Eric Thompson: Big-heads a danger to us all

TV's talking car knew when David Hasselhoff shouldn't be driving. Photo / Supplied

As most of you know I like to ponder all things to do with the internal combustion engine, and in particular its role as a mode of transport. I have many issues in this department, some good and some bad.

I have made it patently obvious that mixing various means of getting somewhere in the same shared space is a recipe for disaster. But that's a further discussion for another day.

I was at the recent New Zealand Motorsport awards dinner where the good and great are rightly celebrated for their respective achievements over the previous year.

As I watched a succession of young racing drivers enter and leave the stage, it dawned on me that in just one of those youngsters - who probably isn't allowed to hold a full civil driver's licence - there is more skill with a motor car than in 60 per cent of the people in the room.

My mind began to wonder as I tried to put my finger on why most recreational drivers think they are one hell of a lot better at piloting a car on public roads than they actually are.

I'll never forget a great line from the 1980s Knight Rider television series, where KITT (the speaking car) says to Michael Knight, played by David Hasselhoff, "As you wish Mr Knight. But since I sense we are in a slightly irritable mood caused by fatigue, may I suggest you put the car in auto cruise mode for safety's sake."

Most drivers throughout the world, and in particular New Zealanders, are barely adequate at doing a good job of driving their cars and think it's okay to be irritable, tense, tired, grumpy distracted and a myriad of other things while driving at speed.

Now that I'm in a quoting mode, one of the greatest open wheel racers back in day, Al Unser, said, "You may drive the freeway daily at top speeds with confidence and skill. But that doesn't qualify you as a race driver. Put an ordinary driver in a race car and he'd probably crash before he got out of the pit area."

I think that quote should be etched into the front windscreen of every car before it's allowed to leave the factory. Just because most of us can start a car, get it out of the driveway and point it in the general direction of where we want to go without causing too much grief, it doesn't mean we have the skill sets of a professional.

Driving is probably the most difficult thing we as humans have to do. I've heard people say driving's not rocket science. I know that, it's a lot bloody harder. A rocket is just a controlled explosion - you hope it's been built properly then you stand well back and light the touch paper, metaphorically speaking.

Everything is done in a controlled environment with everyone concentrating on exactly what is happening. According to research, driving entails about 1500 sub skills and in covering a kilometre drivers are exposed to around 1250 pieces of information.

What do I see a vast number of people doing? Bloody texting, eating, reading, sorting children out in the back seat, groping on the floor for something and dozens of other distracting things, which have nothing to do with the paramount thing at hand - driving the car.

Most people can't juggle three balls standing still, so how do you think you can do all the above at 100km/h?

A fair sized chunk of the problem with a lot of motorists thinking they're rather good at driving is the perceptive few who are aware of what's going on are ready to react when the numpties make a mistake.

A lot of accident reports these days mention there's no sign of alcohol or drugs in the driver. It's almost as if the fatality was just plain bad luck rather than bad decision making, distractions, driving beyond the skill set, running a red light or breaking the speed limit.

So what is it that makes us think we're immortal in a car? The same old thing man has suffered from for centuries, arrogance and an over-inflated opinion of one's abilities.