Distracting speedos and built-in satnavs: law?

Car_54

Stoke wrote: »

Of the ones posted, the only one I think is far too in your face is the Merc. The others are fine. My Lupo had a sat nav built-in and I didn't find it distracting at all. It was ideal in fact. It quietened the audio to give you instructions and overall worked incredibly well.

When I had a Merc I didn't find the satnav distracting at all. What isn't obvious from the photo is that there's a second small screen slap in front of the driver (above speedo and tacho) which shows the next turn: I seldom had to look at the map on the main screen.

CardinalWolsey

It would be nice if the ergonomics professionals actually sat down with the user experience folk once in a while. My car, the manufacturer have dispensed with the need for you to refer to the inbuilt sat nav by making it so bad that I use my phone every time. In addition, god forbid I might want to change from radio to say, my phone's audio whilst driving. That's a job for the passenger if you want to stay on the road.

Stoke

Car_54 wrote: »

When I had a Merc I didn't find the satnav distracting at all. What isn't obvious from the photo is that there's a second small screen slap in front of the driver (above speedo and tacho) which shows the next turn: I seldom had to look at the map on the main screen.

Fair enough. To be fair, the blokes at Merc have been doing a pretty good job of making cars for the last 100 years. Don't think they need any advice off me.

TooManyPoints

Just a couple of points of order:

…and I have an instrument with an accuracy of ±10%, then the maximum reading that I can allow on the instrument is 30/1.1 = 27.27

No it isn’t. Your speedometer must not under record. It may only over record, up to a maximum of 10%. So, unless you have a non-compliant speedometer the maximum your true speed can be at an indicated 30mph is 30mph.

If a regulator tasked with the job of enforcing the specification has an instrument with an accuracy of ±10%...

Approved devices are far more accurate than that, usually with an inaccuracy of less than 0.5% (assuming it is operated correctly). But let’s say it is 10% adrift. A driver detected at 35mph (the minimum where enforcement begins under the guidelines) may actually be travelling at only 31.5mph. But this is still in excess of the speed limit.To argue that he was not guilty the driver would have to show that the device is so unreliable that its margin for error is greater than 14%. That is why the guidelines allow a tolerance of 10%+2mph.

If he wants to be able to penalise infractions of a smaller margin whilst still being sure that there is true non-compliance, he must also invest in a more accurate instrument.

He has (see above) but under the current practice he does not need anything with a tolerance of less than ±10%,

AdrianC

It's a bit more complex than just 10%.
The IVA testing manual gives more detail of what's acceptable for small-volume cars seeking individual type approval
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/556944/m1-iva-inspection-manual.pdf
section 17, page 141
There's a chart of acceptable readings compared to true speed.
The overread tolerance is (truespeed/10)+6.25mph. The underread tolerance is 0mph.
True = 26 - 30 - 35 - 39 - 44 - 48 - 53 - 57
Read = 35 - 40 - 45 - 50 - 55 - 60 - 65 - 70

Car_54

Stoke wrote: »

Fair enough. To be fair, the blokes at Merc have been doing a pretty good job of making cars for the last 100 years. Don't think they need any advice off me.

However, that's the only good thing about the "infotainment" system. In spite of 100 years' experience, they made a dog's dinner of all the other aspects.;)

Lovely car in all other respects.

Stoke

Car_54 wrote: »

However, that's the only good thing about the "infotainment" system. In spite of 100 years' experience, they made a dog's dinner of all the other aspects.;)

Lovely car in all other respects.

That's not a Merc thing. I recently got to experience a £164,000 Bentley Flying Spur, which had in-built nav and various in-car entertainment systems.

Not one of them was any good. They were all utterly dreadful, and one of them was like a 10 grand optional extra.

k3lvc

treboeth wrote: »

I think people abandoning MSE is more down to Trolls constantly posting spurious threads and comments, and previously PPR'd users returning to ignite discord.

Obviously neither of these are in evidence in this thread :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

k3lvc wrote: »

Obviously neither of these are in evidence in this thread :rotfl:

No way man

Where are they