Automatic braking activated by snow !!!!

[so called]

I drove from Philadelphia to Harrisburg PA yesterday in heavy snow.
The normal 2 hours turned into 5
The snow was compacted and at about -5deg C it was pretty hairy.

The control wasn't helped by the fact that the bloody automatic safety braking kept cutting in due to build up of snow.
It's ridiculous and dangerous.
I nearly lost it twice.

So much for these marvellous safety devices.

[Sump]

Drive slower tbh.

[-Z-]

Sump said:

Drive slower tbh.

The car forced him to, thats the problem.

[so called]

I was driving slow hence the 5 hours for 95 miles.
Left big gaps, didn't try to keep up with others that were going faster.

Smooth driving is important in those conditions. It's not helpful at all if the car decides to brake to the level of activating the ABS.
It's an Avis rental. Avis never leave the handbook in their rentals so I couldn't even check to see it was possible to deactivate.

Crap idea or crap application of the design ?

[TheEnd]

What is this automatic braking? Do you mean ABS?

[GravelBen]

so called said:

So much for these marvellous safety devices.

Even ABS can be a liability in conditions it isn't programmed for - I'm not sure whether its worse to have a car refusing to brake, or insisting on braking when you don't want it to!

[Perd Hapley]

TheEnd said:

What is this automatic braking? Do you mean ABS?

OP doesn't specify what car, but at lot of cars have apply the brakes for you if they sense you're about to hit something. New models can't get a five star EuroNCAP rating without it.

[GravelBen]

Perd Hapley said:

OP doesn't specify what car, but at lot of cars have apply the brakes for you if they sense you're about to hit something.

Or increase the brake force if they think you're trying to stop quickly but not pushing hard enough.

[Wulluff]

Just a thought - do you mean the traction control and not ABS?

[EDLT]

Sump said:

Drive slower tbh.

Automatic braking doesn't work above certain speeds, he needed to go faster.

[andy_s]

What's 'automatic braking'? I assume it's not ABS.

[so called]

Perd Hapley said:

OP doesn't specify what car, but at lot of cars have apply the brakes for you if they sense you're about to hit something. New models can't get a five star EuroNCAP rating without it.

Apologies if I'm not clear but the car has the automatic braking if it senses your are approaching the car ahead at a dangerous speed and so applies the brakes.
It also has the lane drift control but then the road was completely white so I guess it couldn't figure that one out.

It applied emergency braking to various degree about 8 times none of which were when I was anywhere near another vehicle, only heavy snow, twice of which nearly put me into the ditch.

If automatic control systems can't differentiate then the system is floored.
I know I won't be buying one soon with this bull st on.
I'd soon do the drive in my TVR and I know that would be scary.

[TobyLaRohne]

Please don't tell me you guys talking about ABS think the A in ABS stands for Automatic?

He's talking about the system that automatically brakes if it detects an object ahead, at a guess I'd say the car probably misinterpreted a chunk of snow getting kicked up to the sensor as an approaching object and had a hissy fit.

[so called]

PS it is a GMC Terrain piece of plasticness.

[Sump]

The forward-looking FCA camera
sensor is on the windshield ahead
of the rearview mirror. FCA detects
vehicles within a distance of
approximately 60 m (197 ft) and
operates at speeds above 40 km/h
(25 mph).