I never drove a vehicle with automatic emergency braking. could those who have give me some feed back on it. good and bad. thanks in advance
Some do it better than others. Nissan’s is terrible, according to NHTSA. The IIHS likes Subaru’s Eyesight system the best, apparently.
Neither my friend nor I have experienced it at work, and the nice thing is that most of us won’t have to experience it. But, it’s there, just in case.
On a side note, my friend was surprised a few weeks ago when he was distracted while stopped at a traffic light. A tone sounded and the message on his instrument panel was, “Vehicle in front of you has moved”! Whoops!
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I don’t have the preemptive braking feature but my 2014 vehicle can sense a panic braking situation and automatically increase the braking force quicker than you could by pushing the brake pedal harder yourself. It actuated for me once and seemed pretty effective.
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I’ve driven a rental with that feature. As long as you don’t treat it like a toy like I did I like it. As long as you drive normally and don’t depend on it for automatic brakes, I think it would be very beneficial to save my butt when I make a mistake. But I fall under the category of cranky old men and prefer less of all this technology. Unless there was a way to pick and choose which ones I wanted.
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Not sure, salesman went for training, it was raining ato stop did not work, due to the rain he thinks. They drove through the cardboard when autostop did not work. His advice nice feature but don’t depend on it.
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We have automatic emergency braking on a 2016 Honda CR-V. It’s been helpful once or twice when I was driving in heavy traffic and the car in front of me started moving forward and suddenly stopped. Beeped like crazy and it hit the brakes before I did, but I finished the job, and there was no collision. The lane deviation stuff is a little annoying but it’s like a nagging back sear driver sometimes. I think I pay more attention so maybe it works. Automatic lane keeping assistance makes the front end feel like the alignment is off, and I turned it off. Adaptive cruise control is terrific.
Have not driven an automatic braking car… closest is our Audi that senses a panic brake and goes full ABS. I tested it, worked well with no side effects.
have eyesight on my 15 forester. The auto braking’s saved me once when traffic ahead suddenly stopped and i didn’t notice. Kept a closer eye on traffic ahead after that one. The brake assist came in handy when getting off the freeway on a ramp that does a couple bends before getting to the light. Couldn’t see that someone was pushing a truck on the shoulder full ABS stop but It worked. Some systems tend to cry wolf at strange times. Mine would give the warning beep when going down a driveway with tall grass. Or going through a traffic circle and it thinks I should turn now.
I might argue that the market for blah sedans is growing smaller. Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Acura, Toyota, and Lexus all have a robust lineup of sedans of varying sizes, and they’re doing just fine with them.
I don’t want a Malibu or an Impala either (or the equivalent Cadillac, for that matter), but there’s a sedan in my garage and it’ll get replaced with another car, not SUV, when the time comes.
Well, assuming the system is functioning properly, and you’re a decent driver, you should never see it light up. It’s only supposed to activate when it thinks a collision is imminent and you’re not doing anything to prevent it.
I got mine to light up once in my Lexus, just to see what the threshold was (which is tunable, btw). Way closer than I’d want to be before braking in a real-world scenario, so it’s probably only ever going to activate again if I’m unconscious or dead at the wheel. 
There’s also automatic non-emergency braking associated with the radar cruise. It’ll just use the brakes to keep you at the proper distance from the guy in front of you if he slows down.
I like Acura’s version of that one better, because it will brake all the way down to stopped. It’s actually pretty wonderful in rush hour traffic, though very uncomfortable at first because you just expect it to screw up and accelerate again. The one in my car will cancel out somewhere around 35mph and then I have to (melodramatic sigh) actually move my foot a few inches to stop the car. The idea!
In seriousness, the auto-cruise braking is nice, but it’s not like I put my feet on the floor when it’s active. I’m always covering the brake when it’s on, just in case it messes up.
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thank you for all the feedback.
I started this Topic and I wanted to share my feelings about two of my cars and from the many responses, many of you have voiced your feelings about the new electronics in today’s automobiles. I want to thank everyone for sharing your feelings, your advice, and your counsel.
Personally, I do not want to turn control of my driving over to some remotely located “engineers” who most likely grew up learning to drive by playing Super Mario Kart, The Need for Speed, or Grand theft Auto…
But, in all honesty, I do have both the Accident Avoidance System and the Lane Departure Alert turned on and usually have them set to their highest sensitivity. There are just too many distractions out there. Besides watching for road hazards and shortened yellow lights, I also am constantly watching for distracted drivers (using phones, screaming at their kids, arguing with their passengers, holding pets while they are driving, etc…). All of this also makes me a distracted driver too…
However, I am a retired Computer Programmer/Systems Analysis/Network Administrator with many industrial certifications. You would not believe the “god-like complex” programmers suffer from. Whenever computer code is written, it must be checked to ensure it does what it is designed to do and perhaps more importantly, not do something it is not designed to do…
Just think for a second, you are behind the wheel of your car and you see a child on the side of the road, also there is a car possibly backing out of that driveway, is that other car ahead of you going to stop for that dog walking down the roadway, and now you hear a siren getting louder. That is a lot going on, do you trust a computer to catch all that, has it been tested for all these possibilities?
I think not, how else would these self-driving cars hit jaywalking pedestrians, or drive under an 18-wheeler’s trailer or just plain crash into a brick wall?
Just how do you test to see if a computer takes the appropriate evasive action in the event of an emergency, did they test it with a deer running out in front of you or did they just toss a stuffed animal out in front of the test car? What about a small child on their tricycle (it’s such a small cross-sectional view), what about a ball bouncing across the road, you know a child is running after the ball (I always hit my breaks if a ball flies out, I know a child is sure to follow and I know my car needs time to stop…).
No Sir, I do not want to turn my driving completely over to a computer.
I comfortable with the idea that a computer can be capable of doing at least as good a job at these tasks as a random human can. If you have had experience dealing with the broad spectrum of humanity living in your region you know that there is a wide variation in the abilities people possess, and in the ways they can be impaired. Computers are more predictable and do not have emotions. They may be distractible, but not like humans can be. If all vehicles were managed by these devices I’m convinced the number of accidents and the traffic congestion would be much less per mile travelled.
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Not only is that a mischaracterization of how these systems work, but it also needlessly impugns the driving abilities of engineers. No one thinks Mario Kart is representative of how driving in real life should work.
No, but it doesn’t have to. All it has to do is recognize “there’s an object in front of me, and I’m on a collision course. I need to apply the brakes.” The system will not anticipate a kid wandering out into the street, but then it was never designed to.
This attitude is why I’m so annoyed by Tesla’s “full self driving” and “autopilot” claims. A “full self driving” system should do exactly as you say, and anticipate potential problems before they manifest. As no driver assist system is capable of doing this yet, Tesla should not be marketing their system as though it is.
But by the same token, comparing your existing driver assist systems to the fictional Star Trek capabilities dreamed up by Tesla’s marketing arm isn’t really fair either. Honda/Toyota never told you that you could turn complete control of the car over to the computer - quite the opposite.
And all that said, once we finally do have a system that can do what Tesla falsely claims theirs can do, I’ll be delighted. Computers will not get distracted texting their girlfriends, or eating a burger, or reading email behind the wheel. They will not get road rage, or swerve around just for fun, or any of the other stupid human driving behaviors I observe on a weekly basis. Bring 'em on, I say. But only when they’re fully realized.
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I read quickly through this post and replies. I didn’t see any discussion about what these self driving systems are to do in the event of a blowout at freeway speeds (or any speed) actually. If the system response is to stop the vehicle, what about the other folks around you and are they or their self driving systems really alert and can respond before things get worse?
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I do prefer cars without the “big brother” features as well but do have an example of a potentially dangerous situation with a sticky throttle cable. I had had the throttle stick open a couple times on an old truck of mine. I thought the throttle body area was dirty so I cleaned that and didn’t have the problem again for awhile.
Then one day I was getting on the interstate where I had to really punch it to get in ahead of a long line of tractor trailers coming up a grade. There was another semi in front of the gap I was going to get into as well. Anyway, it is manual transmission and I had it in 3rd gear pretty much floored. I let off once up to speed and was about to shift gears when it didn’t let off. So I was headed right towards the back end of a semi so I hit the clutch and pulled it out of gear, then pried the gas pedal up off the floor. The engine was bouncing off the rev limiter for a second or two but that is better than running into a semi at a high speed.
I took it to a shop after this and they found the throttle cable was fraying and catching inside the housing so replaced it and the problem is solved.
The pull twice to open the door is a safety feature.
This complies with the European rules on safety that require you to be able to open the vehicle, even if the power door locks fail. Every German car I have ever driven or owned worked in the same way.
The door will open up on the first pull of the handle only if the car is already unlocked.
If the doors are locked, and you do not unlock them first, and pull on the door handle, nothing will happen the first time. Release and pull it a second time will open the door lock will manually release and the doorbell open. Notice that it takes a little bit more effort on that second try? That is because you’re not using the power locks to unlock. You’re physically moving the lock switch into the unlock position on that second pull.
The reason it’s twice is because it’s a safety feature to prevent you from inadvertently opening the door by accident. The second pull of the handle will manually unlock the door so that you can exit even if there is no power, which is useful if you just drove your car into a lake and need to get out and find the power locks have quit working.
Who said it will just stop the vehicle? I’m not sure what the software will do, but I can assure you…just stopping the vehicle isn’t one of the options. Any one of these companies will have dozens and dozens of engineers who’s sole purpose is SAFETY. There will be checks and rechecks and reviews. Not just one person making all the decisions.
Part 2 of this is when all vehicles are autonomous. When all cars are autonomous, then notification of a problem (like a blow-out) will be sent out to all vehicles within a certain radius. They’ll know INSTANTLY.
Part 3. Blowouts should be extremely rare. Autonomous vehicles should know the state of the tires and make a safety determination on even driving a vehicle with suspect files. This may be annoying to some people, but preventing unsafe vehicle on the road is a good thing.
Based on your question, I googled “when an autonomous car gets a flat” and feel assured, you are not the first to ask this question and there are hundreds, even thousands of quires and replies…
So, as Mike wrote, the car is most likely not going to just stop where it is but will put on it’s flashers and ease it’s way over onto the shoulder. Like you, the autonomous system is monitoring not just the traffic but the internal working of the vehicle, saving a catastrophic blow out, the system would also receive the “low-pressure” warning on the tire and would take appropriate action, go to shoulder or find the nearest exit, etc…
Even though autonomous vehicles have received some bad press, they are not the “Johnny Cab” of the movie “Total Recall”
I just say cut her cords!