BobRip
Elite Member
Before anti-lock brakes came out I remember watching a show showcasing new tech for cars. They drove around a track showing just how much better they are. From that point on I was sold, I wanted them. When I got my first car that had them, a 90 Toyota Celica All-trac Turbo I was grinning from ear to ear.
One day I was going down a dirt road that had just been graded with the Celica. Not wanting to have stones flying up from the tires I wasn't going all that fast. The road ended at a Tee with another road with a little bit of a dip just before it. Because the last few hundred yards were up hill you really didn't need to push hard on the brakes. As I came up to the intersection at about 20mph the anti-locks kicked on and did nothing. If I hadn't been going as slow as I was I would have been in the ditch on the far side of the intersection. After that I found that anti-lock brakes are equally as bad in snow (where you need to skid the tire to make a pile of snow in front of the wheel).
My point is I found out that most advances also come with drawbacks. I'm not sure if I want to find out the hard way that stability control works just fine for the little lady who drove a little too fast into a corner with her SUV but are deadly when you're pulling a load and a gust of wind gives your trailer enough of a sideways push that it sets off the computer.
While you can turn off the traction control in my Subaru when you do a bright yellow light comes on in the middle of the dash. You can't turn off anti-lock brakes (you use to be able to pull the fuse) since it's computer is tied into the main computer. Who knows if in the future you'll be able to turn off any of this mandated stuff.
I wonder how those Toyota owners felt about no longer having a throttle cable connecting the gas pedal to the throttle body?
Most cars are going to the electronic throttle control.