New car drivers aids are interesting

[A930Rocket]

My 2014 Ford Ff160 truck with 100k is in the shop for some warranty work and I was given a loaner car.... a Ford edge. Not a bad little car with good gas mileage

I haven’t checked everything but the adaptive cruise control and lane departure are nice. Of course, I haven’t relied on them but if I drift to one side or the other, the steering wheel moves back quickly and almost too much. It make me want to correct it. It’s something that would help non-attentive drivers.

The adaptive cruise control distance between vehicles is adjustable, automatic and stops the car. I don’t know what it would do in emergency but I suppose it’s better than nothing.

I might get these options when I get my new truck, of course that won’t be for another six years. Gotta keep them at least 10 years.

[sammyg2]

I bought a new highlander a few months ago, and it's taken me almost that long to figure out how to disable all the nanny crap on it.
the first to go was the annoying lane departure thing.

The longer you have to deal with that stuff the less you'll like it.

I still use the radar controlled cruise control but I've adjusted down the gap quite a bit to keep tools from cutting in constantly.

[porsche tech]

About a year ago, I bought a used '16 Honda Civic. To my amazement, it also had all theses features. The lane departure wiggles the steering wheel and gently steers you back into your lane. I tested the automatic braking feature on an off ramp from I95 and it lights up a big "BRAKE" in the instrument cluster, while slowing you down abruptly (while illuminating the brake lights). Even has heated rear seats. Surprised me that Honda's bottom of the line would have all that stuff.

[PorscheGAL]

I would love to have adaptive cruise in my Macan. The Macan has lane departure but all it does is make noise if you get too close to the line. I also have parking sensors. Both are annoying and sound like the car is yelling at you. Going through a drive through with the sensors is a crazy symphony of beeps. I hate it. Most are turned off all the time.

[Wetwork]

I borrowed my folk's Avalon for a long trip a few months back. On the way down our ranch road, as I was playing with all the touch screen stuff, and swerving around on our twisty dirt driveway, a warning light and warning sound came on saying I need a cup of coffee and pull over. I hadn't drove four miles. After I got to the black top I had to pull over shut off the car to clear the coffee break alarm.

During the trip, while on cruise control, I never noticed that when I got in the slow lane behind truckers, the car would slow itself down and match the speed of the vehicle ahead. Stupid me, it was so smooth I just never noticed why I never had to pass anyone. Took me almost a hour to figure out what was going on.

I did like the blind spot warning lights on the mirrors though.

They seriously should do some sort of pre-buy, car familiarization trip at the dealership. I don't think you can safely learn all the gee-gaws while in transit he-he. My folks after a year didn't know why the car slowed down on cruise control until I got back from the trip.

Most of my rigs are from the 80's and the newest, besides my folks new Avalon is a 2006 Dodge Cummins. So I'm a little behind the times.-WW

[petrolhead611]

Love the ACC on my Hyundai Ioniq, and the Lane Keeping Assistance System .I adjust the ACC gap according the the road conditions.I use LK A S if I am on a dual carriageway several miles from a rest stop and am feeling weary

[pavulon]

Was in a loaner Subaru Crosstek last winter for a couple of days. The lane departure feature was clueless when the road became 2 black tracks on a road otherwise white. It was a constant fight with the wheel until it gave up after awhile. That cured me from ever considering a car with that feature.

[jwasbury]

My 2018 GMC Canyon has a collision warning thingy and lane departure warning thingy. neither of these will apply brakes or steering input, though the collision warning will defeat cruise control if it is active. I generally leave lane departure off but the collision warning has proven useful in dense high speed interstate traffic where even a microsecond of diverted attention at the wrong moment could be disastrous.

[vash]

my moms buick just beeps.

anyone ever try that active braking thing? that has to be a good thing. my only accidents were all like that..just a blip of not paying attention and i tap the car in front.

[GH85Carrera]

My 1986 El Camino still has manual roll up windows, and the door locks are 100% manual. My 85 911 is pretty fancy, it has automatic door locks and power windows, but no ABS, power steering or traction control. No tire pressure monitors.

My wife's 2017 Macan has lots of bells and whistles. I will say the blind spot warning lights are nice, but I prefer a car with few blind spots to begin with.

[Norm K]

Not a fan of frequent and unnecessary accelerating and decelerating while cruising on the highway. Adaptive cruise control is nice providing the driver in front maintains a steady speed, something too many do not.

_

[sammyg2]

The real danger is this: the Einstein's on the road will get more and more dependent on these features and will forgot how to control a car.

Case in point:

A friend's wife recently backed into a pole and screwed up her car.
Her argument was this: I didn't see the pole in the screen when I was backing up so there's something wrong with the car. No, she didn't bother looking in the mirrors. That's what the back-up camera is for.

If a person has a clue, he doesn't need all those gimmicks.
If he doesn't have a clue, take his keys away.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My 1986 El Camino still has manual roll up windows, and the door locks are 100% manual. My 85 911 is pretty fancy, it has automatic door locks and power windows, but no ABS, power steering or traction control. No tire pressure monitors.

What's wrong with you man, do you have a death wish?

[A930Rocket]

WW...that’s what I was doing when I got to a empty straight stretch of road. Fiddled with the controls trying to figure everything out. I could see these features lulling someone into a false sense of confidence. The ACC only seems to work with cruise control as far as I could tell. It would be nice to try it in daily bumper to bumper driving if it has it.

The ACC distance is easy to adjust, as it’s on the steering wheel. The others are through several screens. And the screen is tiny. Same for the back up camera. It’s 1/4 the size of my truck.

The side avoidance just lights up the side mirrors with a small yellow light to let you know someone is there. I didn’t test it, but A$$ume it beeps or has steering input if tested in real life.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

What's wrong with you man, do you have a death wish?

I would never let someone borrow my El Camino if it were raining. It has a posi-traction rear end. In the rain, while making a sharp turn, like at a intersection, it takes a lot of care to keep the rear end to stay in the rear. The rear end would come around faster than a 1976 911 Turbo under boost if careful throttle is not used.

The list of people that can borrow my Elky is VERY short. Outside of my wife and my business partner it is a list shorter than Bruce Willis's hair.

[sammyg2]

That's pretty short.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Wetwork

They seriously should do some sort of pre-buy, car familiarization trip at the dealership. I don't think you can safely learn all the gee-gaws while in transit he-he. My folks after a year didn't know why the car slowed down on cruise control until I got back from the trip.

Solution!


Some of the new features are pretty cool. Hopefully, they improve things on the road versus making people pay attention to what they are doing even less. I suppose for the poor drivers, this stuff could hardly make them worse, and for decent to good drivers, they will probably also help since even the best of us can be distracted at times and it only takes a split second for bad things to happen if your focus shifts.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My 1986 El Camino still has manual roll up windows, and the door locks are 100% manual. My 85 911 is pretty fancy, it has automatic door locks and power windows, but no ABS, power steering or traction control. No tire pressure monitors.

My wife's 2017 Macan has lots of bells and whistles. I will say the blind spot warning lights are nice, but I prefer a car with few blind spots to begin with.

I love, love, love my TPMS. It's especially nice with super low profile stiff sidewall tires that aren't as obviously low on air as a tall sidewall comfort tire.

[Tervuren]

So I'm curious about adaptive cruise control, if the vehicle in front drifts down in speed ever so slowly, is it stepping your vehicle down in harsh steps? Or is it matching the barely noticeable speed loss?

[craigster59]

In my 2016 F150 I have some type of trailer backing feature where you put these stickers on your trailer and the truck automatically backs it up for you (I think).

I haven't tried it, I'll be damned if I won't back up my own trailer.

Edit: Found a link to a video of it in action. Figures, it's a chick parallel parking.
https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2018-ford-f150-trailer-video/