So I was in a car accident ... don't be like me

I've had my car start auto-braking when two runners were not yet in front of me, but it really looked like they were not going to stop and I'd hit them. That time the car and I braked at about the same time. That was in perfect weather in the day. I assume the camera would have a harder time picking up someone in bad lighting.

These BS features are quite ridiculous really.
Just be attentive and take the foot of the gas if you see the situation become chaotic ahead.
 
FOR ONLOOKERS: ALWAYS GIVE PEDESTRIANS THE RIGHT OF WAY, especially if they're in the wrong.

It's simply not worth it to knock a pedestrian down. It's OK to knock another car, but people can be injured so easily.
And then it's a big legal issue. And if you hurt someone, your conscience will get to you.

For me the worst is when I need to turn RIGHT and the robot turns green or the green right turn arrow flashes and at that moment, many clown pedestrians want to decide to run across, left to right. You're looking mostly right and then a fool runs across just as the light turns green for you. You have to be so vigilant.

Alternatively they cross slowly. They entered while you had the red, then you get the green arrow and the clowns are still in front of you. That arrow only lasts about 5 seconds. I tend to honk at these idiots.

But pedestrians can be idiots. Often because SA is a poor country, these people have never driven a car and have no idea how limited one's vision is. You can't have a constant 180 field of view especially if the guy to your left is a bakkie or a bus or has moved partly onto the crossing, so obscuring any fool who is crossing left to right.

And I see parents constantly walking their kids through red lights or jaywalking. There is no parental role modeling here.

Its even better when they dont cross at the lights and you are in the slip trying to merge, look for idiots running across the road and taxis overtaking on the yellow both sides of the slipway.
 
So do you swear by all this ADAS stuff now OP?
Oh I swore by it a long time ago. It makes sense that sensors which react in milliseconds are way better than squishy drivers at braking in an emergency. For everything else, the drivers are still responsible ... but lane-keep assist and cross-traffic alert and BLIS and everything else we've gotten used to are a no-brainer to have and use.
 
When I was in my twenties I hit a guy with my car, put him in the hospital with a shattered leg. Wasn’t my fault, it was super windy and his hat blew off his head and he instinctively ran to catch it, right into the road in front of me.

Was quite the ordeal. I felt terrible but didn’t blame myself as there wasn’t anything I could have done differently in that split second and I hadn’t been speeding or anything. Still sucks though.
 
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