The car knows better ....

There are, I once read somewhere, 89 (or maybe it was 106, I forget now) computers on our eight year old Honda. One of them runs a piece of software called TSA and for eight years and 112,000 miles it's done ...... absolutely nothing at all apart from monitor and check and keep an electronic eye on things.

Then, as I gingerly pulled the caravan past a lorry on the A10 Autoroute heading towards Bordeaux a combination of crosswinds and an unstable air flow around the front of the truck caused the caravan to begin to snake alarmingly behind us. It was the most extreme snaking I'd ever experienced and as I reacted in the standard way (foot off the accelerator, damp out the swings with gentle steering) TSA checked whether the car or the caravan was causing the swaying, analysed if it was getting worse, decided it was dangerous, concluded my driving wasn't up to it and something much more significant needed to be done. It engaged the four-wheel drive and began dramatically applying the brakes individually to counteract the snaking, in a couple of seconds things were back to normal. The truck driver spotted the problem and slowed down to let me back across and onto the safety of the hard shoulder (at the noise of the brakes coming on and off we said "Tyre's blown out" to each other at exactly the same time). It hadn't and so after 30 seconds to collect ourselves we headed on again.

TSA has gone back to monitoring, watching and doing nothing until it's needed (hopefully it won't ever get to that again). 

It's a rather strange feeling when your car decides it's a better driver than you are and takes control away from you. In fact distinctly unsettling in hindsight but maybe another reason to buy Honda again ..... 

Aiming to get the CRV past 200,000 miles first before that time comes though.