OT ABS ranting

From: Mike Ford <mikeford_at_netwiz.net>
Date: Tue Apr 6 05:31:48 1999

>> We don't need to bring moralizing into the discussion. Most of us already
>> relegate a lot of life's decisions, including some life-critical ones, to
>> computers every day.
>>
>> Or are you the kind of person that refuses to buy cars with antilock brake
>> systems?
>
>Well, I don't drive yet, but when I do, I sure as hell won't have a car
>with ABS.
>
>The reasons are that (a) I am not going to trust my life, and the lives
>of others to an undocumented system that could possibly fail, (b) a good
>driver can stop a car in a shorter distance than an ABS system can under
>some conditions and (c) if it does fail you have to use the brakes
>differently than you do with a working ABS system.
>
>No thanks. I'd rather trust my skill (and thus have to learn to do things
>properly) than trust a microprocessor.

This smells like its going to be a long one, so I might as well get in a
few early punches.

RE ABS
I love it, most racers I know love it, and IMNSHO you have it all wrong.
All it took for me was a couple passes on a wet track doing emergency lane
changes, with and without ABS in a small Audi. With ABS you stomp the
brakes and change lanes. Without ABS its a toss of the dice on your
reaction, skill, and the grip of the tires, and most people get to set up a
lot of orange cones after a spin.

Common failure modes are; dash light comes on and ABS does nothing, ABS
modulates the brake lines prior to wheel lockup. Not a problem, just no
particular gain. If you pushed too hard on the brakes, and ABS has failed,
you do what you should do without ABS, modulate the pedal yourself.

Further discussion of ABS I suggest belongs offline.

RE trusting a microprocessor.
I worked for a number of years as a consultant to Baxter Heathcare, and
designed and wrote the principal code used in the Autopheresis C blood
plasma collection system, of which many thousands are in use all over the
world. Apart from a few TUV considerations this instrument is entirely fly
by wire, ie no button or other control directly effects the operation,
everything goes through the cpu and my software. I don't put my trust in a
microprocessor lightly, but some systems have earned a thinking persons
trust, and I don't worry too much about them.
Received on Tue Apr 06 1999 - 05:31:48 BST