As hard as it may be to belive, I went and took a driver training course. This is part of the new efforts in Massachusetts to train teens [and anybody else who's interested] in better, safer practice on the roads. I was curious, went, and can now share some of what I brought home via this writeup. . There may be similar things in other states. . _H*
Thanks for sharing Hobbit. The Prius is my first car with ABS. The best tip I got from your notes was to load up the front suspension by breaking before turning, instead of doing both simultaneously. I'd like to try to find a large parking lot to try it out, but I am not interested in wrecking the tires. I wonder how the Prius would compare to the Camry in a slalom course in terms of not rolling over.
Great write-up Hobbit! Did you take your camera and get any pics? Fly Family, this is also my first car with ABS, and it's hard not to pump my breaks when I stop hard. I've done it for so many years it's become force of habit with me. I also didn't realize that breaking before making an evasive move gives you a better chance at maintaining control of the car. A co-worker recently bought a brand new Honda Civic and had someone stop short in front of her. She slammed on the brakes and she felt and heard a horrible noise and shaking and grinding, got scared, and took her foot off the brake and rear-ended the car in front of her! Whole front end smashed in. Also her first car with ABS. I think I will try to get the ABS to activate even at the expense of the OEM tires since I have never felt the sensation, and never even heard anything about the normal function of the ABS until my friend's accident and Hobbit's post. If it's in the owners' manual I missed it. In fact I think I'll go look for it.
Wait till the snow flies, and then you can play with it to your heart's content without burning tires. But the dynamics will be a little different on dry pavement [more forces going on, etc]. Still, it essentially works the same way. . No pix; there are various pix on the incontrol website, and that's about what it looks like anyways. The little videos give a lot of the idea too. . _H*
Great work Hobbit, good read and informative. We do driver training every 2 years for my work, it's a great way to improve and refresh. You do tend to creep toward bad habits over time so a refresher is good. We normally do a couple hours theory then 4 or 5 hours on the road. ABS and avoidance is practiced on quiet dirt roads. Cornering technique was something we spent quite a bit of time on, they were promoting a wide line around corners on winding roads to increase vision through corners and corner radius. We are trying to get a track based session for the next session, after 3 road sessions some advanced techniques would be valuable. My employer is requires by the vehicle fleet lease company (a government department) to put drivers through training every 2 years especially important to reduce risk as they self insured.
