"Least worst" new safety tech in cars

[POIDH]

I've a Qasqai hire car at the moment. It's got serious issues with the mandated safety tech, so many foibles of how systems work, plus everything accompanied by bongs and bings.

This morning it initiated an emergency stop at 70mph while in a line of cars - it panicked about a stationary car in right hand turn slip road of a dual carriageway...

So which manufacturers have actually got this tech to work?

[POIDH]

I'll take that as 'none'....

[anonymous-user]

I find this is something you have to learn individually for each car. Having an unfamiliar hire car is a worst case scenario as you don't really know what it will do in various situations. Most of these safety systems are very conservative and the legislation makes them even more so. Learning how to switch most of them off is the main task to start with. Especially in a hire car.

[HTP99]

Renault, Dacia and Alpine have a fantastic feature in their cars, a single button which can be programmed to disable the mandated safety features that you don't want active, start the car, press this button twice and voila!

I'm pretty sure they are the only manufacturer that have this.

[595Heaven]

HTP99 said:

Renault, Dacia and Alpine have a fantastic feature in their cars, a single button which can be programmed to disable the mandated safety features that you don't want active, start the car, press this button twice and voila!

I'm pretty sure they are the only manufacturer that have this.

Land Rover product has the same. Muscle memory turns it all off pretty much automatically

[ScoobyChris]

I hired a car last November when we visited Romania and got a brand new, shiny Opel Mokka (I think). Drove it 400 odd miles across a variety of roads and conditions and only assistant I noticed was the mild vibration it gave when I lane-changed without indicating. I’d put that in the “doing it right” category.

Chris

[Krikkit]

My neighbour has a nearly new Toyota Corolla and its systems seem very well set up, he hasn't mentioned the emergency braking

[Mr Tidy]

Who cares?

If you are capable to sentient thinking just buy a car that doesn't have all that nonsense!

[WelshPetrolhead]

I've had 2 new Hyundais (i30N and Tucson) and they were fine. I think in 5 years I had one collision warning, and it was just a warning, it didn't take over any controls.

Also driven plenty of JLR stuff via work and the systems in those seem fine too.

I will caveat that I haven't driven anything new since the mandated speed limit warnings came in last year.

[the-norseman]

I had a B-Class hire car that slammed on its brakes at 70 because there was a stationary car in a slip road.

Also had a MG hire car recently that was probably the worst car I've ever driven in terms of systems taking over even though they were turned off.

[richhead]

Mr Tidy said:

Who cares?

If you are capable to sentient thinking just buy a car that doesn't have all that nonsense!

Not easy if you want a new car

[anonymous-user]

HTP99 said:

Renault, Dacia and Alpine have a fantastic feature in their cars, a single button which can be programmed to disable the mandated safety features that you don't want active, start the car, press this button twice and voila!

I'm pretty sure they are the only manufacturer that have this.

That’s pretty good. My 2022 Tesla allows you to permanently switch off any features you don’t want in your individual driver profile. But I’m not sure if that’s still allowed on 2025 cars.

[Robertb]

I liked the automatic speed limiter on a Peugeot hire car I had in France. The speed limits changed so frequently and are enforced rigorously.

[carlove]

My Kia Ceed seems alright. It occasionally gives a collision warning for no reason, but has only braked once when a pedestrian crossed in front of me, I was braking but the car decided an emergency stop was necessary (it wasn’t) other than that is been fine for the last couple of years

[wyson]

My 73 plate Peugeot 3008 is fine as well. I just turned down the sensitivity. When it has pinged, I ve see the danger before hand. eg. Someone stepping out into the road and thought it the warning was appropriate.

Euroncap tests these systems separately now, so going forwards, you ll be able to review their effectiveness. Seems really fast changing. A couple of years ago, Tesla dominated, but VW and Toyota have pulled ahead of Tesla with their latest systems.

Also, people like krikkit have poured scorn on it, but I think it s worth doing a cockpit drill with any new car or hire car, to familiarise yourself with its systems before moving off. Seems to be a theme on PH, hire cars taking people by surprise because they behave in unexpected ways. With ADAS systems the surprise can be a bit more intense than accidentally turning on the wipers when you meant to signal left.

Edited by wyson on Monday 23 June 08:07

[Jazoli]

Mr Tidy said:

Who cares?

If you are capable to sentient thinking just buy a car that doesn't have all that nonsense!

How does that work if you want to buy a new car?

[carlove]

the-norseman said:

I had a B-Class hire car that slammed on its brakes at 70 because there was a stationary car in a slip road.

Also had a MG hire car recently that was probably the worst car I've ever driven in terms of systems taking over even though they were turned off.

I was behind a new MG crossover in stop start traffic a few weeks back, and every time a cyclist filtered past the hazard lights would wildly flash, and occasionally they flashed for no reason I could see. I thought it must be faulty but googled it later, and it found owners complaining about it, and according to MG is a “safety feature” that can’t be switched off. That would be enough for me to trade in for something else.

[MisterWhippy]

HTP99 said:

Renault, Dacia and Alpine have a fantastic feature in their cars, a single button which can be programmed to disable the mandated safety features that you don't want active, start the car, press this button twice and voila!

I'm pretty sure they are the only manufacturer that have this.

Can confirm this. I have a 25 plate Renault and a simple two taps on a button right of the steering wheel turns on "My Perso' mode, which disables or turns off notifications of the warnings I don't want on.

[David87]

I was driven (yes, driven!) by a Tesla Cybertruck in the US last week. The Full Self-Driving tech is easily the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen in a car.

Yeah, I’m sure it’ll do the odd thing wrong (as do human drivers!), but in the 30 miles or so it drove me, I’m confident in saying it did as good a job as I could have done myself.

At the moment you have to “supervise” it, i.e. pay attention to the road, but as of yesterday Tesla have started to roll out the unsupervised version in the Robotaxis where you can watch a film or go to sleep etc.

Some will hate this, but even the most helmsman of drivers get tired or lazy at times.

[TheLoraxxZeus]

I had always disabled lane assist because my first car (2020s Corsa) had it and it kept turning back on. It was super invasive and would always think your encroaching into another lane. You would be driving in a straight line and suddenly it would pull the wheel to the right or left for no reason.

We just recently got a Volvo V90 (2017) which has lane assist and we actually really like it. Not only is it non invasive, it's really responsive and that includes raised kerbs on country roads. It also works very well with the pilot assist function (basically self drive, kinda), it allows me to pop on the pilot assist briefly while I take a drink of water/coffee or scratch my balls. You have a good 15+ seconds if you need to take 2 hands off the wheel for any reason. However it does have a downside in that it just switches your brain off, I drove home 200 miles with it on a month or so ago and I don't even remember 90% of the drive because I was simply not paying attention.

It also stays off if you turn it off, which is nice.

I am not entirely fond of the auto emergency braking, we live in a tight street and it's a 30mph in some bits. This means you're pretty damn close to parked cars and on coming cars/buses so more often than not the car slams the brakes on when you come to an encounter. This turns back on automatically.

EDIT: Sorta went on a rant. I think the lane assist in my Volvo is probably the best safety I've used and probably the best in the car because it just works without getting in the way.