edd1974:
I got day of used have a c.f. more or lesss basically the same apart from stupid gadgets and have noticed am using more fuel compared to my c.f. manual. Although I do keep getting hints on how to save fuel . He don’t brake cruise to a stop. Be Interesting see if anyone gets a good high score I got 70%highest had
Managed 100% twice ever, driving like a 90 year old granny! Usually average 90% plus every trip though.
First thing I do when I turn on the ignition is hit a seqeuence of buttons to turn everything off! AEBS OFF, Lane Departure OFF, Predictive Cruise Control OFF, Adaptive Cruise Control i lower to the smallest distance.
As a previous poster said, get any snow/slush/dirt on the sensors and everything fails and turns itself off. How they will ever sort that out for a driverless truck I dont know!
alamcculloch:
There are two puddle jumpers in my yard one auto one 6 speed manual. I prefer the manual and get better fuel economy from it. How are the modern autos , in terms of fuel use.?
A good driver should get better mpg and longer clutch life from a manual than an auto. A bad driver will get worse mpg and kill a manual clutch and gearbox in no time. Autos are the “safe bet”.
mike68:
What we are seeing is the early technology that will eventually lead to full automation.
The lane assist the forward facing radar and adaptive cruise will one day become fully integrated into a system for a driverless truck.
The driver will just attend to the vehicle and be ready to take over for reversing and loading and off loading and the usual pre flight checks.
We have had autopilot on planes for years where the pilot just lands and takes off, we cant be to far away from a system for road vehicles.
Until it snows, covering the sensor and the truck throws a paddy.
There will for the foreseeable future be someone in attendance should the system fail, I believe it will be many years before we see completely driverless trucks.
These systems that we see now require the driver to have less and less input into the actual driving of the truck, all we do now is sit and steer, no gears adaptive cruise, brake assist, lane assist and so on.
In 10 years or less you won’t have to do anything other than keep an eye on things from the passenger seat, I for one can’t wait.
My Renault has all the gubbings: ACC, lane assist, optiroll, cuddly toy etc…
To be fair we work together quite well, sometimes she is on top sometimes myself, all in all though mutual satisfaction can be achieved.
However after 3 years I experienced a new level of intervention when a car came flying down my outside to cut in not realising traffic in front had stopped, to be honest I didn’t notice as early as I usually do, anyway I’m braking then she cuts in and almost at the exact moment I pull an emergency stop the truck takes over- full braking force with a message on the dash that the truck has ‘intervened’.
The lady in the car was very grateful as she was no doubt bracing for impact, so the truck did well probably to well as there was more space to play with as things unfolded. Nonetheless if ■■■■ go skyward this feature could save mine and other folks lives.
edd1974:
just got a new wagon daf lf. it has adapative cruise control ie car in front slows down I slow down. he speeds up I speed up.some kind of auto emergengcy brake thats suppose stop me if get to close. its automatic no chaninging gears. .also when I drift across the white lines it buzzes and wakes me up lol
my car has auto wipers auto headlights .
is it me or are all these safety aids/features taking the fun out of driving?
making people to reliant on technology god help us when it doesn’t work
No they aren’t taking the fun out. They’re taking a lot of the tedium, stress and hassle out of it and you’ll find that out in your DAF the next time you’re crawling through roadworks. Must admit though that the lane change warning gets turned off every time I start a journey
For me the fun in truck driving is finding new places, looking at the scenery as I drive around the UK, having a laugh with my workmates. When I want to get fun out of the actual driving of the vehicle I don’t do it in a 44 tonne 53ft long 15ft high speed restricted lorry, I do it in my MX5 which I had set up for high speed B road blasting.
I think you could ask the same question of many jobs and get similar reply’s. Work is less friendly and more stressful now in all walks of life , the workforce is not stable permanent now so might not be working with the same crowd all the time anymore. This means if you make a mistake often nobody to help you out rectify or cover up so you’re in the brown stuff more easily. I guess it’s life today.
edd1974:
just got a new wagon daf lf. it has adapative cruise control ie car in front slows down I slow down. he speeds up I speed up.some kind of auto emergengcy brake thats suppose stop me if get to close. its automatic no chaninging gears. .also when I drift across the white lines it buzzes and wakes me up lol
my car has auto wipers auto headlights .
is it me or are all these safety aids/features taking the fun out of driving?
making people to reliant on technology god help us when it doesn’t work
I switch them all off. That anti collision thing has activated on me when there’s nothing in front - I was on the inside of two lanes going round a bend and it slammed the brakes on. The cruise switched off in inclement weather too.
When I first drove a new one I didn’t realise it had adaptive cruise - I just set it then wondered why I was catching people up and they seemed to find some extra as I got near to them.
I don’t trust aebs braking system thing on my daf. Every so often get a red pic on dashboard like a car crash and a buzzer and nothing around me. I googled how it works .daf have a video of a woman driving a wagon following some kind of mock up polestryne car being towed along. She approaches it buzzer sounds wagon slams on the brakes automatically. Doesn’t do that to me. Have got close to a few vehicles to see but I ended up applying the brakes. In the video looks reliable safe and a good thing. In reality it’s pants
Being allowed to take a pride in your work is increasingly difficult.
There’s still fun to be had though, beating the electronics and getting better fuel economy than the box of tricks, proving that cruise is less economical than a proper driver controlling the vehicle speed.
The new electronic auto vehicles allow the incompetent to attain average fuel economy even if they do take the brake linings out in a quarter of the time a lorry driver would plus other regular hard wear and tear, but no one’s counting the cost of accelerated vehicle wear, damage or down time.
Incompetent drivers and the incompetent office staff compliment each other, in too many traffic offices where a one size fits all and lowest common denominator styles of management exists they can’t fathom why some vehicles are trouble free and others are being dragged in time and again.
mrginge:
Anyone that want manual trucks has never driven an ishift.
+1
you only have two feet,you dont need 3 pedals.
id take any auto truck over a manual and have been like that for many years now.
now and again they cakk themself and lose the plot,but the remaining time overcomes the hassle for me.
switchlogic:
No I don’t think so. In fact I love all this new gadgetry and modern trucks in general. Adaptive cruise control is possibly my favourite feature, such a brilliant piece of tech
ACC I do use in road works. But if I was offered one as an “optional extra”, I wouldn’t part with more than ten pence.
Auto gearboxes? From current experience I’d pay good money to get a manual. (I haven’t driven any of the newer ones so can only go on what I’ve known so far)
EABS? Good idea spoilt by too many false alerts.
Lane departure? False alerts plus doesn’t work on half the roads I use, so again, a good idea that doesn’t actually work well.
“Technology is stuff we have that doesn’t work yet.” [emoji3]
And false alerts and bad gearboxes are sure as hell making my daily drive less enjoyable.
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
You should try driving a Volvo, all these features work exactly as they should in my experience. My truck has ACC and its worth its weight in gold.
Swordsy:
As a previous poster said, get any snow/slush/dirt on the sensors and everything fails and turns itself off. How they will ever sort that out for a driverless truck I dont know!
Heated sensors will sort that out. Dirt doesn’t affect them just snow
I can more or less put up with most of the new tech apart from auto boxes. All the lane departure and adaptive cruise control etc stuff is there in the background occasionally annoying you but on the whole doing useful stuff.
Autos on the other hand just drive me mad all the time with their delayed getaways, wrong gear selections and pointless gear changes that have to have another change to correct the mistake all meaning a lack of progress, extra fuel consumed and extra drive train wear. The other down side imo is now all drivers have to do is start the engine, select D and hold the wheel which allows the brain to zone out as most of the driving is done for them. This allows them to concentrate more on eating their lunch or updating fakebook.
When I was asked what I wanted in my new truck the first thing I said was a ‘proper’ gearbox and to my surprise they agreed. Roll on next week [emoji4]
No more T.I.T.S for me!
Seen advert other day for Nissan Zoe I think anyway what ever it was it only has 1 pedal an è pedal and God no.not liking that idea. That’s a step. To far you need a brake pedal
I still enjoy driving to an extent . Sure all the new technology gets on my nerves but I just have to accept it , gets into the mindset over time that the company monitor every move so drive and work accordingly . Have a 2017 Volvo VN , which aside from the DEF(adblue) sensor issues , is a joy . Skeptical of the I-shift (would rather have a clutch pedal) but after a recent heavy snowfall it performed perfectly and didn’t leave me stranded .
Have various trips around the Canadian Prairies and Northern U.S. so there’s always new places to park overnight , and new people to meet too . Only work 4 days at a time which is more than tolerable , it’s not fun as such but I can think of a lot worse ways of earning some coin .
Luke: We have no Volvos at our place, so I haven’t driven an i-shift. We do have Renault (same system?) and the regular drivers like them. I’ve only had an old Premium out for a few days a few years back. Didn’t get any hassle with it, but it was an easy run so no real test. I’ll accept that there are good autos out there, but I haven’t driven one yet that I prefer to a manual.
The stuff I do like, is SatNav, digital tach with real time dash display of hours, proper day/night HEVAC system.
My last truck was a pleasure to drive. The switches and levers did what they should. My current 2 year old DAF is a nightmare! Crappy gearbox, brakes steering and suspension worse than the old one I gave up. Again it seems the latest version has improved, but the fact they again offer a manual seems to suggest they know these ones are the pits?
For me driving is much less pleasurable than 2 years ago, but I’ll accept it doesn’t HAVE to be like that.
ACC still doesn’t float my boat, but since it’s not obligatory to use it’s clearly no problem, unlike crap gearboxes.
Sent from my GT-S7275R using Tapatalk
All of this tech is designed to make life easier for the driver and it does. They are aiming to make it so easy for you that you can stay in bed until 12 then wander down to the betting shop to spend your benefits.
