I just got back from a road trip from Houston, Texas to Temple, Texas. This is my first time driving intercity in the US and it was a 3hr trip. I was blown away by how organised and stress-free driving long distance is in America and why driving 5-6 hrs is no big deal for Americans. Driving that kind of distance is a decision they can make overnight here, whereas common Lagos - Akure, I would call like 5 people 1 week in advance to find out state of the road, which route to pass, where robbers are operating etc. It also explains why cars imported from America can often have high mileage 70k miles in like 2 years. My 10 year old Camry in Lagos is still on 54k miles.

Anyway, the trip got me thinking of auto tech and road infrastructure I used on that trip which would be generally unusable in Nigeria.

1. CRUISE CONTROL:

Cruise control enables you to set a cruising speed and your car automatically keeps that speed, enabling you to take your foot of the accelerator and rest your feet. All you need to focus on is the steer your car. More modern versions of this called dynamic cruise control have radar to sense the distance between you and the car in front of you, such that if the car in front slows down, your car will automatically slow down to maintain the distance to the car in front of it and if the car in front picks up some speed, your car will also automatically accelerate, but WILL NOT exceed the set limit.

More advanced dynamic cruise control systems found on luxury cars will even steer for you and use in built mapping tech to slow down when the car is going round curves in the road.

This tech is pretty much unusable in Nigeria due to the horrible state of our roads. Our roads require so much braking and swerving to avoid pot holes that it remains to be seen if cruise control could work effectively here. In 3 hours of driving from Houston to Temple, I can safely say my car experienced ZERO pot holes. Granted, there are a few roads where it would work such as Abuja airport road, maybe PH Eket road (if it hasn't fallen apart by now), but point is roads where you can use it are very few and far between.

2. ROAD SIGN RECOGNITION:
This is tech works hand in hand with cruise control and enables the car to recognize speed limits and other road signs and adjust accordingly. i.e if the speed limit drops from 70mph to 60mph, the cars camera will spot it, automatically drop the speed and automatically increase when you exit the 60mph zone.

This tech will never work in Nigeria for obvious reasons...our highways do not have signage!! There would be no way to know what the speed limit is!!

3. ROAD LANE CENTERING & STEERING:
Again this works with cruise control in the sense that most modern cars are able to recognize the lane markings and keep the car centered in the lane. This has many safety benefits in that drivers who are tipsy will have their cars automatically stay in lane instead of veering off the road and running into others. In the even you wish to change lanes, the more expensive versions of this found in luxury cars will turn off the feature temporarily, scan the entire road and if safe, automatically change the lane and re-engage lane centering. All you have to do is hit the trafficator to signal intent to change lane.

Again this tech won't work here because we have no road markings. There are very few roads in Nigeria, maybe 1 in every 1000 that has proper lane markings.

4. ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Due to restrictions on emissions and concerns over global warming and climate change a number of auto companies are introducing electric vehicles. these are vehicles that run on rechargeable battery power and an electric motor, as opposed to the petrol/diesel fueled internal combustion engine that we are used to. An electric engine produces zero CO2, whereas petrol/diesel engines produce considerable amounts of CO2, particularly in Nigeria where we use a lot of rickety trucks and commercial transport vehicles that spew out lots of emissions. Most European countries have set dates between 2030 and 2040 for the complete eradication of internal combustion engine cars on their roads. Remains to be seen what Nigeria is doing to prepare. Perhaps we intend to take the scrap cars from everywhere and continue living in a fools paradise based on our crude oil and petrol.

Unfortunately, the era of using electric vehicles in Nigeria is a long way off for the simple fact that we have one of the most unstable electricity infrastructure in the world. Where people have little access to electricity at home, how will the vehicles be charged? One of the reasons we have to sort out our electricity situation pronto!!


Suffice to say, I was really impressed by how people largely obeyed speed limits and road regulations without being prompted. And it was not necessarily because of cameras or police, but more because they are just a more disciplined society. Even on one of two occasions where these was like 5 minute congestion, lanes were maintained and there was ZERO case of cars migrating to the service lane or shoulder of the road to beat traffic. This made the traffic to clear in just a few minutes. Had it been Nigeria, within 1 minute, you'd have dozens of cars, mainly danfos, driving on the shoulder of the road, only to make 5 minute traffic into 1 hr of hell.

Bottom line is we have a long way to go to become an organized and disciplined society. In fact whilst we should be catching up to the rest of the world seeing as we can just adopt what works elsewhere without much thinking, we are actually being left further behind.

Interesting

Number one is even worse!


Attempting to use this on ANY 9ja road is sending invitation letter to those coffin guys. Almost everyone is mad on the wheel in Nigeria. Abrupt breaking or turning had been rationalized as Normal on 9ja road. Okada and Marwa sef will send u tumbling if care is not taken.


Naija is a special breed!


Technologically advanced countries records so much deaths due to covid and the recklessly managed naija didn't even record total death that is up to what countries with good health sector records.

I use my cruise control effectively when I travel but it's obviously unusable in traffic or in a bad road which is almost everywhere in Nigeria. The main disai notice to cruise control is that it waste fuel

I use cruise control alot.

Kelvin30286063:
I use my cruise control effectively when I travel but it's obviously unusable in traffic or in a bad road which is almost everywhere in Nigeria. The main disai notice to cruise control is that it waste fuel

Really!! Cruise control wastes fuel I would expect that it actually improves fuel consumption, since you are going at a constant cruising speed.

kingreign:
I use cruise control alot.

I'm curious to know on which road that is.

COMPAQ:


I'm curious to know on which road that is.

Abuja, Uyo.

COMPAQ:


Really!! Cruise control wastes fuel I would expect that it actually improves fuel consumption, since you are going at a constant cruising speed.

No it doesn't. It engages your car into what I assume is a computerize mode. I'm not sure it's the same with all cars but at least for mine, I notice more fuel consumption when I engage cruise or when I engage sport mode.

Kelvin30286063:
I use my cruise control effectively when I travel but it's obviously unusable in traffic or in a bad road which is almost everywhere in Nigeria. The main disai notice to cruise control is that it waste fuel

It's very usable in anywhere especially with modern cars having adaptive cruise control with autonomous braking and acceleration. Try it with a Mercedes Benz or INFINITI or Acura or Lexus or Toyota, you'd notice how effective they're. I've tried it in a land cruiser. It even slowed down when the car in front slowed down to enter a pothole and resumed when the car in front resumed speed.
Most of those modern driving aids work well in Nigeria. I've tested quite a number of them.

Lane departure warning, lane keep assist, auto highbeam assist, even traffic sign recognition.

kingreign:


It's very usable in anywhere especially with modern cars having adaptive cruise control with autonomous braking and acceleration. Try it with a Mercedes Benz or INFINITI or Acura or Lexus or Toyota, you'd notice how effective they're. I've tried it in a land cruiser. It even slowed down when the car in front slowed down to enter a pothole and resumed when the car in front resumed speed.
Most of those modern driving aids work well in Nigeria. I've tested quite a number of them.

Lane departure warning, lane keep assist, auto highbeam assist, even traffic sign recognition.

What about usability? As we all know driving in Lagos is like playing road rage

donstefano8:


What about usability? As we all know driving in Lagos is like playing road rage

Nothing concerns Kingreign with Lagos driving. Na hellhole be that place.

Cruise control makes more sense for long inter city trips anyway. Even abroad, within town, it wouldn't make as much sense due to frequent stoppage for traffic lights, how much more Lagos where you drive with one foot permanently on the brakes.

Golf 3 users are not bothered