One reason I bought a new car is to take advantage of this feature which I've wanted for so long since I've learned about it and test drove a car with it. I understand that it has limitations especially when driving in non-highway/freeway roads, but with the addition of the stop-and-go feature which basically stops the vehicle if the car in front of it stops and resumes to the pre-determined speed if the stop was 3 seconds or less. This is very useful as you may imagine or if you haven't used it yourself on a bumper to bumper stop and go traffic. It almost encourages you to multi-task without any worries.
So as I got to know about this system and tried to see where its limitations are, I've discovered a couple which some who might not have wanted to press their lucks to find out. I've read the owners manual and I don't remember seeing these in there, unless I completely missed it.
1. First is that the system can't "see" the vehicle in front unless it is squarely in front of it. For example, if a vehicle changes lane into the lane you are driving in, it will not see it until the vehicle is completely on the lane you are in. This is important because if your vehicle is accelerating to get the the pre-determined speed and there is a car changing lane in front of you, your car will not slow down as it is not smart enough to understand the intent of the other driver, nor it has a "peripheral" vision. It may be only a few feet away until it sees it and will then slams the brake to gain the following distance it deem safe, which is normally farther than most drivers will think to be a safe distance even at the closest distance setting. Drivers behind you will then potentially get surprised by this maneuver thus creating a high risk to be rear ended. This also applies on a sharp curved road. The vehicle in front of me was visible to the naked eye although partially, but the radar I guess only has a very narrow beam or require a bigger object in order to become recognized as a car.
2. Second, it doesn't see vehicles that are stopped in front of you if you're traveling at a high rate of speed until it is so close that I think the only way the vehicle will stop to prevent hitting the vehicle is via the aid of the collusion prevention system and anti-lock brakes. When this happened to me, I couldn't wait for the vehicle to stop itself so I manually overrode it and came too close for comfort to the stopped vehicle even with the aid of the anti-lock brakes and so abrupt that it is not considered a normal stopping maneuver .
I was hoping that since this system has been around for many years, the engineers would have figured out to give the system some sort of a peripheral vision as well as a far distance object recognition feature. And here I am thinking that we are very close to having a fully autonomous vehicle becoming commercially available and affordable, but on the contrary it appears that some capabilities that it will make it work flawlessly still needs some refinement.
I'm not criticizing or bad mouthing the system as I know before I bought the car that there may be limitations of the system although not clearly stated, and since the manufacturer warns that drivers should not be solely reliant on the on board automation/systems but must also used their judgement in order to be safe. I just thought I'd share for everyone's awareness if this is already not a common knowledge.
So as I got to know about this system and tried to see where its limitations are, I've discovered a couple which some who might not have wanted to press their lucks to find out. I've read the owners manual and I don't remember seeing these in there, unless I completely missed it.
1. First is that the system can't "see" the vehicle in front unless it is squarely in front of it. For example, if a vehicle changes lane into the lane you are driving in, it will not see it until the vehicle is completely on the lane you are in. This is important because if your vehicle is accelerating to get the the pre-determined speed and there is a car changing lane in front of you, your car will not slow down as it is not smart enough to understand the intent of the other driver, nor it has a "peripheral" vision. It may be only a few feet away until it sees it and will then slams the brake to gain the following distance it deem safe, which is normally farther than most drivers will think to be a safe distance even at the closest distance setting. Drivers behind you will then potentially get surprised by this maneuver thus creating a high risk to be rear ended. This also applies on a sharp curved road. The vehicle in front of me was visible to the naked eye although partially, but the radar I guess only has a very narrow beam or require a bigger object in order to become recognized as a car.
2. Second, it doesn't see vehicles that are stopped in front of you if you're traveling at a high rate of speed until it is so close that I think the only way the vehicle will stop to prevent hitting the vehicle is via the aid of the collusion prevention system and anti-lock brakes. When this happened to me, I couldn't wait for the vehicle to stop itself so I manually overrode it and came too close for comfort to the stopped vehicle even with the aid of the anti-lock brakes and so abrupt that it is not considered a normal stopping maneuver .
I was hoping that since this system has been around for many years, the engineers would have figured out to give the system some sort of a peripheral vision as well as a far distance object recognition feature. And here I am thinking that we are very close to having a fully autonomous vehicle becoming commercially available and affordable, but on the contrary it appears that some capabilities that it will make it work flawlessly still needs some refinement.
I'm not criticizing or bad mouthing the system as I know before I bought the car that there may be limitations of the system although not clearly stated, and since the manufacturer warns that drivers should not be solely reliant on the on board automation/systems but must also used their judgement in order to be safe. I just thought I'd share for everyone's awareness if this is already not a common knowledge.
Active Cruise Control lessons learned...
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