Pardon me, I thought I was subscribing to a paddling discussion group. Well, as long as I'm here, I'll make a comment or two. On 4/13/2010 10:22 AM, Craig Jungers wrote: >> I have lots of problems with psychology, actually. My experience with psych > was mainly when I was an undergrad engineer and I was left less than > impressed. I think that Dr. Schmidt (who is "emeritus" by the way) is > probably still living in 1980. I think that Craig is going out on a limb expressing opinions about psychology if all he knows is Psych 101 from the 1960's. Full disclosure: I have 2 degrees in psychology. "Emeritus" is the word we in the academic world use to mean "He's retired, but still working and doing important enough stuff that we'll provide him with an office, phone, secretary, and computer." > And if the 1980 Audi cars were designed so that a significant number of > drivers could not tell whether their foot was on the accelerator or the > brake then I submit that there just might have been a design problem. Never > having owned an Audi I couldn't say. It doesn't seem to me to be *that* > complicated getting a car started and into gear. But in fact it was, or at least people _thought_ it was. And the 49 other models from 19 other manufacturers were all poorly designed as well? I used to own a VW Beetle that I could heel-and-toe with the edge of my foot. Those pedals were close. Ever hear about unintended accelleration with a Beetle? Stop snickering. > The Calif. State Patrol officer was actually on the cell phone going through > procedures to try to shut the car down and couldn't. I can understand a > brief, momentary lapse where someone might confuse stepping on the > accelerator pedal for stepping on the brake but I can't see a steady state > incident unless the driver were too stupid to understand "turn off the key". The guy on the phone was the CSPO's brother in law, and I didn't hear any evidence that he was doing anything besides praying. Nobody used the words "turn off the key" on the tape. One would think CSPOs would not panic in that kind of situation, but apparently this one did. Panic, you'll recall, is one of the factors that Schmidt points to as a cause. > Airplane pilots can get overloaded with information and make mistakes or can > get distracted and make mistakes but they don't very often make mistakes > going through the check list. Check list? For cars? > If I were to speculate I'd guess that the problem will resolve down to a > combination of design problems compounded by circumstances not easily > recognizable by the average driver. Yup. There seems to be evidence that some Toyotas have throttle problems, but really none that Audis did > Either that or stray cosmic rays. Don't laugh. Not laughing. Steve -- Steve Cramer Athens, GA http://www.savvypaddler.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Apr 13 2010 - 08:31:38 PDT
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