Emergency Brake Assist -safety feature or serious hazard?
Discussion
ORD said:
I agree that the OP was following too closely. You should aim to almost never use your brakes on a motorway, let alone having to use them with force. If you cannot brake very gently or, even better, just ease off, you are too close.
I can only think you rarely, if ever, drive on motorways. Or your car has an absolutely massive drag co-efficient.Hooli said:
I can't understand how anyone who should have a licence needs such a system. If you can't do something as simple as slow down as much as needed then you shouldn't be driving.
With the usual caveats about limits of braking & basic ABS (without stability control) being a good thing.
It's a 'stupid people' thing. Same reason we have speed limits...With the usual caveats about limits of braking & basic ABS (without stability control) being a good thing.
I hear you OP. My wife has a new A-class and it has the 'you're going to crash' sensor, which emits a loud beeping noise when it thinks you're going to collide with something.
I've had it sound probably between 5-10 false alarms in the last year. It sounded mainly due to there being a solid object on the outside of a bend, which it would sense just before me starting to turn the wheel. I don't think I was ever on the brakes at the time though.
I hate the feature though. I mean if I'm going to crash, the last thing I want is the car telling me so. I'd rather it did it in silence.
I've had it sound probably between 5-10 false alarms in the last year. It sounded mainly due to there being a solid object on the outside of a bend, which it would sense just before me starting to turn the wheel. I don't think I was ever on the brakes at the time though.
I hate the feature though. I mean if I'm going to crash, the last thing I want is the car telling me so. I'd rather it did it in silence.
Sheepshanks said:
Hooli said:
I can't understand how anyone who should have a licence needs such a system. If you can't do something as simple as slow down as much as needed then you shouldn't be driving.
With the usual caveats about limits of braking & basic ABS (without stability control) being a good thing.
It's a 'stupid people' thing. Same reason we have speed limits...With the usual caveats about limits of braking & basic ABS (without stability control) being a good thing.
Hooli said:
Which goes back to my point of people who should have a licence. Improve the test & training, problem solved & the roads will work.
You're not thinking about this like the authorities do. The solution is cars which drive themselves, with all control (other than keying in a destination) taken away from humans.
Sheepshanks said:
You're not thinking about this like the authorities do. The solution is cars which drive themselves, with all control (other than keying in a destination) taken away from humans.
...and they'll probably have seats fitted with commodes that automatically wipe your arse afterwards -although come to think of it I wouldn't have minded one of those after the original 'event' that sparked the topic in the first place 
!!Hooli said:
I can't understand how anyone who should have a licence needs such a system. If you can't do something as simple as slow down as much as needed then you shouldn't be driving.
With the usual caveats about limits of braking & basic ABS (without stability control) being a good thing.
OTOH, in the once in a lifetime event of a child darting out in front of you is not a good time to discover that you can't quite stop in timeWith the usual caveats about limits of braking & basic ABS (without stability control) being a good thing.
As posted on another thread I've had two occasions when these automatic braking systems have dropped anchor when mark one eyeball has seen what it has seen and decided it's not a hazard. One was simply embarrassing, in a car park, breezy day and the system interpreted a bush waving about in the wind as a risk, everything banged on. Walking pace so simply embarrassing.
The other was on a roundabout at a big motorway junction. Bus stopped in left hand lane at traffic lights, me in lane two easing round to stop at the lights, approaching the rear of the bus the HUD display went bananas and again anchors dropped. Anybody behind and it would have been potential rear end.
Even the manual warns you about the risk of the system detecting large vehicles outside you on a bend. The diagram even showed the car on a left hand bend and a large truck coming the other way as a possible scenario to watch out for. This says to me that the manufacturers know these systems are a bit rubbish and the warning in the handbook is an arse covering exercise.
On the question of tailgating all the systems have come with adaptive cruise and head up warnings if too close. I wonder what the manufacturers see as a proper following position. The ones tried the setting at next to furthest distance is the one that gives the right following position for me. Middle settings are too close for comfort, and close settings are full on tailgate. Indeed on one Volvo system set it at shortest setting to try and see how close you had to be at motorway speeds before the first warning light lit up. Never found out as in all conscience wasn't prepared to drive so close to somebody.
The other was on a roundabout at a big motorway junction. Bus stopped in left hand lane at traffic lights, me in lane two easing round to stop at the lights, approaching the rear of the bus the HUD display went bananas and again anchors dropped. Anybody behind and it would have been potential rear end.
Even the manual warns you about the risk of the system detecting large vehicles outside you on a bend. The diagram even showed the car on a left hand bend and a large truck coming the other way as a possible scenario to watch out for. This says to me that the manufacturers know these systems are a bit rubbish and the warning in the handbook is an arse covering exercise.
On the question of tailgating all the systems have come with adaptive cruise and head up warnings if too close. I wonder what the manufacturers see as a proper following position. The ones tried the setting at next to furthest distance is the one that gives the right following position for me. Middle settings are too close for comfort, and close settings are full on tailgate. Indeed on one Volvo system set it at shortest setting to try and see how close you had to be at motorway speeds before the first warning light lit up. Never found out as in all conscience wasn't prepared to drive so close to somebody.
Jasandjules said:
I do agree that space must be left on the motorway, however many years of bitter experience tells me that the second you leave a nice gap some t**t pulls into it........
If anyone can tell me how you can stick to 4 seconds gap or so on the motorway or more without an Audi/BMW/Range Rover undertaking and then pulling into your nice gap, I would be grateful.
Try keeping to the left so people don't try and undertake you? Also 2 seconds is enough, you don't need to double it and make people feel like you're not trying to keep up with traffic. Also not thinking of it as "your gap" where no-one is allowed into helps. If someone decides to pull in and reduce your gap then back off a bit, you'll only lose 10-15 mins on a 200+ mile drive doing it.If anyone can tell me how you can stick to 4 seconds gap or so on the motorway or more without an Audi/BMW/Range Rover undertaking and then pulling into your nice gap, I would be grateful.
FiF said:
Even the manual warns you about the risk of the system detecting large vehicles outside you on a bend. The diagram even showed the car on a left hand bend and a large truck coming the other way as a possible scenario to watch out for.
Again, that strikes me as ridiculous. Few people will read (and understand) the handbook anyway there are going to be people picking these things up as hire cars etc and they're not going to read it (even if there is one).It's hard enough explaining stop/start, autohold and electric handbrakes.
monoloco said:
ORD said:
I agree that the OP was following too closely. You should aim to almost never use your brakes on a motorway, let alone having to use them with force. If you cannot brake very gently or, even better, just ease off, you are too close.
While I agree in principle and as you say try to leave sufficient room so I can attempt to avoid using my brakes on a motorway (or in any other heavy traffic), this is far too simplistic especially in a heavy car which like most modern Mercs has an autobox (and also proves you haven't read the rest of the thread). Just to make the point, while I was out at lunch a few minutes ago I tried to test how long it would take to slow naturally from 50mph. So, doing exactly 50mph on a flat, straight (and empty!) road, I took my foot off the throttle. By the time I got to the end of the 300metre+ straight and had to apply the brakes I was still doing 40mph. How long it would take to scrub off the other 40mph is anyone's guess -another half mile? More? Would it ever actually stop without applying the brakes? Apply your your holier-than-thou theory would mean leaving a gap between you and the car in front of at least half a mile.Happy to help.
ORD said:
monoloco said:
ORD said:
I agree that the OP was following too closely. You should aim to almost never use your brakes on a motorway, let alone having to use them with force. If you cannot brake very gently or, even better, just ease off, you are too close.
While I agree in principle and as you say try to leave sufficient room so I can attempt to avoid using my brakes on a motorway (or in any other heavy traffic), this is far too simplistic especially in a heavy car which like most modern Mercs has an autobox (and also proves you haven't read the rest of the thread). Just to make the point, while I was out at lunch a few minutes ago I tried to test how long it would take to slow naturally from 50mph. So, doing exactly 50mph on a flat, straight (and empty!) road, I took my foot off the throttle. By the time I got to the end of the 300metre+ straight and had to apply the brakes I was still doing 40mph. How long it would take to scrub off the other 40mph is anyone's guess -another half mile? More? Would it ever actually stop without applying the brakes? Apply your your holier-than-thou theory would mean leaving a gap between you and the car in front of at least half a mile.Happy to help.
ORD said:
There's your answer, then. Half a mile is the appropriate distance.
Happy to help.
Excellent. Lets do some simple maths: M25 is 117 miles long, lets say an average of 3.5 lanes, and one car every 1/2 mile in each lane. That means the entire M25 could hold a total of 819 cars at any one time. I wish......Happy to help.
Bumping this thread after reading a very interesting story on Cornwall Live - http://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/vw-...
Ex-traffic plod has a new Tiguan and the brake assist seems to kick in when it isn't needed, prompting fears it will cause an accident.
He seems to put it down to the Cornish roads and hedgerows. The video, from around 1m30s or so, shows it in action.
Anyone recently had this issue? It's a bit worrying TBH!
Ex-traffic plod has a new Tiguan and the brake assist seems to kick in when it isn't needed, prompting fears it will cause an accident.
He seems to put it down to the Cornish roads and hedgerows. The video, from around 1m30s or so, shows it in action.
Anyone recently had this issue? It's a bit worrying TBH!
That stab on the brakes when a bush became close is what happened to me except at a much slower pace, as described above two years ago. Volvo admitted this was a 'fault' of the system. Use of the word fault is in inverted comments as it implies that the system was not working as designed, whereas the manufacturer confirmed that what was needed was more development work to deal with these false alarms.
That says to me, as written years previously, they know these systems are not all they are cracked up to be. In the video what was shown was a short sharp check brake, someone behind might regard it as a brake test, especially if they were a bit close.
This isn't a rant against progress but we are getting more and more interfering systems when what's needed is getting drivers to pay attention.
That says to me, as written years previously, they know these systems are not all they are cracked up to be. In the video what was shown was a short sharp check brake, someone behind might regard it as a brake test, especially if they were a bit close.
This isn't a rant against progress but we are getting more and more interfering systems when what's needed is getting drivers to pay attention.
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