OT: Mature driver review

It's similar in Cambridge, but the cyclists use either the road, bus lane or the pavement. Never the cycle lane. And don't keep to the 20mph limits either, esp. the leccy scootery things

I am going to self identify as a black disabled transgender Islamic cyclist, and get away with murder

I have no idea!

Certainly the brake lights come on if the collision-avoidance system kicks in, at least according to the manual, but I’ve yet to experience that…

I would not take any car on to a motorway unless I knew exactly how the brake lights worked. I would say braking in front of another vehicle without displaying brake lights would be f*ing stupid.

They do on mine (if the deceleration is above some limit) the brake lights have a mimic display on the dash.

They must illuminate for braking above 1.3 m/s^2, they must not illuminate below 0.7 m/s^s and it's the manufacturer's decision between those two values.

Thanks. This makes sense.

That seems a bit high even for a micra, mainly because in bad weather you do want to the engine to help.

Maybe it wasn't. I think I'll email the chap for a reminder.

There are youtube videos where regen braking slows a car form 60 to stop without the brake light coming on. Example:

You won't be getting any energy returned to the battery that way - it'll all be lost as heat at the brake discs. At least IIUC - the foot brake is a mechanical brake on my car. It's not linked to the regen system. (2020 Mini)

But I can see why people like to switch it off - hence the switch and fierceness settings. As it happens I've got used to it and, as I say, rarely need the foot brake.

Yes - they'd have to, deceleration is quite strong.

More than confusion I'd have thought . . .

I doubt that "never engaging" a particular regen mode amounts to "completely disabling regen"?

On mine, with the gearstick in "D" mode you can see on the dash what amount of power is feeding back into the battery from braking, or simply lifting off. With a flick of the gearstick you can put it into "B" mode which is more aggressive regen (and buried in settings are three levels of aggression) ... it's not a full-on one pedal driving like some cars have, it won't* bring the car to a halt.

Murica!

Maybe UN regs don't apply to them?

No, it’s regeneration braking, you can see the Power meter needle move into the green ’charging’ section. At about 2mph you can hear the mechanical brakes engage as the car comes to a stop.

Of course not.

But even if it did, coasting rather than using regen to stop, and the stored up electricity to restart, would still be more efficient/

No regen system is 100% efficient

In D0 there is no automatic regen on lifting off the accelerator and the car then coasts. But applying the brakes always produces regen but the amount is controlled by the level of pressure on the pedal. You can see the effect it has being shown on the Power meter.

So, with automatic regen disengaged, driving along, lift off the power and the car coasts, until either the accelerator is pressed or the brake applied, and in the latter case the mechanical brakes only engage at about

That’s the same here.

UNECE is the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, so they don't. They have the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) instead.

UNECE was a post-WWII reconstruction organisation, who these days have a few specialised roles towards environment and sustainability. One of which is vehicles rules harmonisation:

Theo

It seems to vary quite a bit between cars. I think most of them use blended braking, ie whether you're using the brake pedal or 'one pedal driving' doesn't matter, you get regen for as much as is possible (depending on speed and battery state of charge) and friction braking for the rest. Even the

For cars which are really petrol cars that have had an electric version reuse the same, perhaps the braking is more primitive?

I think Teslas do something weird but they would, wouldn't they? Seems they have finally got around to doing regen on the brake pedal:

It seems like two different philosophies:

Normal car: right pedal = 'how much acceleration do I want' (letting off the pedal maintains your speed, roughly)

OPD: right pedal = 'how much speed do I want' (letting off the pedal makes your speed = 0, braking you to a stop)

I've heard something similar in Airbus v Boeing:

Boeing: without inputs on the control column, maintain level flight. To climb, pull back and hold it as long as you want to climb. (if you want to constantly climb you need to set the trim so the default position is slightly pulling back, effectively the aircraft does the pulling back for you so you don't need to apply constant pressure)

Airbus: without inputs on the sidestick, maintain the current attitude. (if you want to climb, you pull back until the appropriate rate of climb is achieved then let go. To level off you have to push forward to cancel out the climb)

Theo

pedal = acceleration

pedal = speed

It's very odd, because traditionally European aircraft had more built in stability than US...

Indeed.

(of course, in the first case it's not quite true as your losses increase with the speed, so eventually your acceleration tails off and holding the pedal is necessary to maintain a constant speed. But when you let off there only natural drag slowing you down)

Both are aerodynamically stable. But Boeing's philosophy is that the pilot is always in control, while A320 and later have hard protections. So Boeing pilots can stall the aircraft but Airbus pilots are prevented from doing so (in the normal mode with all systems behaving correctly).

That's why you can point an Airbus towards the sky and without further inputs eventually it'll level off at its service ceiling - the protections will stop you going into the stall region. With a Boeing you would have to continuously pull up (or trim that condition) and it's on you to not pull up so far that you stall.

Theo