Safety Features Discussion

[Jamesc]

6 minutes ago, Lethalstrike said:

Also quite useful against scammers who like to run in front of your car and fake injury 😁

The scammer jumps on you bonnet.

The car stops too fast and the scammer cannot reach the bonnet and falls face first onto the tarmac.

You come out of the car and ask hey bro you ok?

Want me to call ambulance for you?

[Jamesc]

The other important one is traffic departure alert.

Red lights and the car in front decide to surf MCF. Reads about the used car salesman MIL and so engrossed never see green light and the car in front gone already.

Before you can press your horn the car beeps and the driver moves off.

Prevents road rage as no need to horn and sensitive drivers won't throw a tantrum. 

[DOBIEMKZ]

33 minutes ago, Jamesc said:

The scammer jumps on you bonnet.

The car stops too fast and the scammer cannot reach the bonnet and falls face first onto the tarmac.

You come out of the car and ask hey bro you ok?

Want me to call ambulance for you?

Will have nice video then.😂

[DOBIEMKZ]

29 minutes ago, Jamesc said:

The other important one is traffic departure alert.

Red lights and the car in front decide to surf MCF. Reads about the used car salesman MIL and so engrossed never see green light and the car in front gone already.

Before you can press your horn the car beeps and the driver moves off.

Prevents road rage as no need to horn and sensitive drivers won't throw a tantrum. 

This one can be a double-edged sword. If the front vehicle is a monkey driving off when red light then the behind car may also spontaneously follow that monkey.😅

[mersaylee]

40 minutes ago, Jamesc said:

The scammer jumps on you bonnet.

The car stops too fast and the scammer cannot reach the bonnet and falls face first onto the tarmac.

You come out of the car and ask hey bro you ok?

Want me to call ambulance for you?

High jump fail, long jump also fail...I'll tell the scammer before I drive off if it's me...try triple jump or pole vault next time 😁

[neoki_29]

@Hamburger Some other nice to have safety features my ride comes with are lane departure adjustments ( car will auto steer back into your lane if detected for steering off lane like when falling asleep or change lane without signaling) and parking assist will stop the car from banging into wall or pillar while trying to park. Lastly auto-reverse out of tight head in situations. None of these I use though 😂 but nice to have la

[Mkl22]

3 hours ago, Hamburger said:

Agreed with your point. But with kids now grown up and start driving my car, I have to put on a poker face while they drive. I can't be looking tense and telling them to slow down all the time. 

I need such tech gizmos to keep them safe. The car included.

close eyes close mouth when you sit next to them.😁

[inlinesix]

Just now, Mkl22 said:

close eyes close mouth when you sit next to them.😁

Sit behind Front Passenger

[Stratovarius]

4 hours ago, mersaylee said:

Over reliance on techno aids is detrimental to muscle reflexes...ever read about accidents becos drivers thought the blis and auto brake were still working...😅

I take train and buses most times nowadays...dont wish to lose the ability and opportunity to 'stand firmly' next to a syt...😁

last time during overseas biz trip, my ex colleague refused to drive the rental car. Later then i found out coz the car no reverse camera. 

He was amazed that i can park with just the wing mirrors. Really facepalm in my heart. he is older than me and i wonder how he got his license. lol. 

[Mooose]

1 hour ago, Jamesc said:

The other important one is traffic departure alert.

Red lights and the car in front decide to surf MCF. Reads about the used car salesman MIL and so engrossed never see green light and the car in front gone already.

Before you can press your horn the car beeps and the driver moves off.

Prevents road rage as no need to horn and sensitive drivers won't throw a tantrum. 

only the new civic has this?

ACC also works like this to move off? or ACC only when cruising (on the move above a certain speed)?

[Jamesc]

The car doesn't drive off itself.

It just beeps to alert the driver.

1 hour ago, DOBIEMKZ said:

This one can be a double-edged sword. If the front vehicle is a monkey driving off when red light then the behind car may also spontaneously follow that monkey.😅

 

[DOBIEMKZ]

9 minutes ago, Jamesc said:

The car doesn't drive off itself.

It just beeps to alert the driver.

 

That's the issue I worry of, as some drivers who are not steady upon hearing the beep get too jumpy or fidgety and floor the accelerator....

[Jamesc]

Unfortunately no matter how smart the car it's not foolproof or idiot proof.

4 minutes ago, DOBIEMKZ said:

That's the issue I worry of, as some drivers who are not steady upon hearing the beep get too jumpy or fidgety and floor the accelerator....

 

[DOBIEMKZ]

2 minutes ago, Jamesc said:

Unfortunately no matter how smart the car it's not foolproof or idiot proof.

 

Well said!

[Heartlander]

Can always come acros people thrashing the safety features as giving too many false alerts. What they most likely did not do have been to do fine tuning of the performance of the features as this is something most people will take for granted. Most of the safety features would allow some degree of adjustments. For exmaple for ACC you most likely can adjust the gap you prefer to keep between your car and the car in front, for AEB most likely you can set how aggressive aka distance you want the car to jam brake for you, for early departure warning you can set how far the front car is away from your car before it gives you the alert. If you take these seriously then you have to put in some effort to fine-tune them to your liking. For example my previous Stepwagon I have to set the early departure sensnitivity to most sensitive so that a chime is giving if the front car moves a few meter. By default iirc the car will chime only when the front car is already more than 10m away so most of the time the feature seems useless. Similarly for AEB you have to change the sensitivity and try it out to see when will the car give you warning and then exert control to brake the car. This is a delicate job and must be done very carefully as you do not want to risk getting into accidents while doing the tuning process.

To me, the safety feature list is quite standard, though most cars would not have all the features. But a more meaningful query would be how well they work on the different cars. My personal experience is the W246 work very well especially its AEB saved my butt a few times. And very reliable too, like it will detect a imminent crash whenever it passes by certain stretch of a road because of supposed kerb height issue due to its radar and gives out bepping. For my Stepwagon the lane departure detection also work well as you will need to flick the signal stick before you change lane, else the mechanism will fight back to steer the car back to stop you from doing filtering.

And always remember the safety features are driving aids. They are able to prevent most type of crashes, but not all, especially those involving lateral or sideway. For direct frontal, most should be able to detect and at least mitigate to reduce damage. Though to me, mitigation is not useful as the crash would still happen and it is psycologically painful to deal with the aftermath.

It would be good if more owners with such "smart" cars can share their experience, best is able to state make and model instead of genenral remarks as it would not provide valuable insights. Your sharing would definitely help fellow mcfers in choosing their next car if safety is among the top priorities. For me, those Mercedes cars less than 5 years old are no horse run if you can afford them.

[Jamesc]

4 hours ago, Mooose said:

only the new civic has this?

ACC also works like this to move off? or ACC only when cruising (on the move above a certain speed)?

No sure about Civic.

I only know this one. 

 

[Hamburger]

@Heartlander 

Good that you get to experience real feel of the AEB. 

I guess it could be switch on or off in the vehicle setting. 

[Heartlander]

5 minutes ago, Hamburger said:

@Heartlander 

Good that you get to experience real feel of the AEB. 

I guess it could be switch on or off in the vehicle setting. 

Yes can be switched off. Honda Toyota even Skoda also can.

Now I recall when I test drove the 1L Skoda Octavia1 to 2 years back, it also did phantom braking when I did reverse parking in the parking lot. It happened and I repeated the manouvre to confirum it. The SE next to me sheepishly acknowledged it and said most of his clients turned off the safety features. I remebered not feeling good about Skoda from this episode haha.

For my current Superb, I would also rate the AEB feature as erratic as it triggered a few times being overzealous when I judge the situations to be not really critical, but on a few occasion I reckon if I do not brake ,collision might happen becuase of proximity to the car infront. But I chicken out and brake anyway. But I love its blindspot monitoring as it is big spot illumination on the side mirror casing instead of those tiny icons on the mirror itself. So far when I see cars coming from the adjacent lane, it will get illuminated so quite reliable. But this feature also has limiation like it will not detect if the car is stationary but only if it moving at faster than 30km/hr ircc. Also its reversing radar detection very aggressive and stressful to use as it will give out beeps non-stop whenever got cars travel across path behind, even jam brake once there is traffic on next lane but good thing it will not cause accidents so I just leave it on.

Anyway so far my best experience had been with W246. The rest being abit erratic but still better than not having them so have to know their limitations.