4 ms·

Don’t you just tap the brake to disengage adaptive cruise?

thaumasiotes 4y ago
The problem isn't that disengaging the system is difficult. The problem is that deciding whether to disengage is difficult. If you're catching up to a slower car, maybe you should disengage the cruise control. Or maybe you shouldn't. You can't tell. This means that cruise control goes from being something that relieves stress on you to something that causes additional stress.
- netsharc 4y ago
  Seems like the car should have a UI that says something like "Car ahead is 15km/h slower, I will brake to maintain 50 meters distance between us, current distance: 70 meters, approach speed: 4m/s, will start braking in 3 seconds.", so the driver knows that the computer is aware of what's going on. Use some pretty graphs/animations to make it easier to understand.
  - MBCook 4y ago
    I’ve had two cars with the feature. Both have a very simple there/not their car silhouette to let you know if it detects the car in front of you. Just below that they also have some sort of colored to tell you how close the car is (good, clothes, to close). Last is a silhouette of your car. All three in a simple stack. It’s an excellent design, perfectly glanceable. I did rent a car once that showed you how many feet away the car in front of you was. It was kind of interesting but I found it completely useless. Realistically when the car in front of you starts getting close enough that the indicator changes, the car is already slowly slowing down. If it turns red, your car is slowing down faster. You really don’t need any of the numbers, and they would likely take longer for a person to process than the simple visual imagery does. I haven’t had an issue of not understanding what the car is/is going to do. The only real prop I’ve experienced is some cars are willing to accelerate/decelerate much faster than I want them to, largely for comfort reasons.
- Johnny555 4y ago
  My car (Honda) tells me when it sees a car in front of me, I assume that if there's a car in front, the ACC will slow down accordingly, and so far, it always has.
- wpietri 4y ago
  I'm not getting why you think you need to override the cruise control. I had that concern when starting out with ACC, but I set its follow distance to something generous enough that it would trigger a speed change before I got anxious about it failing to trigger the change. That let me learn to trust it. Although now that I think about it, I was using the Subaru ACC, so the dash has a visible indicator if it's tracking a car and maintaining speed relative to that. Perhaps yours doesn't have that?
  - abruzzi 4y ago
    For me I think the issue is trust. Its not much different from what I feel sitting in the passenger seat of a car when anyone else is driving. I don't trust their driving so if it gets slightly trafficed, I start freaking out because I don't trust the driver. I also don't trust the ACC on my Subaru in more dense conditions so when it get busy and I start approaching the rear of another vehicle, I go into a mode where I start paying close attention to the approach thinking "at what point do I cut it off, and hit the brake?"
    - wpietri 4y ago
      Got it. I definitely remember having these feelings. If you find them problematic you might, like me, benefit from talking with health professionals about anxiety. Feel free to email me if you'd like to discuss it further.
- Kon-Peki 4y ago
  Every single adaptive cruise control system I've seen allows the driver to set a follow distance that is far too short. For example, on my Subaru, 4 bars is really the minimum "comfortable, relaxing" amount. But if traffic starts to get a little heavy, 3 bars works a little better, but you do have to be more vigilant. If you are down to using 2 bars or a single bar, you had better be hyper vigilant. I can't imagine a safe way for the car to operate with those settings, unless perhaps they are useful for stop-and-go interstate traffic. To make matters worse, every single car salesman I've encountered has the feeling that doing everything to the extreme is the best way to sell cars. Which means that is is totally, completely believable that the OP with his Golf had the salesman set it to a minimum follow distance and then not explain that they did this or how to change it!
  - toast0 4y ago
    I only have one car with ACC, it'd be really nice if it had half size adjustments, because N bars is too close, and N + 1 is an engraved invitationn for people to pass me up, but not immediately the car I'm following. But once they do pass that car, the ACC wants to speed up just to slow down again.
  - progman32 4y ago
    In my German vehicle, ACC reverts to max distance every time it's engaged. You have to manually shorten the distance every time with the steering wheel buttons. I hope that this behavior is standard, but wouldn't be surprised at all to learn different systems have a less safety-oriented behavior.
    - Kon-Peki 4y ago
      Neither of my ACC cars have this behavior! I agree that it would be safer to do it this way.
  - rjmunro 4y ago
    I found in a Tesla model 3 that I borrowed that even the maximum follow distance was closer that I would normally drive. It didn't feel dangerously close, just slightly uncomfortable - closer than I would have liked for a maximum.
- watwut 4y ago
  If you are catching slower car, you dont have to disengage. That being said, I simply disengage whenever I feel like, whenever I feel any doubt. It is easy to turn on again.

The problem isn't that disengaging the system is difficult. The problem is that deciding whether to disengage is difficult. If you're catching up to a slower car, maybe you should disengage the cruise control. Or maybe you shouldn't. You can't tell. This means that cruise control goes from being something that relieves stress on you to something that causes additional stress.

netsharc 4y ago
Seems like the car should have a UI that says something like "Car ahead is 15km/h slower, I will brake to maintain 50 meters distance between us, current distance: 70 meters, approach speed: 4m/s, will start braking in 3 seconds.", so the driver knows that the computer is aware of what's going on. Use some pretty graphs/animations to make it easier to understand.
- MBCook 4y ago
  I’ve had two cars with the feature. Both have a very simple there/not their car silhouette to let you know if it detects the car in front of you. Just below that they also have some sort of colored to tell you how close the car is (good, clothes, to close). Last is a silhouette of your car. All three in a simple stack. It’s an excellent design, perfectly glanceable. I did rent a car once that showed you how many feet away the car in front of you was. It was kind of interesting but I found it completely useless. Realistically when the car in front of you starts getting close enough that the indicator changes, the car is already slowly slowing down. If it turns red, your car is slowing down faster. You really don’t need any of the numbers, and they would likely take longer for a person to process than the simple visual imagery does. I haven’t had an issue of not understanding what the car is/is going to do. The only real prop I’ve experienced is some cars are willing to accelerate/decelerate much faster than I want them to, largely for comfort reasons.
Johnny555 4y ago
My car (Honda) tells me when it sees a car in front of me, I assume that if there's a car in front, the ACC will slow down accordingly, and so far, it always has.
wpietri 4y ago
I'm not getting why you think you need to override the cruise control. I had that concern when starting out with ACC, but I set its follow distance to something generous enough that it would trigger a speed change before I got anxious about it failing to trigger the change. That let me learn to trust it. Although now that I think about it, I was using the Subaru ACC, so the dash has a visible indicator if it's tracking a car and maintaining speed relative to that. Perhaps yours doesn't have that?
- abruzzi 4y ago
  For me I think the issue is trust. Its not much different from what I feel sitting in the passenger seat of a car when anyone else is driving. I don't trust their driving so if it gets slightly trafficed, I start freaking out because I don't trust the driver. I also don't trust the ACC on my Subaru in more dense conditions so when it get busy and I start approaching the rear of another vehicle, I go into a mode where I start paying close attention to the approach thinking "at what point do I cut it off, and hit the brake?"
  - wpietri 4y ago
    Got it. I definitely remember having these feelings. If you find them problematic you might, like me, benefit from talking with health professionals about anxiety. Feel free to email me if you'd like to discuss it further.
Kon-Peki 4y ago
Every single adaptive cruise control system I've seen allows the driver to set a follow distance that is far too short. For example, on my Subaru, 4 bars is really the minimum "comfortable, relaxing" amount. But if traffic starts to get a little heavy, 3 bars works a little better, but you do have to be more vigilant. If you are down to using 2 bars or a single bar, you had better be hyper vigilant. I can't imagine a safe way for the car to operate with those settings, unless perhaps they are useful for stop-and-go interstate traffic. To make matters worse, every single car salesman I've encountered has the feeling that doing everything to the extreme is the best way to sell cars. Which means that is is totally, completely believable that the OP with his Golf had the salesman set it to a minimum follow distance and then not explain that they did this or how to change it!
- toast0 4y ago
  I only have one car with ACC, it'd be really nice if it had half size adjustments, because N bars is too close, and N + 1 is an engraved invitationn for people to pass me up, but not immediately the car I'm following. But once they do pass that car, the ACC wants to speed up just to slow down again.
- progman32 4y ago
  In my German vehicle, ACC reverts to max distance every time it's engaged. You have to manually shorten the distance every time with the steering wheel buttons. I hope that this behavior is standard, but wouldn't be surprised at all to learn different systems have a less safety-oriented behavior.
  - Kon-Peki 4y ago
    Neither of my ACC cars have this behavior! I agree that it would be safer to do it this way.
- rjmunro 4y ago
  I found in a Tesla model 3 that I borrowed that even the maximum follow distance was closer that I would normally drive. It didn't feel dangerously close, just slightly uncomfortable - closer than I would have liked for a maximum.
watwut 4y ago
If you are catching slower car, you dont have to disengage. That being said, I simply disengage whenever I feel like, whenever I feel any doubt. It is easy to turn on again.