Sometimes technology sucks!

[chrism]

Mine also beeps very loudly if it thinks you've not seen something and might collide - so if a car in front indicates and slows down, but you don't match their speed (becuase they're about to get out of the way and you're not right behind them) you get this massive red exclamation mark taking up the entire dashboard, I guess it's designed to make you jump, in case you're actually not paying atteniton, but it's happened three times, and terrified me (for all the wrong reasons) each time! Did it once for someone on a ladder beside the road, presumably thought I was going to hit them or something.

My last car had that - it complained loudly when I was approaching a farm gateway on the outside of a bend, assuming that the field was the road. It also took objection to a humpbacked bridge - twice, once on the way up and again on the way down the other side. It even complained once when a flaming pigeon flew across the front of the car.

In all cases I'm darned glad I didn't have the next model up - which would, according to the blurb, have also started to apply the brakes.

[njee20]

That's the thing I can't quite understand, it also does the 'adaptive cruise control' thing, where it'll just match the speed of the car infront, going as far as stopping behind them at junctions, so I'd rather expect it to do something other than shout loudly at you. I'm bloody glad it doesn't, mind, that really would be terrifying!

[Skyline2uk]

On the radar-guided / adaptive cruise control: Does anybody remember Clarkson talking about that and how it puts the brakes on (and therefore brake lights) to maintain distance on a motorway?

The is linked to the wave-front model of successive cars braking heavier and heavier until you get stationary traffic at some point back down the road, thus causing those phantom traffic jams? Would these get better or worse if every car had that system?

Skyline2uk

[zwilnik]

On the radar-guided / adaptive cruise control: Does anybody remember Clarkson talking about that and how it puts the brakes on (and therefore brake lights) to maintain distance on a motorway?

The is linked to the wave-front model of successive cars braking heavier and heavier until you get stationary traffic at some point back down the road, thus causing those phantom traffic jams? Would these get better or worse if every car had that system?

Skyline2uk

Likely worse if they weren't interlinked. The ideal scenario would be all the autonomous cars talking to one another and sharing relative position and speed as well as getting added data from roadside beacons and the net about longer distance conditions. Again, it's effectively turning cars into trains, but hey it works.

[njee20]

On the radar-guided / adaptive cruise control: Does anybody remember Clarkson talking about that and how it puts the brakes on (and therefore brake lights) to maintain distance on a motorway?

The is linked to the wave-front model of successive cars braking heavier and heavier until you get stationary traffic at some point back down the road, thus causing those phantom traffic jams? Would these get better or worse if every car had that system?

If it worked well then I think better, ultimately the magnification in that effect is due to each successive person in the chain responding more vigorously! I actually quite like it, but avoid using it if there are cars behind (on single carriageway roads) because I worry that it makes a lot of small braking applications which would be distracting. It also does weird things in sharp corners, over compensating by trying to keep distance as the car in front brakes for the corner.

Definitely a technology which will get better, and I guess a sort of step to autonomy.

While I'm moaning about technology on my car that annoys me (I love my car, I should add), "main beam assist". If you put the headlights onto main beam, it has an automatic dimming thing, whereby it'll redirect the beam to avoid dazzling people, it's not a binary on/off, it's like a totally dynamic beam pattern. I'm always convinced that it won't work and that'll be constantly dazzling people. Only way to switch it off once applied is to manually put main beam on, then disengage it, thereby definitely dazzling the car in front!

[Skyline2uk]

While I'm moaning about technology on my car that annoys me (I love my car, I should add), "main beam assist". If you put the headlights onto main beam, it has an automatic dimming thing, whereby it'll redirect the beam to avoid dazzling people, it's not a binary on/off, it's like a totally dynamic beam pattern. I'm always convinced that it won't work and that'll be constantly dazzling people. Only way to switch it off once applied is to manually put main beam on, then disengage it, thereby definitely dazzling the car in front!

Again from a convo from Clarkson and co (and yes I am aware of the dangers of basing info from a single source), doesn't that system sometimes get confused by reflective signs? I.e dim the lights based on its own reflection?

Skyline2uk

[njee20]

No idea I must say, not driven it enough in the dark to test that, but I haven't found it so far. If I could be guaranteed it wasn't dazzling anyone it's quite impressive, I just feel like it must be.

[dannyboy]

My car has the adaptive cruise control which works in conjunction with lane guidance. The cruise control I find works very well but the lane guidance takes some getting used to. The system places the car exactly between the nearside and offside lane markings, (in Ireland, a lot of roads have a yellow broken line on the nearside), and I usually feel I am driving too near the centre of the road. The automatic headlights work well too, they usually switch off at just the moment I am thinking an oncoming driver must be being dazzled. They switch on as soon as the oncoming vehicle has passed. They have been 'fooled' a couple of times, but the roads round where I live are a bit twisty and up and down and some of the 'sharp turn' chevrons. a lot of which have been replaced lately, so they are still nice and shiny, have caused the headlights to switch off for a few seconds. But, all in all, I like this new technology.

[Paddy]

This all reminds of the line in Top Gun where the pilots are being told how their forebears had become missile dependent and lost the ability to Dog Fight.  I can see this happening with driving as the aids become more widespread.  We could go through a period where vast numbers of people lose the ability to drive safely with the vehicle under their control!

Kind regards

Paddy

[zwilnik]

This all reminds of the line in Top Gun where the pilots are being told how their forebears had become missile dependent and lost the ability to Dog Fight.  I can see this happening with driving as the aids become more widespread.  We could go through a period where vast numbers of people lose the ability to drive safely with the vehicle under their control!

Kind regards

Paddy

Too true, I'm stuffed if we end up needing to ride horses again.

[themadhippy]

We could go through a period where vast numbers of people lose the ability to drive safely with the vehicle under their control!

thought we was already there

[PLD]

It has a system that detects when you wander out of the lane you're in, or onto the hard shoulder, and the steering wheel moves on its own to correct your trajectory.

I hate it ! It makes me jump when the steering wheel moves without me turning it.

In my opinion that is dangerous.

If it is surprising you when the lane guidance intervenes, that could be taken to imply you are driving without due care and attention. Arguably it is your driving that is dangerous and proving that the system is needed. If you were driving correctly and maintaining correct road position, it would have no need to intervene...

[stevewalker]

Or that it struggles to distinguish between poor current markings and poorly erased old ones in ever changing roadworks.

[Newportnobby]

This all reminds of the line in Top Gun where the pilots are being told how their forebears had become missile dependent and lost the ability to Dog Fight.  I can see this happening with driving as the aids become more widespread.  We could go through a period where vast numbers of people lose the ability to drive safely with the vehicle under their control!

Kind regards

Paddy

Motorway driving in this country is a dogfight (mind you, I found Italy worse as they just use headlights, accelerator and horn).
I get maddened by the auto wipers on my Siesta as it takes away all control even though I set the interval I want them to sweep at. My feeling of when the screen needs a wipe is far more intelligent than rain hitting a sensor. Grrr

[Bealman]

Reading all this, I'm starting to like my little Toyota Corolla more and more. It has just the level of technology that suits me - non-adaptive cruise control and a reversing camera.