Elizabeth’s Driving Critiques

For the past 7 months now, I’ve been working at a car wash, and to say I’ve seen some things is an understatement. I’ve had to intervene before an accident occurs, help fill out paperwork after one occurs, and help teach grown adults who’ve been driving for years how to operate their vehicles (mind you I’m only a 17 year old permitted driver). With my own experience behind the wheel, riding as a passenger in a vehicle, and working at a job where I have to direct people’s driving, I have a few critiques on the driving styles of people and the driving education system nowadays.

My first critique is the amount of technology that is now being put into cars. All the “safety” and “self-driving” features that have been put into newer cars are quite ridiculous in my opinion. They were originally designed to take over only in emergencies, not for people to drive distractedly, or worse, not at all. With influence from social media platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram, people think it’s okay to always put their cars in autopilot mode. While that’s fine and all, posting videos that show the car driving without someone in the driver seat, or of the driver sleeping while the car is in motion is not okay. Manufacturers of cars with the autopilot feature, such as Teslas, have advertised that even when the car is in autopilot, the driver must stay attentive and keep their hands on the wheel in case the feature fails since it is a new concept and still needs to be improved. Teens and young adults post these videos trying to be funny or to follow a trend, but what they don’t realize is that there are young children on social media who think “driving” that way is okay. When these children start driving in x amount of years, they’ll be using those features in a way they weren’t designed for since they think it’s something that is okay to do. With the fact that newer cars have these new safety features that still need improvement, there have been many instances where the features have failed or made mistakes causing many accidents and even fatalities. The idea that it’s okay to rely solely on the autopilot features poses a problem when the feature fails and there isn’t anyone to take over driving, the car crashes and has a high risk of killing the driver, passengers, or even the innocent people in the other vehicles.

Another critique is that people don’t know how to properly operate their vehicles. My car has a manual transmission, which means it has a clutch and a stick shift. When going into the car wash, customers have to put their cars into neutral for the wash to work properly. Driving a manual car such as mine is simple when it comes to putting it in neutral since you just drop it out of gear and boom, it’s in neutral. These newer cars with the advanced technology systems have automatic parking brakes that activate when the car is put in neutral which can sometimes cause problems when a car is coming into the wash. I often have to explain to many drivers how to put their cars into neutral and how to remove the parking brake. While this is part of my job and I don’t have a problem with teaching people new things, I am concerned with the number of people who don’t know much about the vehicle they are driving. I think it should be mandatory to know how to operate each feature in the car before you purchase it and drive it off the lot. For safety reasons, knowing how to operate basic features in the car should be mandatory in permit tests, permitted driving practices, driving tests, and before purchasing a new vehicle. The other thing is, I have nothing against elderly people driving, but in my opinion, they shouldn’t be allowed to purchase new cars with the extensive safety features. That’s not because I don’t think they need the features, but because they don’t know how to use them. They also grew up driving in a time where those features didn’t exist and some of the cars they drove didn’t even have seatbelts so they know how to drive safely without the help of the extra safety features. Just last week, I had to intervene before an elderly driver rear-ended another customer in the car wash because he didn’t know how to put his brand new car in neutral There’s also been many instances over the past 7 months where I’ve had to teach an elderly person how to operate the features on their new vehicle and they’ve gotten frustrated because they don’t understand the reason for the features and honestly, I agree. There isn’t any actual need for these features as long as people are educated properly and don’t drive distractedly.

My final critique is the amount of distracted driving that occurs nowadays. While driving, I put my phone on “do not disturb” and I don’t look at it until I reach my destination. Many people have phone mounts on their dashes, windshields, and even their steering wheels (we have a regular customer at the wash who has one) and they drive distractedly because of it. I’ve seen people driving down the interstate pushing 90 mph while serving all throughout the lane because they’re watching a movie, scrolling social media, or texting someone. I’ve witnessed many accidents occur because of this and the outcome of the accidents were quite terrifying. I’m not going to get into all the details on the accidents, but I have seen major injuries and a couple fatalities due to distracted driving. Distracted driving isn’t just being on your phone, it’s driving under the influence, messing with something in the backseat, and not paying attention to your surroundings. Living in South Carolina, which is one of the top 10 highest ranking states for fatal accidents, I’ve had my fair share of accidents, luckily none of them were fatal for anyone involved. I also have friends, coworkers, and teachers who’ve been in a few accidents just this year. All of these accidents were because of distracted driving. Whether it was from looking at a phone, not paying attention, or messing with something in the back seat, all of these accidents could have been avoided. It might not seem like much reading about an accident, but imagine it was you or someone you loved in that accident, what if they didn’t make it home? What if you never saw them again? Scary, isn’t it? Now think, the best way to avoid all of this is to reduce the amount of distracted driving.

I think teaching people to drive responsibly, reducing the reliance on autopilot features, making it mandatory to know how to operate the features of your car, and actually enforcing these rules will have a tremendous impact on the number of accidents across the board. If we don’t do something now to stop the amount of accidents, how many innocent people are going to die before something is done? If we don’t do something about this now, then who will?