Torque talk

The rate at which technology continues to develop and expand in our everyday lives is staggering.

One moment you are the custodian of a piece of cutting-edge high-tech gadgetry, and the next it has been relegated to that pile marked for the next garage sale.

The same applies to cars. Even the most entry level models incorporate features such as a 360-degree reversing camera, parking sensors and safety gear designed to keep you in your lane. Most cars can also detect a stationary vehicle in front of you and put the brakes on quicker than you could.

While this is incredible stuff, it does bear an interesting thought. With all this modern technology to assist us while driving and parking, are we becoming dependent on it rather than on our own wits behind the wheel? Do we know how to maintain a following distance of two seconds without having our adaptive cruise control to do it for us? Or can we instinctively judge the distance between us and the car behind us when parallel parking?

Having the technology on hand is great, but don’t let it overtake your own common sense.