Hacker News Reader

Comment by vesrah | Hacker News Reader

What is the point of a race track if you even further abstract out the driver skill than we already have? (asks the person that races a fairly analog car)

View on HN

> What is the point of a race track if you even further abstract out the driver skill than we already have?

People like to go fast in their cars without having to be as skilled? It’s not exactly a mystery.

You're never going to get skilled if you don't learn how to actually drive the car in the first place. A car that 100% sticks to the road with no slip is not as quick as a car that is being pushed to the point of carrying a slight slip angle through corners, and you're not going to find out how that works with constant intervention. It is about carrying speed through corners, not negotiating them with the help of some electronic aids and pinning the gas down the straights.

> You're never going to get skilled if you don't learn how to actually drive the car in the first place.

Do they want to be skilled or do they just want to have some easy fun?

This is real world DLC I would pay for.

If I could show up at the Nürburgring and hot lap a 911 on nanny driver mode I'd do it in a heart beat. Until then I'll just stick with not getting into Berghain.

Speaking of DLCs, didn't Porsche sort of offer an hourly "Performance Package" for their cars that could be activated OTA. Or I guess the interviewed guy was just spit-balling ideas...

There are many excellent roller coaster rides in amusement parks across the nation.

Developing skill is hard, buying a product is easy. What you're saying makes total sense if you want to become an excellent driver but most people just want to buy some related equipment and watch events from their couch. Nothing wrong with that if it makes them happy, though I think that advertising pushes people towards making less fullfilling choices.

It's like go-carting. People like to race cars without having to be skilled or deal with the risk of being in a car. Most cars already have a bunch of electronic nannies(eg: stability and traction control, abs brakes) to prevent people from spinning their car out into a tree. Also, nannies to prevent them from ruining their car like rev limiters.

People enjoy roller coasters. It's not a big stretch to imagine it being fun for plenty of folks to whiz around a race track with some of the work being handled by a computer.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com