Quote:
Originally Posted by xQx
But the headline is misleading. They're being banned from High Performance DRIVER EDUCATION sessions.
Fair enough a driver education company doesn't want to force its drivers to get behind the wheel of a car and throw it around a corner at the limit of it's physical ability (physics are predictable) with the added complication that the computer might intervene and decide it's in everyone's best interests that it emergency brakes one wheel.
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The ban was put in place by a particular chapter of the BMW Car Club of America for the HPDEs that they run at Watkins Glen. BMW CCA Chapters put on HPDEs (High Performance Driving Education) at local tracks. They are not a "driver education company". As it relates specifically to HPDEs, BMW CCA is a group of BMW enthusiasts who like to track their cars. The BMW CCA HPDE format is highly structured, with an instructor in the car, whose goal is to safely teach you how to drive your car on the track. Students are grouped based on experience and ability, with novices starting in D group, intermediate drivers in C and B groups, and the most experienced and skillful drivers in A group. There are classroom sessions usually before or after every track session, and the day is generally broken up into two 20 minute track sessions in the morning, a lunch break, and two 20 minute track sessions in the afternoon. Instructors are trained by other BMW CCA instructors in special Instructor Training Sessions and are usually people who have worked their way up from D group to A group (and sometimes an A+ group) and have demonstrated the skill and the aptitude to be able to teach new drivers.
What I described is in no way the same way a "driver education company" operates, which in the US, is a company that primarily teaches teenagers how to drive a car. Driver education companies have to be licensed, with licensed instructors, including passing an exam, with in-car training on how to teach new students how to drive.
I'm not sure what point you were trying to make, but in regards to driver education companies and HPDEs, they are two separate things.
I agree that current BMWs with Lane Departure Warning and Front Collision Avoidance, systems that can be defeated by simply pushing a button to turn them off, should not be banned from an HPDE because someone in charge doesn't understand how they work and how they can be defeated.