120 Hours To Learn To Drive

[Hymie]

Further to the thread started by TWR on Learner Drivers being allowed to drive on the motorway; apparently The Times reported today that the government was considering plans to introduce a mandatory minimum learning period for learner drivers, which could see them being made to spend up to 120 hours behind the wheel before taking their test.

When I learnt to drive, the conventional wisdom was that you needed an hour of tuition for each year of your age to become sufficiently proficient to pass the driving test.

Such a proposal of 120 hours tuition will make learning to drive prohibitively expensive – but all this will become academic once self-drive cars become the norm and ultimately humans are prohibited by law from engaging in such a dangerous activity.

[Zacs-Master]

Sounds like a good idea to me. As I commented on the other thread,
I've always found it wierd that there is an advanced level of driving. I passed the IAM test a long time ago and found it strange that there are so many simple techniques to make you and other road users safer drivers, that aren't taught as standard. Speed awareness courses are also useful for this.

[jno]

yes I think the last 100 hours would become a bit boring as well as expensive.

[ummmm]

How much are lessons nowadays?

[Mass_Hysteria]

Lessons currently between £20 - £30 per hour

[Old_Geezer]

Ah but you must remember that when you learnt to drive common sense was much more ... well ... common. Today the human race needs the extra 100 hours to get to where you did in 20.

[hc4361]

Is the 120 hours with an approved driving instructor only, or does driving with a friend/relative count?

[Answerprancer]

Sounds like yet another thinly disguised revenue collecting scam to me, like speed cameras.

[hc4361]

The government would get no revenue from this.

[piggynose]

well hymie, i should´ve been about 150 years old when i finally passed my test. it took me 7 years, 3 driving schools, and god knows how many lessons!!

[Answerprancer]

Someone would though.

[hc4361]

The government would lose revenue from all the failed practical and theory tests - people would be more likely to pass both first time.

A driving instructor can only work so many hours a week.

[ToraToraTora]

120 hours is ridiculous, does the minister of transport own a driving school or something! Anyway hymie, don't hold your breath on driverless cars, they are a long way from being feasible.

[woofgang]

before we all dance up and down, lets remember that the phrase “up to” includes the figure zero.

[Hymie]

ToraToraTora – see this link in which the CEO of Ford expects them to be producing driverless cars by 2021 and other manufacturers sooner.

http://www.driverless-future.com/?page_id=384

So if you are not one of those people who replaces their car every 3 years – there is a good chance that if the next car you buy is not driverless, the one after that will be – despite what ToraToraTora says.

I predict that come 2025 the demand for cars which cannot drive themselves will be such that only a niche market exists for such vehicles (which the likes of Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan etc have no interest). The switch to driverless cars will be accelerated by the reduced insurance premiums payable because the vehicles are much less prone to crashing compared with those controlled by humans.

[ToraToraTora]

well the tech issues are one thing and really linear software cannot cope with all scenarios but leaving that aside, the legal/insurance issues are just as large, see here:
http://observer.com/2016/02/why-driverless-cars-will-screech-to-a-halt/
for example the cars will have to be programmed to break the law in some situations.

[ToraToraTora]

//Bradley Stertz, corporate communications manager for Audi, says a fully automated vehicle with no driver is still 20 or 30 years away. “To have the car understand every single possibility is a massive challenge,” he says.// - he is being realistic among all the snake oil sellers.

[Hymie]

I know a few people of whom I wonder how they managed to get out the womb – but even some these simpletons have mastered (to some degree) the challenge of every possibility they might encounter on the road.

I’m not saying that I am an expert driver, but I managed to pass the driving test based on only around 20 hours of tuition – if today’s computers can’t match that level of control, I’d be very surprised.

[ToraToraTora]

they are only as good as the programming and the sensors, both of which are made by fallible humans. Programmers have to anticipate and allow for every conceivable condition in advance. But as I said the tech is least of the problems.