After a good 250 mile drive today, some thoughts.

[Cabezone]

I would never use cruise control in wet or snowy conditions anyways.

Well the far more important issue was it stopped working without alerting the driver. That's a huge problem.

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[DMEARC]

I would never use cruise control in wet or snowy conditions anyways.

Exactly. Every owners manual I‘ve read warns against using cruise control in inclement weather. The BS manual I downloaded the other day specifically says not to use ACC in snow.

 

[tallmansd]

Few other items to mention I’ve found over the last week:

lane keep assist struggled on a dry, brownish road with faded yellow center lines. It could not detect the center.

while the adaptive cruise was enabled with lane centering, if the white line on the right angled off for a turn lane, sometimes the lane centering would get slightly confused and follow it for a second or two before correcting. Generates a weird swerving sensation when it does that.

I still rotate the gear dial the wrong way 1 out of 3 times. Instead of turning the orange indicator thing to the letter, I really want to turn the letters to the orange indicator thing.

the bluetooth and apple Car play both have the skipping problem during songs. Not sure how they messed that up since it was working in other models with Sync3.

comparing the turn radius to my previous vehicle, 2016 f150 super cab: my old truck could barely manage a 90 degree turn in my driveway. The BS can do donuts in the same space.

the front camera has2 display modes. The first is just the 140 degree ish view. The second splits it into 3 areas, left, center, right. Somehow that view gets more on the left and right sides than the unsplit view.

remote start from the app takes about 30 seconds or so once you hold down the start icon for the vehicle to start. Sometimes it’s taken longer, to the point that I’ve already walked down from my office and to the BS before it starts.

ive Only been going to and from work all week, short little drive of about 7 miles, average speed of 50mph, bunch of stop signs and a few stop lights, average about 19mpg.

wishing I’d get some heavy snow to go play in!

 

[Washburn]

I think the trick is to somehow not to lose old school practices despite having the modern electronic nannies like BSM, intelligent cruise control, auto braking etc etc. My wife's Mazda was her 1st car with BSM and she worried a LOT that she will become overly dependent on it. As a prevention for that she drives once or twice a week with it disabled, so that she doesn't lose the habit of looking over her shoulder when she's changing lanes... I think that's smart.
Hers is the only car in our household that has BSM, auto braking and other more modern safety features. So the other 2 cars (2005 BMW and the 2010 boxy Escape) keep us somewhat alert and not overly dependent on the electronic/smart aides.

I think they are great to have but one should at least try to be alert and focused enough to not NEED them all the time while driving.

 

[magicbus]

Looking over your shoulder to change lanes... I gave that up when they started putting power mirrors on the passenger side that you could adjust properly to eliminate blind spots.

 

[Washburn]

Looking over your shoulder to change lanes... I gave that up when they started putting power mirrors on the passenger side that you could adjust properly to eliminate blind spots.

Of course that helps, too. And my 2010 Escape has tiny blind spot mirrors built-in to the side view mirrors (factory) which I really like.

 

[Steinfeld9]

vehicle manufactures adding features to promote multitasking while driving is a huge problem. Drivers that use these features with the hopes of not having to pay full attention of what’s going on and require an alert when driving input is needed is a huge problem. But obviously there is differing opinions among drivers on this

Yeah that's what I'm sort of confused about. It's known that adaptive cruise control shouldn't be used in inclement weather. Then second it's a technology that is assistive not controlling. If it turns off or isn't working it's still your job to pay attention and stop the cruise control or change lanes. While it should have some sort of warning when it can't detect anything I think it's a darwinism thing that will probably have to have an entire book of legal jargon to prevent them from being liable. (Although I'm sure there already is a caviat somewhere saying not to rely on the technology)

 

[Steinfeld9]

Exactly, totally agree. I personally believe this should be understood without needing to read it in the owners manual but we are all of product of our generation so here it is

Yep and these two as well. Can't wait for the Darwin awards this year

 

[tallmansd]

Some clarifications that may be misunderstood:

the lane centering only works actively while using adaptive cruise control. You can have lane detection on, but it doesn’t do any self corrections without the ACC on.

Most of my driving isn’t highway, so I really don’t have the opportunity to use most of the features; merely testing their usefulness. In all likelihood, I’ll disable ACC and just use standard CC.

The new feature is like to test some more is the front collision warning. I’ve had it alert me three times already. Every time it was a car in front of me making a right turn. In every occasion, the turning vehicle was about 80% through their turn and I’d say I was 60-70 feet or more away traveling at 30-35mph.

What I have not seen is an alert for a vehicle turning left. Without causing an accident, I’ve tried to recreate the same distance and speeds to a vehicle making a left turn, but I have yet to get an alert.

First, I’d say the sensitivity is too high. Ive not even been close enough to have to brake when the alert has triggered.

Second, it seems biased to the right. Obviously it’s not the easiest thing to test on open roads. So maybe I encounter more right turning vehicles then left.
I’d be curious if anyone else has seen this?

 

[tallmansd]

Yep and these two as well. Can't wait for the Darwin awards this year

Most of the winners are from Florida! J/K.

The truck does have an in dash warning. If it doesn’t feel tension on the wheel for a few seconds, it warns you. If you don’t do anything for a few more seconds it warns you in red. Not sure what happens after that.

when I was driving for that trip, it would alert me even though I had a hand on the wheel. The road was too straight.

 

[Steinfeld9]

Some clarifications that may be misunderstood:

the lane centering only works actively while using adaptive cruise control. You can have lane detection on, but it doesn’t do any self corrections without the ACC on.

Most of my driving isn’t highway, so I really don’t have the opportunity to use most of the features; merely testing their usefulness. In all likelihood, I’ll disable ACC and just use standard CC.

The new feature is like to test some more is the front collision warning. I’ve had it alert me three times already. Every time it was a car in front of me making a right turn. In every occasion, the turning vehicle was about 80% through their turn and I’d say I was 60-70 feet or more away traveling at 30-35mph.

What I have not seen is an alert for a vehicle turning left. Without causing an accident, I’ve tried to recreate the same distance and speeds to a vehicle making a left turn, but I have yet to get an alert.

First, I’d say the sensitivity is too high. Ive not even been close enough to have to brake when the alert has triggered.

Second, it seems biased to the right. Obviously it’s not the easiest thing to test on open roads. So maybe I encounter more right turning vehicles then left.
I’d be curious if anyone else has seen this?

That's incorrect about the lane assist. The lane centering does not require ACC. It is a setting that can be changed. I have the FE and so I don't have ACC and have my lane assist corrects and pulls me back into the lane if I go too far. Also you can turn down the sensitivity in that same menu

 

[tallmansd]

That's incorrect about the lane assist. The lane centering does not require ACC. It is a setting that can be changed. I have the FE and so I don't have ACC and have my lane assist corrects and pulls me back into the lane if I go too far. Also you can turn down the sensitivity in that same menu

Hmmm maybe I have it turned off in the settings? I can turn on the lane detect, but it only vibrates the steering wheel if I drift.

 

[Steinfeld9]

Hmmm maybe I have it turned off in the settings? I can turn on the lane detect, but it only vibrates the steering wheel if I drift.

I'll try to take a picture of the options when I take my drive today. There could be some inconsistencies between the co-pilot + and the standard one

 

[tallmansd]

guess I’m. Not sure what the differences are between lane keep and lane centering. Pictures of my current setup.

 

[magicbus]

In our Explorer Lane Keeping works whenever you activate it regardless of active cruise control setting. Handy when you have to drive 7 miles down a straightaway coming home from a dinner party.

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