Collision mitigation slammed on my brakes when it should not have

I have never had a car with all these fancy safety features before. Not being a great admirer of my own driving I am happy to share the burden with the Clarity. Neither of us are perfect, but so far we have mitigated each other's incapacity and kept out of trouble.

My experience is similar to @craze1cars. These systems make long trips much more enjoyable and less tiring.

 

I love this quote. Very well stated and +1!

IMO, the driver assist features are the least impressive part of the package that is Clarity. I lump them into two categories: those I can live with and those I just don't use.

CMBS: Like the OP, I have had at least two instances when CMBS has braked sharply when passing behind a vehicle turning out of my lane, when the other vehicle was already well clear of my path ahead. Almost daily, when driving on two lane roads, I get a BRAKE warning light on the dash, although without any actual braking, when I am on the inside of a curve and the system briefly picks up a car traveling in the other lane in the opposite direction. I leave CMBS engaged, because I would feel like an idiot if I disabled it and then got in to a situation where I really needed it, and I also promised my wife I wouldn't turn off any safety features.

RDM: Again, I get almost daily lane departure warnings at random times when I am well within my lane. It flashes the warning and shakes the steering wheel at me for no apparent reason. I have tried adjusting the user setting and still continue to get the warnings. It's a minor annoyance and I leave the system engaged for the same reasons as CMBS.

ACC: In most situations I use the "regular" / non-radar cruise mode, which is like "old fashioned" cruise that just holds a set speed. Even that does not work very well. I have yet to find a way to keep it from slowing down 3-4 mph below the set speed when first engaging the cruise and then also when recovering from a downhill. My workaround is to speed up to 3-4 mph above the desired speed before engaging, and then hit the minus button a couple of times once the system settles in. In rolling hills, I just disengage cruise. On multi-lane highway, I find the ACC slows sharply when a vehicle changes lanes in front of me or is slowing on an exit ramp, even with the shortest following distance selected. I occasionally use the ACC on 2-lane road when I really do just want to play follow the leader. I have learned to use the turn signal when I need to intentionally move into the oncoming lane, say to give extra space to a biker or vehicle stopped on the shoulder or if I need to avoid debris in my lane.

LKA: The Clarity is an excellent handling car and is a joy to drive until you turn on the Lane Keep Assist. It wanders and hunts and makes me constantly wonder what the heck it is doing. I can and do drive much better than the LKA does. I just don't like it and never use it.

 

After posting this I thought I should elaborate on why my wife asked me to not disable safety features and why I agreed to this request and live with the quirks of these imperfect systems. It is not simple nagging. Maybe about 6 years ago, we were coming home from somewhere and for reasons I cannot remember we had to take separate cars. My wife was in the lead with our teenage daughter in the passenger seat and me following in the other car. We were all tired from a long day, so my daughter I'm sure was out cold and my wife nodded off for a moment. So there I am watching the car carrying my wife and only child drifting across the 2 lane rural highway into the oncoming lane and toward the opposite shoulder. I closed the distance between us with horn blaring. We were extremely lucky that there was no oncoming traffic and my wife woke and regained control before leaving the road. It's a close call neither one of us will forget and an almost tragedy that is the reason that these safety systems are much needed, warts and all.

 

What I see is the radar and camera systems seem to be independent. If the CMBS used data from the camera it could determine that another vehicle, in an oncoming lane or adjacent lane, is not in the path of the car therefore no need to warn or brake.

The same is true for the LKAS not communicating with other systems well enough. When the car passes an off ramp to the right it will do what it is programmed to do. That is to attempt to be in the middle of the lane. But what the car sees is the off ramp as the right side of the lane. It begins to center itself, which moves the car to the right away from the left side of the lane. I'm sure the camera can see far enough ahead to see the upcoming right side lane. If the LKAS would pay attention to the directional signal it wouldn't have to do what it does. It could rely on the lane marker on the left side. If I'm exiting I'd turn on the right directional and the LKAS could follow the right lane marker.

 

LKAS is deactivated when the turn signal is used.

I would imagine the logic behind this feature is that the brains of the operation assumes that the driver is aware of their surroundings and intends to maneuver the vehicle under their own control without having to arm wrestle the car over the decision.

Have you ever seen anyone who is unaware that they are driving with their turn signal on? They’d be taking the next exit. Which may actually benefit other drivers.

The beauty is, you can turn it on or off.

 

This topic is complicated. Weather, calibration, sensor obstruction (clean car), software version, defects, road characteristics, driving habits, etc. may all interact to result in a sub-optimal vehicle response. Clearly these systems are evolving rapidly. Clearly they do save lives and avoid injury.

I think manufacturers need to be more transparent in informing drivers of known issues, issuing software updates, covering calibration costs under warranty, covering systems beyond 3/36, etc. I also think we need NHTSA and others to be able to comparatively rate systems from different manufacturers. Even if car manufacturers use similar hardware, their implementation may create wide differences.

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After declining steadily from ~1980-90’s through 2009-10, both vehicular and pedestrian fatalities have been increasing for the past 9-10 years.

Not to place blame on “advanced safety features” as it is a complicated issue. Simply making note that vehicular fatalities were on a solid downtrend up to the time that these features were introduced.

 

Part of this may have to do with popularity of larger vehicles, especially when they have worse outward visibility. Not to mention people just walking around not watching what's going on, many times starting at their devices. So many times I'm driving down a parking lot and people just walking in the middle never looking behind them not noticing anything.

 

The systems are effective, if not challenged:

https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/pedestrian-detection-works-but-technology-still-has-ways-to-go-aaa-study-finds/

As to why the rise in fatalites- despite the introduction of these systems, some suggestions:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-traffic-fatalities-rising.html%3fAMP

And other contributors: speeding, drug and alcohol impaired driving, distracted driving and failure to wear seat belts, etc. And one I can't prove- uncivil aggressive drivers.

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I'm waiting for the over the air update to improve some of these things. Oh that's right this isn't Tesla...

 

That’s just about the time a smart phone started showing up in drivers’ hands and their eyes left the road...as we came out of a huge recession and EVERYONE who had mitigated their driving for several years suddenly hit the road in droves with new money for permanently cheap gas in the tank, and a distraction device in their right hand...and pedestrians started walking around with the same distraction device too...add in the meth and oxy lifestyle that now permeates all communities and you have quite the cocktail for traffic tragedies.

Safety systems like this are still in the minority as far as the cars that are bouncing off objects and each other today. Gotta remember the average age of today’s car on the road is about 12 years old, and has none of these systems.

I firmly believe smart phone and associated distracted/under the influence driving/walking, along with more cars on the road than ever in history, is to blame for the recent rise in deaths. It will mitigate and start to drop as these systems mature, old cars fade away from the roads, and self driving creeps in. Gradually, slowly, and consistently. I bet we are at or near a peak right now, and 10 years from now we will celebrate gradual reduction in traffic deaths as the trend reverses.

Ships turn slowly so we will see. Someone bump this thread in 10 years and we can review then.

 

My wife and I always turn off the collision mitigation - unless I forget. I have been exploring using ACC instead of standard cruise. I have been testing it when on roads with traffic in front of me going less than speed limit and with no traffic behind me. I turn it off if someone comes in behind me. At some point I may test the collision mitigation when I don't have anyone behind me.

 

Very true for pedestrians (https://www.statista.com/chart/17194/pedestrian-fatalities-in-the-us-by-year/) but the vehicular deaths while up/increasing in recent years, are steady when considering the number of vehicle miles traveled. (https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/yearly-snapshot) - so more people, more cars and drivers, and more miles traveled.



But certainly the point is valid, since all of these safety improvements should have a significant decrease in death rates - not a leveling off. So I think things like distracted driving are part of the story.

Anecdotally, I see a lot more aggressive driving and a LOT of people running red lights. But who knows if those are any different now than they used to be. I do notice less people with phones up to their faces while driving compared to a few years ago, but that doesn't mean they aren't typing texts on their lap or otherwise distracted.