A frozen lake and several Lamborghinis provide lessons on traction control | Hacker News Reader

A frozen lake and several Lamborghinis provide lessons on traction control

arstechnica.com

25 pointsBender10 comments

For those in the Bay Area, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office puts on a similar event [1], albeit slightly less extreme, at their regional training facility. Part of the day is spent in a crown Vic with slicks on a skid-pan (smooth concrete with sprinklers) learning how to recover from oversteer, loss of control, etc. I took my kid after he got his license since snow filled empty parking lots are pretty hard to come by around here. I can’t recommend it enough for new-drivers, or those who didn’t learn to drive in snowy/rainy areas.

[1] https://www.sheriffacademy.com/class.php?id=34

> EVOC: Emergency Vehicle Operations Course is designed to instruct civilians in good defensive driving tactics. This course is also good pretraining for anyone who is going to be entering a police academy and wishes to learn some of the techniques which will be taught. Heavy emphasis is placed on skid recovery, loss of control recovery, control during a blowout, and operating on less than ideal surfaces. The students will demonstrate a working knowledge of driver skills by successfully driving such courses as the Skid Pan, the Hazard Avoidance Simulator, Threshold/ABS Braking Simulator, and other various skill and precision oriented activities.

In Sweden, this is mandatory to get your driver's license. Lot's of fun!

> Part of the day is spent in a crown Vic with slicks on a skid-pan (smooth concrete with sprinklers) learning how to recover from oversteer, loss of control, etc

In Slovenia you have to do an EVOC course within 2 years of receiving your driving license or it gets revoked. I missed the requirement by a few years and never got to do this but my sister said she had an absolute blast.

I did the teenage-hooligan version – empty parking lot at night on first snow in winter. Lots of fun. Usually many people showed up and the parking lot turns into a mini low speed racetrack (30kph) with people doing handbrake turns one after another.

Each Huracán uses four wheel-speed sensors, three accelerometers (for the X, Y, and Z axes), three gyroscopes (for yaw, pitch, and roll), and a steering angle sensor.

For folks ascustomed to seeing 6dof units like [0], seeing counts for separate units for each axis and movement is odd. Guess VW group is using something like these industrial Omega's [1].

0. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/21336

1. https://www.omega.com/en-us/control-monitoring/motion-and-po...

They're generally integrated units - see Bosch 420907637. They used to use discrete piezo / ceramic vibrator rate sensors in the "ESP sensor unit," but I think these days they use MEMS gyro/accelerometer combination packages like everyone else.

> 6dof units like [0], seeing counts for separate units for each axis and movement is odd

Yes, it's odd. But I guess technically speaking, a 6 DOF unit does contain 6 separate sensors once you dig deep enough?

In case you're curious what this costs: "In Canada, participants get invited through a local dealer and pay about half of the $20,000 cost to attend but the trip includes a plus one. Dealers often pick up the other half of the cost as a reward to a client for years of business or as a way to firm up future business. In the U.S., the cost is $14,500. It includes the full day of ice driving, two-night accommodations at Hotel Sacacomie, all airport transfers and meals. "

https://driving.ca/car-culture/speed-performance/lamborghini...

There are a variety of snow-driving schools throughout the world, most cheaper (although you're not driving a Lambo). The Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Steamboat (Toyota) is very fun and much more affordable.

That’s definitely something I would do if I had the money.

In CT for $350 you can take your car to Lime Rock Park to go snow racing in winter.

https://limerock.com/drive/driving-programs/winter-autocross...

“ Our six-hour program is managed by pro driving coaches who provide specialized instruction based on each participant’s experience level.”

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