Strangely Brown wrote:TheInsanity1234 wrote:In the days of old where brake fade was a very real and common problem, I could understand the hesistance to use brakes - but modern braking systems are so good that I wouldn't have thought using the brakes to control your speed going downhill would be such an issue now?
It depends... for heavy vehicles and long descents fade can still be a problem. If dropping the auto into a lower gear hold helps to keep the speed in check then you have nothing to lose and everything to gain ?
Fair 'nuff. Just seemed like it was needlessly complicating the operation of something which is designed to be simple to operate.
Strangely Brown wrote:TheInsanity1234 wrote:I always thought the whole point of an auto was to simplify the driving experience to a simple "Right is go, Left is stop" kind of style, so you don't have to worry about pressing the clutch and fiddling with BGOL stuff, and trying to pick an appropriate gear for the situation, you just prod the throttle or the brake to adjust your speed, and the gearbox does the rest of the work?
I have never driven an automatic so my ramblings are entirely theoretical!
The point was - why would you want to add extra layers of complication to a thing designed to simplify the operation of a vehicle. You want to slow down? Use the brakes. You want to speed up? Use the accelerator. Can't see how fiddling with pre-selecting gears and that would lend itself to any meaningful benefits. I could see it on track, or when driving at the limits, but in the majority of every day driving, I would have thought the standard 'D' program would be perfectly satisfactory?
One thing I would say was bizarre about some of the more modern auto boxes is that they have a 'coasting' feature designed in to the software, so that when the car detects that you're driving with very little throttle (for instance, on a
very slight downhill incline, then they will disengage the clutch and allow the car to coast, which supposedly makes the car use less fuel (I don't quite understand this, but I know Audi boxes will do this in Eco mode). Seems smart, however the odditity of it is that, when you're going downhill on a steeper hill where you'd speed up without engine braking BUT you still need to have some throttle input to maintain your speed going down, the box will go into 'coast' mode. As you can imagine, this results in the car speeding up, so you put your foot on the brake to control your speed, but as soon as you do this, the gearbox will engage the engine to provide engine braking to assist you in slowing down, so you have to then take your foot off the brake and prod the accelerator to stop the car slowing down too much, and bam - coast mode is engaged again! Pointless rambling, I know, but does show that perhaps technology is starting to get so "intelligient" that it's making life awkward for the users who have to interact with said technology!