http://www.techradar.com/news/car-tech/ ... et-1180523

Everybody wants to jump in and give it a destination, then relax. Nothing else is gonna cut it.

I think that the long term solution will be found and taken in small steps. It could be forty years before we full have driverless cars. Though a few can already park themselves, so if you have that feature in the car could you allow that to park for you as you take your driving test?

Thankfully, parallell parking was never part of my test. I’ve never managed it properly in any car I’ve owned, and in my current car I’d not even attempt it just down to the visibility and sculptural qualities of the back end.

I was thinking about this this morning during my commute. They used to expect you to know parallel parking, which I've used often, and reversing round a corner, which I've never used ever, even once. I appreciate the idea that it's actually about perception and vehicle control - reversing into a parking bay is a somewhat similar process - but the fact remains in 25 years of driving, I've never once reversed round a corner. But I tell you something I do every day; filter in and out of lanes of traffic onto or from slip roads and merged lanes. There 's a method to that but I was never taught what it is. The number of people I see who apparently can't do it, or at least do it really really badly, is amazing. And while if you reverse round a corner badly you might bump your tires on the kerb, if you filter onto a motorway badly someone might get hurt.

Who decided that reversing round a corner is something we all needed to know how to do? And why?

I have used reversing around a corner quite a bit. It is more about procedure than the actual manoeuvre. It is very like reversing into a car park bay which is something I prefer to do rather than reverse out.

In my test, it was a three point turn and reversing around a corner. As you observed, the driving test does not cover motorway driving, or even driving in challenging situations. My driving instructor was able to take me onto dual carriageways, but that was really his choice not something I asked for.

I guess reversing round the corner shows you have spatial awareness, and can judge the dimensions of the car. It also shows you can "reverse" your mind when controlling the car.

We have to reverse park at work, so reversing into parking bays is a daily routine. I use parallel parking almost every day too, apart from the odd occasion when there is space for more than one car outside my house. I have parking sensors, so it has made me a bit lazy about it all; although I do keep going after it starts squealing at me - I like to see how close I can get.

I also reverse around corners regularly too.