> What's interesting to me is that in emergencies, apparently many people don't brake hard enough.
I did the Mini Stunt Driving Course the other week in Palm Springs. One of the first things they cover is emergency braking. Even in that situation — not an emergency; the whole point is to stop the car as fast as possible — I had trouble overcoming the urge to NOT brake as hard as I could. It took a few runs for me to get myself to stand on the brakes properly.
I’m pretty sure half the problem is that people can’t even _get_ the brake pedal to the floor.
When I get in a car and need to adjust the seat, I slide my butt to the back of the seat and push the brake pedal all the way to the floor. What I’m looking for is being able to have it on the floor slightly before my knee locks and without my foot needing to leave the floor (i.e., not lifting my foot up and pushing with the tip of my toes or something).
I know that I can apply 100% braking force. If I were much further back I could not.
I often get in the cars of people 6”+ shorter than me and… don’t need to slide the seat back. I get in cars driven by people around the same height as me and need to pull the seat forward. My wife is one example—she’s around 4” shorter than me and when I drive her car I keep the seat in the same position she does.
It’s a pet theory that the majority of people driving on the road day to day have their seat positioned so they’re actually physically incapable of braking with full strength.
So now they've created brake-assist options that try to determine when such a case is occurring, and slam on the brakes as hard as the car is able.
As incredulous as that sounds, it's apparently improved overall safety.
From what I've read the tech has been around since the 90's but has become much more standard.