Was following a pickup towing a landscaping trailer. On a rural 4 lane highway, with a grass median. I was in the right lane, behind the pickup. Original speed was 58, and there was a red traffic light ahead. The truck started slowing down, as did I. There was a small Hyundai stopped at the intersection in front of the truck. The left lane was open beside the Hyundai, and the truck abruptly swerved into the left lane. The speed was approximately 40 MPH when the truck changed lanes. With the stopped Hyundai directly in front of me, the adaptive cruise did not continue to brake. It apparently didnāt detect the Hyundai at all, so I got on the brakes as hard as I could. Stopped with a foot and change to spare, but if I hadnāt hit the brakes hard, Iām pretty convinced I would have plowed into the stopped car. Iāve got the following distance set to the maximum, and it still comes in a little hot for my tastes with stopped traffic ahead. So just when my confidence in adaptive cruise was getting pretty good, this happened. Bottom line, you better have decent reflexes because you donāt get much warning when things donāt go right.
Adaptive cruise almost caused an accident
- Thread starter lcat63
- Start date
It isn't a Tesla. You're going to need to break for red lights.
No matter what I always keep my foot ready to press the breakes, just in case. I use adaptice cruise control for both high ways and bubper to bumper Traffic.
- Thread starter
- #5
I was going 58 on adaptive cruise. I was steering. The truck and trailer in front of me started slowing when he saw the red light. Adaptive cruise started slowing along with the vehicle I was following. There was already a car stopped ahead at the intersection. The left lane was open, and the truck swerved into the open lane, leaving the stopped car in front of me. With the truck out of my lane, the adaptive cruise didnāt do anything. It didnāt speed up. It didnāt continue braking. No alarms. Almost like it just gave up because it got confused. The stopped car was well within the range that it would normally be detected, but it wasnāt. I got on the brakes after realizing that adaptive cruise wasnāt going to. Out of literally hundreds of times, this is the first time it failed to detect something directly ahead. Almost like it was locked onto the trailer being towed by the truck, and when it moved out of the way, it just stopped looking.
Pretty sure I remember this scenario playing out in The Hunt for Red October 40+ years ago. Didn't end well. Machines are dumb.
That you were able to eek out a last minute save is testament to 4 billion+ years of evolving biological systems, self awareness, attention and judgment all of which level 2 ADAS (including Telsa's) lacks. Self drive may be getting there but it ain't there yet...
That you were able to eek out a last minute save is testament to 4 billion+ years of evolving biological systems, self awareness, attention and judgment all of which level 2 ADAS (including Telsa's) lacks. Self drive may be getting there but it ain't there yet...
- Thread starter
- #8
Yeah, the big takeaway is donāt let your guard down. If this was early on, I would have been on the brakes out of caution. But you get used to something working, and assume it will. And we all know what happens when we assume.
Not sure what to think...you knew there was a vehicle stopped, had enough visibility to know what make it was, but didn't react?
What distance do you have the sensors set up for on the cruise? I know you can change it to react at different distances. If it's set for the furthest distance then it wouldn't react until that distance matches the settings.
What distance do you have the sensors set up for on the cruise? I know you can change it to react at different distances. If it's set for the furthest distance then it wouldn't react until that distance matches the settings.
- Thread starter
- #11
Iām just wondering if itās a feature where it doesnāt reset if what itās tracking is braking and moves out of the way. If so, I could definitely see this happening again if the car Iām following thatās slowing down makes an abrupt lane change into the left turn lane.
- Thread starter
- #12
I sure knew what it was when I stopped right behind it. The truck moved out of the way, and I was waiting for the braking to resume. Like I said, this has worked fine hundreds of times, but not in this exact sequence of events. Yep, Iāve got it set for the max following distance.
Its not self driving.... I always use all the brake controls myself regardless what the adaptive cruise control is doing. I consider the adaptive cruise control a backup feature or when I am distracted for whatever reason and don't see cars braking ahead. I would never rely on it completely coming up on a red light. Also it stops braking at like 15 mph I think somehwere in there.
The human brain is a very powerful and complex computer in and of itself.
I cancel my cruise control whenever I'm approaching an intersection because it freaks out and detects cars in other lanes (turn lanes) and brakes rather hard when it doesn't need to at inopportune times at least in my experience. Glad you weren't hurt in that scenario.
I cancel my cruise control whenever I'm approaching an intersection because it freaks out and detects cars in other lanes (turn lanes) and brakes rather hard when it doesn't need to at inopportune times at least in my experience. Glad you weren't hurt in that scenario.
I think the title of your post is misleading. Iām just glad you didnāt kill or seriously injure someone. Had you it would have been 100% your fault.
My take is that adaptive cruise control is not meant to be āauto driveāā¦yeah, itās pretty āsmartā, but not really intended for use in stop and go traffic like thatā¦what likely happened was that when the pickup cleared your path the LC started to resume its set cruising speed because it didnāt have enough time to process the stopped vehicle ahead.
Iām a big fan of the adaptive cruise control on these, but if Iām coming up to an intersection or red light, Iām applying the brakes manuallyā¦hell, Iāll disengage CC even if Iām just coming up on heavier, less predictable traffic on the highway.
I only use the adaptive cruise on long highway drives I just donāt trust it enough for in town driving. I want to be in control as much as possible. Things can change in the blink of an eye. I would venture to say that the adaptive cruise radar didnāt pick up the car because the landscaping trail was probably bigger than the can and it was tracking that and didnāt capture the size difference in time.
Yeah people like this scare the shit out of me when I'm on my motorcycle especially, just bumbling through life trusting nanny tech to pay attention for them.
You're not supposed to use Adaptive Cruise Control in places where you expect a red light.
Freeways with predictable smooth traffic or stop/go traffic. Don't use it if you don't have visibility into what might be ahead.
Freeways with predictable smooth traffic or stop/go traffic. Don't use it if you don't have visibility into what might be ahead.
