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[Wittsend]

Kids are going to love testing it out on Trick or Treat night, or in fact every day of the year 

And when they get hit (or next of kin) they will go the compo route ... where's there blame there's a claim 

[Peter Holden]

The technology didnt work on the merc that skidded into our garden wall on Friday morning

Peter

[Peaceand]

Having watched a friend trying to reverse his brand new merc down my slightly overgrown driveway, I can confirm the auto-stop thing is a real problem. Every protruding bit of foliage the car detected made it slam the brakes on, even at very slow speeds reversing.

The computer has full control over steering, brakes, (automatic) gears and accelerator - he's only in control when the merc think it's appropriate.

[Smokey 11a]

Our new Honda has it, worse when your using cruise control. Driving down the M
way at 70 start to approach a 50 limit, long before the 50 mph zone starts with my foot off the gas and slowing down the brakes came on very hard and we nearly had a rear end accident. Same if being over taken by a car that's considered too close. Go round a corner too fast and the seat belt pre tensioners apply. Not a good up grade. It was written off not long after we were hit in the near side by a Polish Lorry twice. All the air bags and seat belts did there jobs, I got away with a badly bruised shoulder. I was sat in the passenger seat, wife was driving and she was unhurt and unmarked.   

[autorover1]

My neighbour  had his New Merc written off when he braked hard when a deer ran out in front of him. The emergency brake assist intervened and slammed on  all the brakes as hard as can be , but, the ABS only worked on one side of the car so the other side locked up and the car veered across the road and through a hedge into a field . Fortunately no other traffic and no trees.  He had been complaining to me previously  about the brakes didn't seem right but had  put off  taking it back as he was busy. Mercedes had  the car back and replaced it with a new one.

[rowehillmaster]

New Merc (works car not mine) on the M42, tried to move out of the way to let an ambulance pass by going in close to central reservation, was doing about 20-25mph in heavy traffic, it did an emergency stop with over a foot of clearance to the barrier - bonkers ! (the ambulance crew must of thought I was a right moron)

[crumbly65]

Actually, I don't mind most of the "driving aids" in our modern car.

Yes, they can be a bit of a pain with their over-protective bonging and bleeping, but it's not so constant as to be really annoying.  The "blind spot" monitoring IS useful, as is the reversing camera coupled with the blind spot bleeping, as we have to reverse out onto a busy road.  A road that many drivers exceed the speed limit on.

The lane departure warning we find less useful, but again, it's not too intrusive.  A little warning diagram flashes up first, then a faint vibration in the steering if you've ignored the warning, and finally the steering would pull you into line, though we've never had that happen in the 18 months we've had the car.

The distance control radar, coupled with cruise control, can be (and is) a boon on a long, boring, busy motorway journey, but of course you still remain fully alert if you've any sense.  That anti collision tech, again, is not intrusive or annoying, and has not caused the slightest problem whilst we've had the car - except when the sensor got covered with dead insects on a long drive on a hot summer's day.  Then it stopped working until I cleaned the windscreen.

I find all the tech in the car, and there's loads more of it, a very entertaining (and slightly amusing) comparison to driving the Series II.  I expect the next stage will be built-in on-board recording cameras front and rear, but I can't see completely driverless cars ever being a success on our currently too crowded roads.....

[Uffddd]

I've only experienced most of these driving aids on the occasional hire car but I do quite like the lane assist. It's only of any use on motorways but coupled with an adaptive cruise control it makes a long drive a lot less tiring. Once you leave the motorway, just turn it off. For those that complain about it fighting against you trying to change lanes, I've found usually that the system is deactivated with the indicators coming on...

As for automatic breaking, a girlfriend had a car with it and in 3 years I only had the brakes slam on once. I felt at the time that it had over reacted since I was already braking but since it was such a rare occurrence I never bothered to figure out how the system worked and what parameters were necessary for the car to take over.

[MWAD7]

Crumbly65 - sounds like you’ve got a recent Volvo.... We’ve recently changed from an X3 beemer to a Volvo XC40 and despite a long history of driving vehicles such as Caterham 7s etc. without any assistance (no brake servo even...), I quite like the Volvo toys...

The radar cruise is the best one - good for more open roads as the braking can be a bit intrusive around town. It’s quite ‘fun’ to hold your nerves and let the Volvo brake you to a complete stop - impressively smooth. Not something I plan to do further, but now I know how good it can be...

The ‘lane assist’ (camera-driven steering on m-ways etc.) is also quite nice in smooth flowing roads. It will work on more minor single lane roads but the steering gets a bit 50p-piece ‘bitey’. I can see myself using it on long m-way journeys when these become possible again...

Lane departure isn’t hopeless - but I’ve set it to just warn rather than intervene as it can get a bit shirty if you clip an apex on a right hand bend, for instance.

Self parking is a bit scary in my experience so far - it can get alarmingly close to other vehicles... mind you, so can I when I try manually!

We’ve had two collision avoidance interventions that I’m not so keen on. One was supposedly a lemming pedestrian in a town setting - but I think it was a false alarm caused by an unusual bend and hill bordered by pavement. The second was when approaching a car parked at an angle into a lay-by - partly protruding into the road. It wasn’t an impediment but I can see it was worth noting. In both cases there was just an alarm boing and a bit of mild assistance through the steering that immediately ceased when the threat had passed (or the car recognised continued driver input).

[Clifford Pope]

Hopefully anybody going over a cattle grid will be doing it slowly,

Not on a proper one on a main road. It's never occured to me to slow down.

[Wittsend]

Well it goes like this...

If you are around with other vehicles going over the grid at speed, you can copy/follow.

If it's a grid that your are not familiar with, then caution is the word.
If it's a grid in your locale and you are familiar with it then maybe OK at speed, but I personally would ease off a bit - you never know.


 

[crumbly65]

Crumbly65 - sounds like you’ve got a recent Volvo.... We’ve recently changed from an X3 beemer to a Volvo XC40 and despite a long history of driving vehicles such as Caterham 7s etc. without any assistance (no brake servo even...), I quite like the Volvo toys...

The radar cruise is the best one - good for more open roads as the braking can be a bit intrusive around town. It’s quite ‘fun’ to hold your nerves and let the Volvo brake you to a complete stop - impressively smooth. Not something I plan to do further, but now I know how good it can be...

The ‘lane assist’ (camera-driven steering on m-ways etc.) is also quite nice in smooth flowing roads. It will work on more minor single lane roads but the steering gets a bit 50p-piece ‘bitey’. I can see myself using it on long m-way journeys when these become possible again...

Lane departure isn’t hopeless - but I’ve set it to just warn rather than intervene as it can get a bit shirty if you clip an apex on a right hand bend, for instance.

Self parking is a bit scary in my experience so far - it can get alarmingly close to other vehicles... mind you, so can I when I try manually!

We’ve had two collision avoidance interventions that I’m not so keen on. One was supposedly a lemming pedestrian in a town setting - but I think it was a false alarm caused by an unusual bend and hill bordered by pavement. The second was when approaching a car parked at an angle into a lay-by - partly protruding into the road. It wasn’t an impediment but I can see it was worth noting. In both cases there was just an alarm boing and a bit of mild assistance through the steering that immediately ceased when the threat had passed (or the car recognised continued driver input).

Actually, We've a Suzuki Vitara!  It was relatively cheap given the equipment levels, it's our 2nd one (the previous one being super reliable, not even a bulb went in the 40 months ownership), and it's got a reasonably good 4wd option with Mud & Snow mode.  SWMBO wants a Volvo next, but as she"s looking to retire sometime in 2021, the cost may be prohibitive.....

[MrTDiy]

One of our vehicles has auto park......bit of a party trick but have only used it to show off....I can park much quicker

Test drove an XC40...Volvo.....absolutely love the adaptive cruise....can see that it would be perfect do big journeys in France.....as mentioned above it will brake down to zero miles an hour....'what an amazing modern world we live in'

[autorover1]

One thing I have found some modern  cars don't like, is trying to brake and accelerate at the same time . There was chap on the Discovery 3 forum complaining he couldn't reverse his caravan up a steep drive.
The car was an auto and he was holding the rig on the slope with the footbrake on with his left foot, park brake off and trying to rev the engine  to take up the drive as he then released the foot brake. . It wouldn't allow him to open the throttle.  He was advised to stop holding it on the footbrake, and hold in on the park brake. Then just open the throttle, the park brake would auto release and away it would go.

[andyjb]

My car has supposed anti collision tech. I've not tested it. I wondered what all the noise was and panels flashing red when i got to close to a hedge, when i first bought it. I was a good foot away. I thought about trying the self park but it freaked me once the steering wheel started moving. So i cancelled it within seconds. I've not tried since.