Learner drivers

Difference is not all cars have cruise control. Generally all have those features you have mentioned.
Soon he will get that which you have mentioned though. He is restoring an old FB.

Yep. Different crowd. Most of the p platers here do not seem to know much. I had one drive here the other week as he did not know how to change his flat.
I'm trying to teach another how, as his car has been sitting a month in the driveway with a flat. He never has the time. (ie, just waiting for me to do it for him)

Lots of single parents, with a lot of them not knowing, or not have the time to teach.

I think parents, single or not, need to find the time rather than putting the responsibility on someone else.
My daughter has her log book and will be legally allowed to drive on her own very shortly.........Ive already told her......legal or not......Ill let her drive on the road when I think she is confident enough, not when someone who has been in the car with her once says so.
Id be happy if you could go guarantor for you kids rather than all the bull bleep exams , tests ,log books and money. If you kid is caught doing something stupid or dangerous......you pay the price.

By course, I don't nessacerally mean a course at school/tafe etc. I just meant a spot in the book, where it can be signed off, that the kid has at least been shown/taught how to do those things that are needed to keep a vehicle running smoothly.
I know a lot of parents who don't know how to do many things.

Maybe not being able to keep a vehicle on the road is natures way of keeping the dumb or lazy ones off the road......LOL

Another thing they don't teach is using the gears for hill descents. In fact some instructors teach them to rely on their brakes alone. This leads to many arriving at the bottom of descents with very smelly and not very effective caravan brakes.

Driving instructors don't have to repair or pay for the repair of your kids brakes........... They also don't have to worry every time that licence holder doesn't come home on time.........or pay for the damage or injuries. That's while I think parents should be doing the teaching and deciding when their kids can drive.
All instructor's have to do is tick the boxes to make it legal.......and who says the instructors are good drivers? Ive never even seen them drive????

Most driving instructors may know the road rules and basic car control but most are not very capable drivers at all.

Most have never done a skilled driving test. They can't Hendon style steer, stab brake, now done by ABS and have rarely if ever done a crash stop for themselves, let alone tech the skill to someone else.
They impart licence gaining skills that is all.

The problem with Mum and Dad being the driving instructors is they get to pass on their own bad habits along with the good.
As has been said a lot of the accredited instructors are teaching kids how to pass an exam not good driving habits.
IMHO an advanced driving course should be mandatory for any one getting a licence for the first time.
Cruise control is no different to many of the other features built into a lot of the modern vehicles. The new RAV4 the wife has just got has all sorts of wizz bang gadgets that the 2001 Dunnydore didn't. Reversing cameras, reversing sensors, cruise control (so did the Commodore) key less entry and start, auto headlights and wipers and so on. All handy in their own way but none make the driver any less likely to have an accident. Well apart from the reversing camera and sensors but don't tell her I said so (;=))
Cruise control is about as handy as an ash tray on a motor bike when driving around built up areas where speed limits vary with regularity.
Let the young driver learn how to control a vehicle and try to instil good common sense before relying on electronics to do all the decision making. All my kids, boys and girls were taught how to check tyre pressures and fluid levels and how to change a flat tyre. Unfortunately they weren't born with that knowledge.

Cheers
Pop

who says its just kids?

we recently did a driving course at work to tick some OHS box

anyway one thing we were doing was changing a tyre.

One of the guys had to be mid to late 20s was standing back and not partiipating

we picked straight up on this and got it out of him hed never changed a tyre nor had any clue how.

He was from Britain though....

aaaah, the "dumb ole foreigner" one eh? always the foreigner that gets stuck in the outback or sand or slams doors and makes a racket with their Britz campers. It might just be because he doesn't drive much because they have such a thing as public transport in his country. I bet he knows how to tackle a roundabout and doesn't dawdle for 26 ks in the outside lane because he'll eventually turn right. Probably knows what the rear view mirror is for too and gets pi$$ed off when there are three cars straddled across three lanes doing the same speed. You probably like to believe it, but Australians are not the best road users around.

Gday,
Are we talking about the same sort of cruise control?
Im talking about the ones that just hold a constant speed.......not an auto pilot! LOL
The way it works these days with all the speed cameras around and bugger all tolerance, I reckon not having to worry about your speed gives you one less thing to worry about and more time keeping their eyes on the road and pedestrians.

Hairy, that's all good and well for you and me who KNOW how to drive without the cruise control (and yes, talking about the one that keeps a relatively constant speed ;) ) but a learner driver should learn to drive without such things as cc, traffic warnings, overspeed warnings, because these things are not common in all vehicles and they will, eventually, have to do without them.
The same argument goes for kids learning to do maths, they need to know HOW to do it manually before they are given a calculator. That way they have a check on the "automatic" method in case it goes t!ts-up!

The other small problem with our roads and cars that we drive at the moment is the cruise controls don't know how to read a speed limit sign. Still gotta be programmed by the nut behind the wheel....lol.

Yair I know that is coming but not here in good 'ol Oz yet.

Cheers
Pop

"Yair I know that is coming but not here in good 'ol Oz yet."
God, I hope not!! Next step from that will be a car that stops you from exceeding the limit regardless of the urgency of the situation!

I just hope it does not eventuate in my lifetime - OTOH, they could install it in all those stupid "Wanker Utes" that never see the dirt road, and cannot handle a bump of more than 3 inches high without bottomiing out, have a gazillion (not-connected) antennae and almost as many useless as all f^&k roof mounted lights.

There are dills everywhere who do not have common sense and cannot or will not take advice.

My mate hired a large Winnebago in NZ and went up and down the hills in top gear. I was in it once coming down from a lookout and he rode the brakes all the way. I thought I diplomatically pointed out that a lower gear would be helpful as brakes get hot but he said it was not necessary.
He now tows a van (a little one; 14 foot) and does the same thing,even up and down Ousley. I always follow him and can see the brake lights are on all the way down hills.

You can't tell some people.....

bill

Just near here is a downhill section known as Moonbi Hills. The RTA, in their wisdom (?) have elected to place signage at the top of each of the steepish bits to the effect that trucks and buses MUST use low gear. They've also installed a 80 speed limit for these same vehicles.
I've been told by people who should know, that the Police will book any truck/bus that uses brakes down these hills as the assumption is that if brakes are needed, they must NOT be in low gear. I dunno about that, but I've seen B-Double cattle trucks go down there with the brakes on the whole way.

When I drove a small automatic for work (did 100k in just over 2 yrs) I used the "sports" selection in the gearbox and did not need to touch the brakes at all unless I found myself in a queue behind a truck in low gear.
Drivers of automatics should be required to use the gearbox to save the brakes.

brakes are alot cheaper than gearboxes..........

we use gears to slow decent in the underground mine and theres pallets stacked up the LV workshop with stuffed gearboxes