When “Safety” Isn’t Safe

Guest Post by Eric Peters

When a person has trouble walking on their own, a cane or a walker – even a wheelchair – may be necessary for them to get around. But canes and walkers and wheelchairs are unnecessary for people who don’t have trouble walking on their own – which is why you rarely see people who can walk on their own using them.

“Advanced Driver Assistance Technologies” – as the automotive equivalent of canes, walkers and wheelchairs are styled – are another matter. People who can drive on their own are presented with electronic canes, walkers and wheelchairs ostensibly meant to help them drive. To “assist” them with parking, steering and braking – all of which the “technology” presumes every driver needs “assistance” with.

Italics to emphasize the fact that some drivers don’t.

It used to be most of them – because it was once expected of them. Not in the cultural sense – though that’s certainly true, too. Rather, in the literal/legal sense – in that in order to secure a driver’s license, an applicant was once-upon-a-time required to demonstrate that he could steer and brake and park a car without “assistance.” One of the road tests an applicant had to pass in the Before Time was parallel parking a car, without Park Assistance Technology, often on a hill (if the ride-along evaluator was determined to suss out whether the applicant had the skill to drive and deserved a license confirming this).

All applicants were expected to demonstrate that they could control a car, as by keeping it within its travel lane – without Lane Keep Assistance. That they knew how (and when) to apply the brakes, to slow the car safely without Brake Assistance Technology.

Today, it is mostly a written test

Italicized to emphasize that “drivers” are no longer expected to demonstrate that they can do that in order to get a government ID (which is what a driver’s license has de facto become, in the era of Advanced Driver Assistance Technology).

Now, an interesting thing has a developed as a result of all this “assistance.” It is dependence, arising from deliberately inculcated incompetence. When people are not taught how to drive – how to competently perform even basic maneuvers such as parking a car and keeping a car within its travel lane – they become dependent upon “technology” to “assist” them. Just the same as a person who is capable of walking on his own will eventually become dependent upon a cane or a walker or a wheelchair if he is made to use those things. If – as a toddler – he is forced to rely on such things, he may never learn how to walk on his own, unaided.

But what happens if the cane or walker is suddenly taken away?

If the wheelchair breaks?

That is what happens – essentially – when Advanced Driver Assistance Technology stops working. The person who has become dependent on “assistance” to perform the most basic driving maneuvers is left without the “assistance” he has become dependent upon.

Now what?

This can happen without warning – in the middle of a drive, even. All it takes is some ice (or snow) to blind the cameras that are a critical part of the “assistance” technologies that steer/brake and even park a car for a driver who cannot handle that on his own. The “assistance” goes offline.

What then?

Well, the driver is on his own. The problem is he may not be competent to be on his own, having been rendered dependent on “assistance” technology. This is a problem compounded by adverse conditions such as ice and snow, which require more rather than less skill to safely handle. But the “assistance”-addled driver lacks even basic skills – such as those necessary to parallel park a car in ideal conditions – having never developed them. What will he do when conditions are far from ideal – and he must be able to handle more than parallel parking?

He will probably not be able to handle such conditions.

What then?

More like what’s coming, probably.

When driving conditions aren’t ideal – when it rains or snows – there will be driving lockdowns. It will be argued that not closing down the roads when it rains it snows is a safety risk – because the Advanced Driver Assistance Technologies millions of drivers are being trained to depend upon might not work in the rain or snow.

And this is entirely true.

What’s also true is that it would not matter, if drivers were not trained to be dependent upon Advanced Driver Assistance Technologies, for they would be competent drivers. They would be able to compensate for conditions. They would have developed such skills as feeling traction through the pedals and steering wheel and learned how to modulate throttle and steering inputs to maintain control of the vehicle on slick surfaces.

The problem there, of course, is that such drivers are not dependent – and so are not afraid of dealing with conditions. Because they can. And because they can, they do not need government busybodies to “keep them safe” – and they know it. This in turn causes them to resent being busybodied by government. Capable adults do not like being parented as if they were idiot children – which is not only how government views them, it is how government wants them.

This is what Advanced Driver Assistance Technology is really all about. The purpose isn’t to “assist” people. It is to infantilize people. Government wants capable drivers like government schools want critical thinkers.

The end goal is Total Passivity because it engenders Total Dependence. It leaves the victim unable to think for himself – or to drive for himself. And people who cannot do such things are people who require “assistance.”

And guess who’ll assist them with that . . . ?

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