Active braking or forward collision warning.....warning.

[Grit_dog]

Seems appropriate here. Had an interesting experience with our new Charger yesterday with FCW and active braking.
In short, the car totally mis read a traffic situation and the 6 piston brembos stopped the car dead in its tracks...way quicker than the car behind us could have stopped. Luckily the driver behind us had given adequate (too much actually for city traffic) room in front of him, or that collision avoidance system would have 100% caused a collision.
Word of caution for anyone with newer vehicles with this system.

[Fordlover]

Ductape wrote:
One of my concerns as these become more prevalent is are they smart enough to avoid such unwanted interventions. Such as one of those left turns across heavy fast traffic where you need to gun it hard to jump through a minimal gap. It could be disastrous if the collision avoidance hit the brakes or chopped throttle partway through the maneuver.

I have mild dissatisfaction already with traction control on many vehicles. Step on it hard pulling out into fast traffic only to have the nanny chop throttle when it detects wheel spin, then the vehicle bogs instead of getting up to speed as intended. If there's sand on the apron or slick marking paint it's worse.

First button I hit when I get into my Infiniti is the start button, second button is the traction control off button. It defeats the aggressive throttle retardation.

I too am a bit concerned with the nanny features in the new Superduty. I guess we'll find out.

[Lexx]

I have Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) on two of my vehicles. My Subaru ACC works great in most situations. It's very sensitive and it's saved me more than few times when the sun was setting behind me lighting up everyone's tail lights making it hard to see who was actually braking. The worse cars to follow are the old junkers with the dim tail and brake lights. When the sun is shining on those heaps, you can barely tell if the driver hits his brakes.

The only downside to the Subaru ACC is if you're going at say 70 mph and then traffic slows down to 45. It'll properly slow down to 45. But then say traffic speeds back up but then suddenly slows down again. If the car is still accelerating to get back up to the preset speed of 70, and traffic slows down massively again, the ACC waits too long IMO to hit the brakes. This results in late emergency braking unnecessarily which of course sends my pulse through the roof.

It's also not infallible in heavy stop and go traffic when people cut in front of you suddenly. The ACC won't activate fast enough to avoid a collision. Well it might, but I've always chickened out and hit the brakes myself before I got too close to the other car.

So basically you have to learn the proclivities of your car's system. No system is perfect and you are the driver so you must be aware at all times.

That said, the system is generally wonderful, especially in stop and go traffic.

The reason I got the Ford Superduty truck was because it has the ACC that can be used when I have a trailer hooked up. It also has the blind spot indicators that can be used for a trailer up to 33 ft. My trailer will be 34 ft, but with the overlap since it's a fifth wheel, I should be able to use the blind spot monitor. Not that I'll need it with the rear observation and lane change camera, and those giant mirrors on the truck.

[wnjj]

ScottG wrote:

DiskDoctr wrote:
Wait until someone in the lane beside you decided they want to come over and know you have FCA. They can do a quick weave and tap, knowing your car will slam on the brakes.

They drive away, you are sitting along the road picking airbag shrapnel out of your nose. 😮

Brand bashing at it's very best. Don't you realize many or even most brands have such capabilities?
And Your scenario is ridiculous.

What brand? I think FCA = forward collision alert or avoidance

[ktmrfs]

camp-n-family wrote:

ScottG wrote:
Had a similar thing happen with our Challenger SRT. I had CC set and I was slowly passing a semi on the interstate in a torrential down poor. As my car got up almost even with the front of the semi, I was hit with a massive "bow wave" of water off the truck. The car read this as a solid wall and applied the brakes, which kept me in the wall of water until I pumped the accelerator.
That was a bit unnerving but I like the system and I'm glad it is so equipped.
On a similar note, the next truck I buy will have adaptive CC as well. If Ram doesn't have it I will buy the Ford.

You should never use CC in rain or slippery conditions. Hydroplaning or any loss of traction can cause the CC to react and cause a loss of control. There are warnings in your owners manual.

I have 3 vehicles with CC two dating to the mid 90's. ALL three will immediately kick off cruise if they detect ANY wheel spin or loss of traction. CC is WAY smarter than they were 25 or more years ago when all it did was monitor the speed.

Now that said, using CC on ice and snow is not something I do, bugt do use it in the rain and actually will kick out faster and react faster to any hyroplaning that a human on the throttle can.

[ScottG]

DiskDoctr wrote:
Wait until someone in the lane beside you decided they want to come over and know you have FCA. They can do a quick weave and tap, knowing your car will slam on the brakes.

They drive away, you are sitting along the road picking airbag shrapnel out of your nose. 😮

Brand bashing at it's very best. Don't you realize many or even most brands have such capabilities?
And Your scenario is ridiculous.

[BenK]

Wasn't going to comment until someone posted in this line of thought on semi-AI to full AI...

This will only be until total AI vehicles...until then...a way to gain a spot in the next lane...bully over and they will become blockers for you...by slamming on their brakes...to now allow you a safe open spot in their lane

AI question to you all: How much will you allow an AI to gamble or take a risk decision?

Like crossing the double line to pass on a flat with a mile vision and no oncoming traffic? I've crossed that line many times in that situation...but an AI's 'rules' would say no...until it gathers enough DB to make up it's own mind...AKA becomes a SENTIENT being....

Or cross a double line in the city where someone has double parked. No oncoming traffic...or like I'll turn on my lights and wait for a spot where oncoming will move over to allow us both to pass...

Or decide which will die... A rabbit jumps out...ok to strike it? A dog jumps out...ok to strike it? A kid jumps out...ok to strike it?

This is just one example from one firm and how their Autonomous vision sees another 'car'...






Or this, another one, but not for auto...just an autonomous robot


Actual



What the computer sees...


So how does the software programmer(s) decipher this?

DiskDoctr wrote:
Wait until someone in the lane beside you decided they want to come over and know you have FCA. They can do a quick weave and tap, knowing your car will slam on the brakes.

They drive away, you are sitting along the road picking airbag shrapnel out of your nose. 😮

[DiskDoctr]

Wait until someone in the lane beside you decided they want to come over and know you have FCA. They can do a quick weave and tap, knowing your car will slam on the brakes.

They drive away, you are sitting along the road picking airbag shrapnel out of your nose. 😮

[NJRVer]

Grit dog wrote:

LanceRKeys wrote:

austingta wrote:
It's really not fair that the guy that didn't hit you is called slow or lolly-gagging when perhaps he just doesn't follow too closely.

This I agree with, sounds like he was driving responsibly, and yet he is talked down about it, I don’t understand the point in that.

Another keyboard psychic ^.
I’m sure you knew what was going on there at that time. Classic case of rvnet arguing that the sky isn’t blue.

What was he driving?
maybe he had active brake system too which kept him from smashing into your rear end. lol.

[Bionic_Man]

There are bound to be some hiccups with these new systems, but I am also in the camp that believes the system is still better than human reflexes.

These new safety features are likely what will entice me to upgrade out of my truck, once they are more widely available.

I am glad the system didn't cause an accident in your case.

[ScottG]

Grit dog wrote:
ScottG, yeah the whole car is great, brakes included. Old one has the 4 piston and was the best brakes I ever had til this one.
My biggest fear is actually being able to stop waaay faster than the guy behind me!

Yeah, I've thought about that too. I'm sure they stop better than 99% of cars out there.
Wish I could get them on a HD truck!

[Grit_dog]

ScottG, yeah the whole car is great, brakes included. Old one has the 4 piston and was the best brakes I ever had til this one.
My biggest fear is actually being able to stop waaay faster than the guy behind me!

[Grit_dog]

LanceRKeys wrote:

austingta wrote:
It's really not fair that the guy that didn't hit you is called slow or lolly-gagging when perhaps he just doesn't follow too closely.

This I agree with, sounds like he was driving responsibly, and yet he is talked down about it, I don’t understand the point in that.

Another keyboard psychic ^.
I’m sure you knew what was going on there at that time. Classic case of rvnet arguing that the sky isn’t blue.

[Grit_dog]

austingta wrote:
It's really not fair that the guy that didn't hit you is called slow or lolly-gagging when perhaps he just doesn't follow too closely.

Yeah perhaps, but if you have a 200’ gap between you and the next car going thru a crowded urban intersection, you’re not paying attention. I’m just glad this guy had his head up his ____ or it would have been up mine!

[ScottG]

Grit dog wrote:

ScottG wrote:

brulaz wrote:
So does FCA still work when a trailer is attached?
Wouldn't mind a Warning but hitting the brakes might not work out well.

My Challenger only hits the brakes when the adaptive cruise is on. If not then it just advises "BRAKE!!!".

If I recall, you have a newer than 2015 SRT, correct?
Wife's new SRT is a '16 model and I thought the same as you.
Owners manual doesn't talk about active braking as part of the FCW and I thought it would only yell at you, but it will do full speed lock up braking from as high as 60 mph I've read. Great feature as long as it doesn't put you through the windshield or cause someone else to rear end you in a false alarm situation.

And when it locked up, it wouldn't go immediately either. Once the car stopped (in like 1/2 second) I hit the gas because I knew traffic was behind us, got a dead pedal. Played with gear shift real quick to neutral and back into Drive, still nothing.
Guessing it took at least 2 seconds before I could go again after stopping. Long enough for guys behind me to stop completely, throw their hands up and flip me off a couple times!
Be hard telling your insurance company how it really was your fault that you stopped erratically for no reason and forced tha car behind you to ram into you! Lol

Just like the lane keeping that won't let you drive on the edge of a lane on I 5 to stay on the smoother concrete...
I'll take a low option Scat Pack without these features, no problem.

I have a 15 SRT. It actually seems like the automatic braking has changed over time. Maybe because of some S/W update?
Those 6 piston Brembo's are amazing aren't they? Hammer them at 70 and they just about stand the car on its nose!
I liked the SRT option because the ride was so much better in the normal mode than the SP model I drove. I also enjoy playing with the "goodies" at times.
Both great cars!