4 ms·

I don't think the parent was talking about restarting from a full stop, it looks to me like he was saying that his car's radar-cruise system won't actually stop

I don't think the parent was talking about restarting from a full stop, it looks to me like he was saying that his car's radar-cruise system won't actually stop the car in heavy traffic, so if you're not paying attention and don't brake manually in time, you could rear-end someone.

MBCook 11y ago
Honda's system cuts out at some 'slow' speed like 35mph. If you don't do anything the car should fully stop but that's because you'll trigger the automatic emergency breaking. The problem with the system is it's relatively simplistic. You set a following distance (there are 4 options) and the car will never get closer to the car in front of you than you've specified. It will slow down as necessary to maintain that distance. This works fine on empty highways but in traffic it doesn't help. Since it won't go to (and resume) from a full stop you have to fiddle with it constantly. In tight traffic the distance has to be modified or people will continually jump in front of you (causing the car to slow down and back off). I'll also say that it waits a surprisingly long time to start braking to the point it can be a little unnerving at times. I know it knows there is a car there (there is a symbol on the dash to show that it sees a car) but it doesn't act until you get much closer. A system like Tesla or Volvo have that can bring the car to a stop and then speed back up or could decide to try to maintain a distance similar to that other drivers are maintaining would be much nicer. Still for long trips the Honda system is great. And you can always put it in 'dumb' cruise control mode if necessary.
- rcthompson 11y ago
  It seems weird that it would need to brake at all most of the time to maintain a following distance. Unless the car in front of you suddenly brakes or you're going down a steep hill or something, wind resistance usually provides all the braking you need at highway speeds.
  - MBCook 11y ago
    It's usually more an issue when someone is getting on/off the highway and isn't at a reasonable speed. But that's kind of the issue. At times I think if the car just let off the gas earlier it wouldn't need to brake.
- Grishnakh 11y ago
  Wow, I'm glad I didn't get a Honda and pay a premium for such a system. I got a Mazda3 instead, and the radar cruise control in that is excellent. I cruise all the time at 30mph in it (I work at a facility where I have to drive a couple miles at that speed to get to my building), around turns even. It'll come to a complete stop if the person in front of me stops.
- Grishnakh 11y ago
  I'll also add that on my Mazda, there's a button on the steering wheel to adjust the following distance. There's only 4 choices like the Honda's. It appears to be selecting by car lengths, so this distance would be greater (at the same setting) at higher speeds than at lower speeds. I haven't used it enough yet to really verify this though, but it seems to be the case, and seems nonsensical to design it any other way: of course you're going to want to follow at a greater distance at higher speeds. In practice, I don't have to fiddle with mine much at all; I just set a speed and leave it there. But I also don't use it in tight traffic; I wouldn't trust it for that, and I'm sure I do a better job of driving smoothly (and fuel-efficiently) since I can see what other cars are doing around me and use my predictive ability, rather than constantly speeding up and slowing down as people change lanes in front of me as you say. (If traffic's not too tight, and is fairly smooth, I will use it though, but I do reduce the following distance to the second-lowest setting or sometimes lowest. But I wouldn't use it in stop-and-go bumper-to-bumper traffic.) I don't believe there's a way to set mine in "dumb cruise control" mode. I'm not sure why you'd want to. It acts like normal CC as long as there's no one in front going slower than you, and if there is someone going slower, you're either going to want to slow down, or go around them. One thing that'd be nice, though, would be an additional indicator showing the speed of the vehicle ahead so I can see the speed differential and decide when/if to change lanes.

MBCook 11y ago

Honda's system cuts out at some 'slow' speed like 35mph. If you don't do anything the car should fully stop but that's because you'll trigger the automatic emergency breaking. The problem with the system is it's relatively simplistic. You set a following distance (there are 4 options) and the car will never get closer to the car in front of you than you've specified. It will slow down as necessary to maintain that distance. This works fine on empty highways but in traffic it doesn't help. Since it won't go to (and resume) from a full stop you have to fiddle with it constantly. In tight traffic the distance has to be modified or people will continually jump in front of you (causing the car to slow down and back off). I'll also say that it waits a surprisingly long time to start braking to the point it can be a little unnerving at times. I know it knows there is a car there (there is a symbol on the dash to show that it sees a car) but it doesn't act until you get much closer. A system like Tesla or Volvo have that can bring the car to a stop and then speed back up or could decide to try to maintain a distance similar to that other drivers are maintaining would be much nicer. Still for long trips the Honda system is great. And you can always put it in 'dumb' cruise control mode if necessary.

rcthompson 11y ago
It seems weird that it would need to brake at all most of the time to maintain a following distance. Unless the car in front of you suddenly brakes or you're going down a steep hill or something, wind resistance usually provides all the braking you need at highway speeds.
- MBCook 11y ago
  It's usually more an issue when someone is getting on/off the highway and isn't at a reasonable speed. But that's kind of the issue. At times I think if the car just let off the gas earlier it wouldn't need to brake.
Grishnakh 11y ago
Wow, I'm glad I didn't get a Honda and pay a premium for such a system. I got a Mazda3 instead, and the radar cruise control in that is excellent. I cruise all the time at 30mph in it (I work at a facility where I have to drive a couple miles at that speed to get to my building), around turns even. It'll come to a complete stop if the person in front of me stops.
Grishnakh 11y ago
I'll also add that on my Mazda, there's a button on the steering wheel to adjust the following distance. There's only 4 choices like the Honda's. It appears to be selecting by car lengths, so this distance would be greater (at the same setting) at higher speeds than at lower speeds. I haven't used it enough yet to really verify this though, but it seems to be the case, and seems nonsensical to design it any other way: of course you're going to want to follow at a greater distance at higher speeds. In practice, I don't have to fiddle with mine much at all; I just set a speed and leave it there. But I also don't use it in tight traffic; I wouldn't trust it for that, and I'm sure I do a better job of driving smoothly (and fuel-efficiently) since I can see what other cars are doing around me and use my predictive ability, rather than constantly speeding up and slowing down as people change lanes in front of me as you say. (If traffic's not too tight, and is fairly smooth, I will use it though, but I do reduce the following distance to the second-lowest setting or sometimes lowest. But I wouldn't use it in stop-and-go bumper-to-bumper traffic.) I don't believe there's a way to set mine in "dumb cruise control" mode. I'm not sure why you'd want to. It acts like normal CC as long as there's no one in front going slower than you, and if there is someone going slower, you're either going to want to slow down, or go around them. One thing that'd be nice, though, would be an additional indicator showing the speed of the vehicle ahead so I can see the speed differential and decide when/if to change lanes.