jon’s left to squeeze between the solid mountainside, and the front of the truck. Of course, there was no way he could come through that unscathed: his Subaru was heavily damaged by smashing up against the mountain, and he himself was slightly injured by breaking glass. Thankfully, Jon’s were the only injuries and they were minor, and healed fast.

To this day, Jon has no idea what the truck was doing blocking the road. He suspects that the driver might have been trying to make a U-turn, but wonders why he didn’t use the left turn lane and four lane road of the Tonto Natural Bridge turnoff only a mile away? Jon will never know the answers, as the driver of the truck left as quickly as he could, and despite the best efforts of law enforcement, he or she could not be found.

What can be found from this incident are lessons. Jon did nothing wrong, and in fact, he strongly believes that he had divine help in avoiding more serious injury, a thought I agree with having survived accidents myself that I know I had nothing to do with because I wasn’t skilled enough to get myself out. The first lesson that can be learned is to always focus. Jon was focused, and as a result, was able to walk away, and even get his car back a month or so later. What would have happened had Jon been speeding, or texting, or looking at the stars as he encountered the truck? Had he not known the road and appreciated the dangers of driving in the dark, it’s likely that accident could have been much worse.

What is also important to point out is that accidents and situations can happen at any time, and at any place. I, myself, have driven through the area where Jon had his accident probably one hundred times, both during the day and during the night. There is nothing about the road, or the terrain around it, that makes it a place where someone would say, “oh crap, this is an accident waiting to happen!” But one did happen on that night, and it is one of the most bizarre and unexpected situations that I can ever recall hearing about in that area, let alone on any road.

So the lessons we can take from Jon’s accident are these:

            Always appreciate the fact that no matter where you are, an accident can happen at any time.

            Always appreciate the fact that you, as a driver, will have to deal with the mind-boggling confused actions of fellow drivers. You can’t get away from them, and there will be times where those actions will occur at the worst possible time and place for both you, and the confused driver.

            Always honor the danger of the conditions and roads that you are driving on. Realize that when it is dark, you cannot see past your headlights, so you must slow down. Realize that when you are in the middle of the twists and turns and ups and downs of mountain roads, those ups and downs and twists and turns can easily hide a dangerous situation that you won’t see until you are right on top of it. So slow down, don’t let yourself be distracted, and realized that it can happen to you, just as it happened to Jon.

Jon has left for Montana today. I have wished him well and thanked him for his friendship. But even he realizes how random this situation was. He has also driven that stretch of road that he had his accident on numerous times, and never had a situation pop up…until the last time he drove it. I hope that we all can take Jon’s situation, and learn from it. Anyone can get in to a situation that results in an accident through no fault of their own. But if you honor your conditions, treat all driving situations as if they all can contain an accident, and keep your focus on the car, you will stand a better chance of coming out of the accident in good shape like Jon did. Safe travels my friend. Until next time…