On 13/12/2022 18:32, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> On 13/12/2022 18:11, Tim Streater wrote:
>> On 13 Dec 2022 at 17:04:07 GMT, "Chris Green" <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
>>
>>> R D S <rsandr@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>> On 13/12/2022 15:48, NY wrote:
>>>>> Yes you need to know the limitations of the sensors: what they *can't*
>>>>> see.
>>>> Ours are rampant.
>>>> The missus did some damage to the car and when I called her out she
>>>> said
>>>> "they're always ####ing beeping, I ignore them"!
>>>>
>>> Yes, well I have some sympathy with her, ours beep far too much and
>>> too early.
>>
>> Can these not be turned off? I think a reversing camera if far more
>> useful.
>>
> TBH I have all of the above, and sti8ll end up using the wing mirrors
>

I always deliberately reverse as close as I can to the neighbours car
with the van.

Usually into it and then I move a couple of cm forward. He's never
noticed or said anything.

It's an anti theft device for the back doors.

My last fuck up was actually this last night/this morning when I got
stuck on the grass.

Lou did say don't park there you will be stuck in the morning.

I eventually got out but it needs returfing.

>>> Can these not be turned off? I think a reversing camera if far more
>>> useful.
>>>
>> TBH I have all of the above, and still end up using the wing mirrors

Reversing camera and/or central rear-view mirror are useful for seeing
directly behind you (but not much use for showing the sides of the car),
whereas door mirrors are used for judging the distance between a wall/hedge
and the side of your car or for seeing where your kerbside rear wheel is in
relation to the kerb when parallel parking. Both types of mirror/camera are
essential: neither one does everything. I've heard of some people who can
*estimate* where their rear wheel is when parallel parking (to judge when to
turn parallel to the kerb) without needing to angle the door mirror down to
show the rear wheel and (when it comes into view) the kerb. I could estimate
to the nearest foot, but when you are parallel parking you need to get the
tyres as close to the kerb as possible, so you need to get them about 1-2"
away - that's too close for me to do by estimation/magic/guesswork alone. Of
course some people park by feel: when the tyre nudges the kerb, they've
reached it so they know to go forwards a smidgen and then start to turn.

On 14/12/2022 09:59, NY wrote:
> "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:op.1w4pjt2obyq249@pvr2.lan...
>> I have always believed that cameras make more sense and a system
>> which either shows all 4 corner cameras at once or the one which
>> sees what has the closest stationary object. And one that makes it
>> easier to watch the tow hitch as you back up to a trailer or van etc.
>
> Yes. Parking sensors with an audible warning have their place, but for
> accuracy in getting a close as possible without hitting, you need
> cameras. As regards reversing to a trailer, I have seen a device that
> you attach between the towbar and the hitch when the car is within a few
> inches, which pulls the trailer the last bit (both in the
> forwards/backwards sense and the left/right sense) to avoid you having
> to get the towbar *exactly* under the hitch so the hitch will drop onto
> the towbar ball.
>
>
> The scariest parallel parking I had to do was in a long-wheelbase
> Transit-sized van that we rented when we were moving house. I needed to
> stop in town to collect something, and the only parking was along the
> side of a street. So I found a suitable sized gap and got on with it.
> The van's reversing camera was perfect for checking the distance from
> the car behind, and luckily the front end was easy to judge for
> clearance from the car in front of me. But it took a while to get used
> to a very convex part of the passenger door mirror that pointed down to
> show the distance from the rear wheel to the kerb so I knew when to
> start steering hard to the left to tuck into the kerb. But I did it
> first time. The only help I needed was to know when my back end was
> level with that of the car ahead, so I was correctly positioned to start
> reversing in: difficult to judge that with only a door mirror, and
> obviously the reversing camera cannot see sideways to tell using that.

When clearing out my M-I-L's house after she died, I had to enter the
narrow, cul-de-sac, turn around at the second 90° bend in the road,
where the space was just a couple of feet longer than my vehicle and
then reverse along the road to the house. No rear view cameras, on my
own and in a 7.5t truck ... and it was the first time I'd driven one!

On 14/12/2022 07:34, Jethro_uk wrote:
> On Tue, 13 Dec 2022 23:47:03 +0000, SteveW wrote:
>
>> On 13/12/2022 21:15, Jethro_uk wrote:
>>> On Tue, 13 Dec 2022 18:31:51 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 13/12/2022 15:48, NY wrote:
>>>>> "Scott" <newsgroups@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote in message
>>>>> news:dh5hph50mgo0r5vnv21vhqanqip050hi1i@4ax.com...
>>>>>> My favourite involved a mate of mine (it couldn't have happened to a
>>>>>> better person) who got a new car.  Arriving at a parking space, he
>>>>>> announced: 'Look at this.  My car's got a parking sensor.  There's
>>>>>> no need to look' whereupon he reversed into a brick wall.  The
>>>>>> problem was that the wall was not at 90 degrees to the direction of
>>>>>> travel :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes you need to know the limitations of the sensors: what they
>>>>> *can't*
>>>>> see. In the case of my wife's car they don't seem to see an object
>>>>> which is directly ahead of the sensor: the only two times we have
>>>>> nudged the sensor was when we reversed into objects that actually
>>>>> touched the sensor. So our sensors can see at an angle but have a
>>>>> straight-ahead blind spot ;-(
>>>> All my sensor equipped cars have had no blind spots at all. They are
>>>> however fairly blunt instruments A twig sets them off.
>>>
>>> Mine are forever popping up. It's a real PITA as they obscure the sat
>>> nav and semi-mute the radio.
>>>
>>> This evening, they kept on tripping at 5mph on the M6. No idea what
>>> they though they were picking up.
>>
>> My seonsors only switch on when I select reverse or push the sensor
>> button. They then turn off again as soon as I get up to 20 mph, so they
>> don't produce any false alarms after that.
>
> As I said, I was crawling for about 2 miles at around 5-10 mph.

Then press the button and turn the sensors off?

On 13/12/2022 22:24, Tim Streater wrote:
> that doesn't translate to suddenly being able to do that for a bus or truck,
> but if you've ever been on a bus that has to navigate some narrow roads and
> other hazards, you'll see that bus drivers have that skill too.

The bigger the vehicle, the more they tend to be square box shape and
the easier they are to see the corners - making them generally easier to
drive, I always found. I would rather struggle to manoeuvrer a large
van, than my car in and awkward location.