Presumeably these are the changes that boeing is trying to get certified now?
Right. Remember that the crews in both crashed planes were dealing with stick shakers and stall warnings. The cockpit was filled with sources of confusion and sensory overload. This was because a single bad AOA sensor was all it took to activate the warnings and MCAS. Now it takes both sensors. There might be other logic built into the stall warning system as well to lower the odds of errant activation even further. MCAS now supposedly is so weak that, even if it does activate, it can easily be managed without the cutouts. I think I read also that MCAS will now honor the yoke displacement sensor. If the yoke moves a certain distance of travel opposite the trim direction, power to the trim motors is removed.
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That sounds much, much better. An assist shouldnât obtain primary control.
To make an analogy to a more common system most of us deal with - power steering, or in my case electric power steering. While driving it varies the assist to make turning easier or more stable depending on speed. That functionality makes driving easier and safer - but I donât want it suddenly trying to steer on my behalf (without going into autonomous cars).
I had read the second AoA sensor was an option, so will all MAXâs be retrofitted with the second sensor if they didnât have it already?
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My Honda Pilot has 2 features - lane keep assist and lane departure warning.
The LKA works when cruise control is on (if you activate it) and will try and keep the car between the lines on the road. It will nudge the wheel left or right to do so. Itâs not great if the lines are faded, the ground isnât clean, construction has made the lines confusing, etc. When that happens, it can try and steer you left when you need to go right or vice versa. I donât use it because it gets confused too much as the real world roads are rarely as neat as the program assumes.
LDW doesnât try and steer. If youâre too close to the left or right side of the road, it just starts shaking the steering wheel, presumably because it thinks youâre dozing off or not paying attention.The problem is the wheel shake is far too severe, and on occasion it has almost pulled me over the line it was alerting me about! Instead of the rumble you can feel in a FFB wheel while racing Project Cars or Dirt Rally, itâs just a left-right-left-right-left-right action of the wheel that is almost too strong to overpower. So I turned that off too.
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Imo all the driver assist functions in cars these days just makes everyone a poorer driver.
Wheels
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A few weeks ago I was in the crewroom printing out the paperwork for a flight. A few feet away a Captain was singing the praises about his new Tesla to his crew. His drive to Newark from Long Island is 2-3 hours in traffic. The new car lets him read, plan the flight, catch a little Netflix. The Tesla âautopilotâ requires that the steering wheel is able to sense the driver or it will sound a warning (or maybe vibrate) after a period of time. To het around that, he hangs a weight on the column. I personally canât believe that anyone would trust the automation to that degree. He then chuckled as he recounted how the car sometimes suddenly brakes for bridge shadows.
âHey, how funny! I might get rear-ended but at least it wonât be my fault!â
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Nature will always come up with a better idiot. What scares me more is that a person with that attitude is a plane captain.
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I tried the Tesla autopilot in a friends car⊠I just couldnât relax. I felt it steered way to close to the line and I just couldnât shake the feeling that it could turn the wheel over before I could react. I canât understand how people can show such blatant disregard of safety that they wonât even hold on to the steering wheel.
Especially when itâs still in development.
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Wait until you see the movie âUpgradeââŠ
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Another movie I need to seeâŠ
I can. Thatâs the danger of the middle road with automation. Either let people drive or put âem in the back seat.
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RelevantâŠ
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As a Tesla driver, that guy is an idiot. I love the tech, but as in an airplane, you have to supervise the automation, otherwise it could very well take you somewhere you are not expecting.
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Nice car⊠I prefer it in Blue though 
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Iâve got the same lane assist on my Honda and actually have gotten used to driving with it on most of the time. It does a better job of keeping me centered than I do, but I still lightly guide it and know when it will have issues, like exit lanes. Never would I take my hands completely off of the wheel. Where it definitely does not work is in low traction situations, like heavy rain, snow, and ice. My biological processor is still superior.
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My Subaru has a âsmart cruise controlâ which maintains distance to the car in front.
If you are a focused driver (as in, not use it to check your phone) Iâd argue that it lets you look around you more and be more aware of things happening further ahead etc. as you arenât focused on maintaining the distance. It makes driving on a highway in moderate traffic quite nice - you turn it off as soon as things become busy, though, much like a traditional cruise control. No lane assist, though - just an audio warning.
Also, Choo Choo - thread barely on the rails 
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Maybe Mudspike threads need lane assist as well. And an updated manual of course.
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I find the same thing with my Subaru. The adaptive cruise control lets me spread my attention a little differently. I always drive as if everyone else is trying to hit me, and this lets me keep more of an defensive eye on the others around me.
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I dislike the adaptive feature on my cruise control because it is far too conservative. It tries to keep way too much distance between the car ahead of you, and it isnât consistent with that. Some cars it will see and start to slow down so far out you could fit 3 18-wheelers in the gap. Others it wonât see until less than half that distance.
It doesnât understand the highways in Florida. There are too many people and not enough roads, so having a 1 car length gap is standard, at any speed. More than that and youâre inviting the cars in the lane next to you to cut in front of you.
Ironically my previous Pilot didnât have that feature, just standard CC, and I liked it better that way. Iâm hyper aware on the roads compared to most people and it always feels like everything is moving in slow motion. Itâs OBVIOUS that truck was going to change lanes, how was that van surprised by that? Vehicles donât just snap from one spot to the next, they telegraph their intentions by how they move in their lanes first.
Iâm always watching the car in front of me, on either side of me, the cars in front of them, the cars in front of them, the cars behind me in all lanes, the cars on the side roads that are trying to enter, the traffic lights 3 down from the one Iâm approaching so I know how the traffic is going to flow, and of course listening to everything in case there is something I need to know.
When I see a car weaving or tapping their brakes because theyâre looking down at something or talking to someone next to them, I just want to have their license revoked immediately. When you are driving anything it is your #1, #2, #3, and #4 concern. NOTHING is more important. There is no excuse to divide your time to give less than 95% of your attention to it. Do that when you arrive, pull over and do it, or have someone else drive!
I donât care if itâs a car, a plane, a bike, a golf cart, or a skateboard. It should even apply to walking!
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My airline just announced an order for 50 A321XLRs. This next bit is purely speculation on my part with zero basis in fact or rumor. Just me. That said, this to me spells the end of the Max10, a plane we were the soul launch customer for in 2017. This is pretty shocking news to me as it really makes me question the future of the entire Max line. I know it sounds like I have been doing that all along in this thread. But I never, ever considered that it would not get fixed, returned to service and snap back to being the most sold airliner in the world. Now, doubt is creeping in.
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