VW Adaptive Cruise/Anti-Collision Radar - Nearly crashed!

[Chr1sch]

Hi all,

Just looking for advice/thoughts here...

I've recently taken delivery of a Mk7 Gti, its bloody fantastic....one of the features is the adaptive cruise/anti-collision radar thing.

Anyway, merrily driving along yesterday, a Mk5 Fiesta I was following turned left (rather slowly in all fairness) and as it pulled off I accelerated away (rest assured I was NOT tailgating etc), anyway, next thing I know the car beeps and literally stands on its nose!

I mean it was a hugely aggressive stop, my daughter screamed, the car stopped dead and i must have been at least 5 meters away from the Fiesta and it was 80% off the road at that point.

Does this sound normal or should I be getting the garage to look at it urgently? If a car had been behind me it would, without doubt, have read ended me...

Any thoughts?

[TwistingMyMelon]

I'd turn it off tbh and speak to dealership if what you said is correct

First thing I do when I drive the latest Volvo XC70 is turn most of the modern aids like this off (not esp/traction etc)

There was a similar thread on here a while back

[swamp]

What happens if the Fiesta had to stop?

[halo34]

My old Volvo did that if it thought you needed the help, it saved me twice from a bump and could at times be annoying, but I figured it meant I needed to anticipate more than I was.

If someone hit you from behind then technically that's their problem however, what if that had been an accident!

[TooMany2cvs]

Chr1sch said:

Anyway, merrily driving along yesterday, a Mk5 Fiesta I was following turned left (rather slowly in all fairness) and as it pulled off I accelerated away (rest assured I was NOT tailgating etc), anyway, next thing I know the car beeps and literally stands on its nose!

I mean it was a hugely aggressive stop, my daughter screamed, the car stopped dead and i must have been at least 5 meters away from the Fiesta and it was 80% off the road at that point.

So there was a vehicle still partially across the road in front of you and - as you accelerated towards it - the car decided that wasn't very smart? Seems... fair.

[Mandat]

TooMany2cvs said:

Chr1sch said:

Anyway, merrily driving along yesterday, a Mk5 Fiesta I was following turned left (rather slowly in all fairness) and as it pulled off I accelerated away (rest assured I was NOT tailgating etc), anyway, next thing I know the car beeps and literally stands on its nose!

I mean it was a hugely aggressive stop, my daughter screamed, the car stopped dead and i must have been at least 5 meters away from the Fiesta and it was 80% off the road at that point.

So there was a vehicle still partially across the road in front of you and - as you accelerated towards it - the car decided that wasn't very smart? Seems... fair.

That's my take on it as well.

[normalbloke]

I'm not interested in owning any car that has full authority over brake and steering inputs. If they can't get a DPF/DMF etc etc right, then I think I'll wait a while!

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Chr1sch said:

If a car had been behind me it would, without doubt, have rear ended me...

Not if he had a car with the same safety features as yours.

[TooMany2cvs]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Chr1sch said:

If a car had been behind me it would, without doubt, have rear ended me...

Not if he had a car with the same safety features as yours.

Or a driver paying even the slightest attention.

[romeogolf]

The car can't understand if a vehicle is turning off or not, just whether or not it's moving away from you or towards you and whether or not it's actually there. So the system sounds like it was working correctly.

If someone hit you, they were following too close.

[Pintofbest]

Chr1sch said:

Hi all,


Anyway, merrily driving along yesterday, a Mk5 Fiesta I was following turned left (rather slowly in all fairness) and as it pulled off I accelerated away (rest assured I was NOT tailgating etc), anyway, next thing I know the car beeps and literally stands on its nose!

I mean it was a hugely aggressive stop, my daughter screamed, the car stopped dead and i must have been at least 5 meters away from the Fiesta and it was 80% off the road at that point.

Does this sound normal or should I be getting the garage to look at it urgently? If a car had been behind me it would, without doubt, have read ended me...

Any thoughts?

So the car autobraked to a halt, heavy enough to make your daughter scream, and stopped only a car length from the back of another vehicle...

If I were you I'd be telling people how the safety feature just stopped you having a crash.

[supertouring]

What I don't understand is that all these new gizmos are introduced into cars but no-one is given any training on them so they know how it works and what to expect. Then come the first time it triggers then people decide they are useless and turn them off.

It is like people driving in snow/ice conditions, the first time they often experience it is when they have to drive in the snow or ice rather than getting training.

I recently told my son (who just passed his test) to got and try the ABS to see what it does and how it reacts when it triggers so he know what to expect in the event he has to use it.

[kambites]

Surely everyone who passes their driving test these days activates the ABS on the emergency stop?

What's more worrying in a way is that you can pass your test in a car where you can just mash the brake as hard as you like and still steer; and then drive car without ABS.

[kambites]

Pintofbest said:

So the car autobraked to a halt, heavy enough to make your daughter scream, and stopped only a car length from the back of another vehicle...

If I were you I'd be telling people how the safety feature just stopped you having a crash.

He doesn't say a car's length behind it. I took that to mean he was a car's length to the side of it (as in on the opposite side of the road).

[Pintofbest]

kambites said:

He doesn't say a car's length behind it. I took that to mean he was a car's length to the side of it (as in on the opposite side of the road).

This is what I was referring to:

the car stopped dead and i must have been at least 5 meters away from the Fiesta and it was 80% off the road at that point

5 metres behind and it was still in the road.

Edited by Pintofbest on Tuesday 5th January 14:11

[TooMany2cvs]

kambites said:

He doesn't say a car's length behind it.

Umm, yes, he does.

Chr1sch said:

...a Mk5 Fiesta I was following turned left ... i must have been at least 5 meters away from the Fiesta and it was 80% off the road at that point.

Although I'm open to diagrams as to how else this might have worked.

[lee_fr200]

Sounds to me op that a) you didn't anticipate b) the car did c) you were travelling far too close if the car had to stop on its nose d) if the car was partially still in the road why accelerate

[kambites]

I could be wrong, but I read it as 5m to the side of (or at least partly to the side of) the Fiesta. I don't know about you people, but I very often pass within 5m of stationary cars when I'm travelling at significant speed. Pretty much every time I drive past a parked car, in fact. I'd be a bit miffed if my car anchored up every time I tried to drive within 5m of a parked car, even if a fifth of it was sticking out into the road.

Need more information really. If you were trying to squeeze by a few inches from the side of it, the car probably did the right thing in stopping. If you were several meters (or even 1m) to the side of it, it shouldn't have braked.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 5th January 14:14

[IanCress]

I've only had it activate once in the Volvo, when entering a mini roundabout with a car coming across my path. I judged it so it would be close, but my car activated the brakes as I entered the roundabout. It certainly didn't do a full stop though as it released the brakes a split second later once the car had cleared my path.

[Sheepshanks]

There was a thread not long ago where someone reported that his Golf will stop if traffic is stopped in the next lane - struggling to remember the details but it might have been speed related.