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[Varche]

Flew into Leeds airport yesterday and picked my hire car up in dark, snowy, icy conditions. In fact it had four inches of snow on it .

It was an Astra ( well a Peugeot Or similar I guess)

Show me the controls please. He said just put lights on auto. Where is the handbrake. Electronic. We have an electronic handbrake on our golf. On off or autohold ( seperate light and button) On this car no such feature. In the end I concluded it must go off automatically as you set off.

Worst feature especially on the country roads around Harewood House, was it put main beam on whenever it could but didnt dip when another car came along! Didnt take me too long to find a “ manual “ setting on the dash.  How would that work on the much vaunted autonomous cars……?

I just am not a fan of the interlocks on modern cars .

[TheBoy]

I feel mine is slow to dip itself, but still seems quicker than most oncoming drivers.  Auto lights are fooled by fog. Auto wipers have always been shite (fortunately ours are adjustable sensitivity).

Its all causing people to forget how to drive.


And dont get me started on utter stupidity like DRLs and stop-start.

[Andy B]

leccy parking brake on my ML just goes on when I put it on ..... though on occasion it'll put itself on when you open the door while in D. HOLD is via the foot brake, nothing to do with the parking brake.
My gripe with auto main beam is that you need to be going faster than about 35 mph for the main beam to work .... 35 is too fast for some back lanes when you'd want main beam.
Auto lights .... I agree with Jamie re fog ... some drivers need to learn how to turn their own lights on. One advantage on my car is that there is no OFF on the lights switch.
Fortunately, my stop/start has stopped working ..... possibly one battery or the other, but at over £300 for two batteries from MB, I'll leaving it as it is 

[Doctor Gollum]

Mine doesn't have auto main/dipped although it does have auto lights and wipers. Both are manually overriden if so desired.

Friend has a Model S and she complains that she can't flash the high beam if the car detects oncoming traffic. But she admits to leaving it auto mode

The E Class had High beam assist, and I found that to be reasonably effective.

[ronnyd]

leccy parking brake on my ML just goes on when I put it on ..... though on occasion it'll put itself on when you open the door while in D. HOLD is via the foot brake, nothing to do with the parking brake.
My gripe with auto main beam is that you need to be going faster than about 35 mph for the main beam to work .... 35 is too fast for some back lanes when you'd want main beam.
Auto lights .... I agree with Jamie re fog ... some drivers need to learn how to turn their own lights on. One advantage on my car is that there is no OFF on the lights switch.
Fortunately, my stop/start has stopped working ..... possibly one battery or the other, but at over £300 for two batteries from MB, I'll leaving it as it is 

Not just fog, a high percentage don't seem to realise that while they are driving with their DRLs in poor visibility, they have sod all lights on at the rear. 

[VXL V6]

I feel mine is slow to dip itself, but still seems quicker than most oncoming drivers.

 

Same on the generation of 5 series I have, never use it as I think it's just that couple of milliseconds too slow, enough to upset the oncoming vehicle.

Auto lights are fooled by fog.

Yeh and the amount of cars / drivers with front DRL's and nothing on the tail on dusky foggy days is incredible. I coded mine to have tail lights and front halo's (sidelights) on at all times regardless (ECE coding).

Auto wipers have always been shite (fortunately ours are adjustable sensitivity).

Yep, again same setuo on the 5, definitely more advanced than the Omega setup but I suppose that sensing technology and ECU setup is 20 years old now.

Its all causing people to forget how to drive.

I'm not sure a large percentage of the inbreds I seem to meet on the roads ever knew how to drive.

And dont get me started on utter stupidity like DRLs and stop-start.

Stop Start disabled on mine except for Eco Plus driving mode..... Which I have only ever used once when fuel was getting a bit tight, I mean, If I wanted to drive an Eco friendly blue / green / save the planet wagon I wouldn't have bought something with a straight 6 in it would I? Knobheads.

[Kevin Wood]

Automation in cars is utterly pointless, and now it's filtering down to the French and Korean tat it's even more poorly implemented.

The more you take away from the driver, the more oblivious to the whole thing they become.

Unit it can drive itself with no intervention, what problem does it actually solve?

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Before each journey......I switch off the start/stop nanny (unless the car is in sport or sport plus) when the system is inoperative.

I also turn off the dangerous 'so called safety feature' of lane assistance, which drags the cars towards every cyclist or pothole when I pull out to pass.

I also have front collision avoidance feature which slams on the brakes every time it feels I take a corner too fast. I can't switch this off completely, so turn it down to it's least intrusive level. F*ucking hate all this crap.

[Varche]

Before each journey......I switch off the start/stop nanny (unless the car is in sport or sport plus) when the system is inoperative.

I also turn off the dangerous 'so called safety feature' of lane assistance, which drags the cars towards every cyclist or pothole when I pull out to pass.

I also have front collision avoidance feature which slams on the brakes every time it feels I take a corner too fast. I can't switch this off completely, so turn it down to it's least intrusive level. F*ucking hate all this crap.

I am thinking older cars are better for thinking drivers. Maybe a ten year old Mseries low mileage for your next car?. At least this Astra allows me to switch off stop start once for the entire hire priod. VW, I have to do it every time car is started. The hire car has changing screen lane colour if you get too close and a flickering orange light. Thought it was low oil first time it vaguely flickered.

We are in the grey era before the norm is self driving cars with human driven cars being highly regulated. Driving data downloaded to a database trawled by AI looking for offenders ( vigorous braking, acceleration and of course speed limit violations)

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Before each journey......I switch off the start/stop nanny (unless the car is in sport or sport plus) when the system is inoperative.

I also turn off the dangerous 'so called safety feature' of lane assistance, which drags the cars towards every cyclist or pothole when I pull out to pass.

I also have front collision avoidance feature which slams on the brakes every time it feels I take a corner too fast. I can't switch this off completely, so turn it down to it's least intrusive level. F*ucking hate all this crap.

I am thinking older cars are better for thinking drivers. Maybe a ten year old Mseries low mileage for your next car?. At least this Astra allows me to switch off stop start once for the entire hire priod. VW, I have to do it every time car is started. The hire car has changing screen lane colour if you get too close and a flickering orange light. Thought it was low oil first time it vaguely flickered.

We are in the grey era before the norm is self driving cars with human driven cars being highly regulated. Driving data downloaded to a database trawled by AI looking for offenders ( vigorous braking, acceleration and of course speed limit violations)

It's on it's way, or even here. I imagine the information will be sold to the insurance companies.

[YZ250]

...............
I also have front collision avoidance feature which slams on the brakes every time it feels I take a corner too fast. I can't switch this off completely, so turn it down to it's least intrusive level. F*ucking hate all this crap.

Also be aware that the sensor can be fooled by bright sunlight and slam on the brakes.    It's not a problem unique to bmw, Tesla has problems with phantom braking,  where the Tesla is scared of its own shadow and brakes for no reason. It would take a brave man, or woman, to trust a fully automated vehicle at the moment, if ever.

[TheBoy]

...............
I also have front collision avoidance feature which slams on the brakes every time it feels I take a corner too fast. I can't switch this off completely, so turn it down to it's least intrusive level. F*ucking hate all this crap.

Also be aware that the sensor can be fooled by bright sunlight and slam on the brakes.    It's not a problem unique to bmw, Tesla has problems with phantom braking,  where the Tesla is scared of its own shadow and brakes for no reason. It would take a brave man, or woman, to trust a fully automated vehicle at the moment, if ever.

And VW Transporters. They slam the anchors on at 90mph on the M40.  Fortunately I had better anchors!

[Sir Tigger KC]

...............
I also have front collision avoidance feature which slams on the brakes every time it feels I take a corner too fast. I can't switch this off completely, so turn it down to it's least intrusive level. F*ucking hate all this crap.

Also be aware that the sensor can be fooled by bright sunlight and slam on the brakes.    It's not a problem unique to bmw, Tesla has problems with phantom braking,  where the Tesla is scared of its own shadow and brakes for no reason. It would take a brave man, or woman, to trust a fully automated vehicle at the moment, if ever.

And VW Transporters. They slam the anchors on at 90mph on the M40.  Fortunately I had better anchors!

I can't imagine a VW Transporter has particularly great anchors, so that's not a great claim.