FCA too aggressive?

Discussion in 'Hyundai Kona Electric' started by R P, Jul 20, 2019.

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  1. Am I the only one that has trouble with this thing? It has surprised me a few times when coming to a stop behind a car, by slamming on the brakes when I was nowhere near to hitting the car in front. But a few days ago it did it in traffic when I was about to change lanes. I was coming up behind someone, and just as I was looking over my shoulder to change lanes, it slammed on the brakes. It not only freaked me out, but the cars behind me must have wondered what the h*** I was doing.

    I have the settings to be Late, to try and mitigate this response, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. On my other car (Subaru), this has never happened to me. It will very occasionally beep and slow me (when it should legitimately), but not slam on the brakes. And I know that FCA works very well, as demonstrated in many youtubes with cardboard boxes. It always stops.

    So, is there something wrong with my car, or this just how it works on a Hyundai? Why does it slam on the brakes so suddenly? If necessary, it could first brake gently, as required. And like I said, have never even been close to rear ending anyone.

    And I am sure many of you are thinking, I should just drive more carefully. I am not a poker, but also do not consider myself an aggressive driver either. I am actually a very defensive driver (used to ride motorcycle where you die if you are not), and have not been in an accident since I was a kid. Haven't even had a traffic ticket for at least 15 years or so.

    How do people that live in New York or Chicago get along with this FCA? I have driven there, and they are very aggressive with speeding, tailgating, lane changing etc. You could never do that with my Kona. And I don't want to shut it off, because one day, it may indeed save my bacon, so I like having that safety feature. But it is starting to scare me, and I refuse to drive like my grandmother either. I like my Kona, but this one aspect am really starting to hate.

    So is no one else here on this list experiencing this?
     
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  3. That sounds weird. I am in Las Vegas and people here drive crazy. I have mine set to medium and it went off a couple times but always in a way where I thought it made sense. Even though it might have been a little too early but understandable at least.

    Sorry I can't get more advice, though.

    Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
     
    CJC likes this.
  4. One thing I should mention, is that I almost exclusively use ECO mode. I wonder if that has something to do with it. In ECO mode, the regen is so strong (I like it) that it slows very quickly when I let off the throttle, so I usually don't touch the brake until just before a full stop. So maybe FCA goes off quicker and more suddenly if you don't touch the brake.
     
  5. Actually I drive almost only in eco mode as well.

    Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
     
  6. KonaTom

    KonaTom Well-Known Member

    I wonder. I drive in regen level 1, and haven’t had it slam on brakes too hard. A couple of times it was needed and performed correctly. I have it set to mid level. You may be right about the brake pedal. I found I was able to slow down quickly more smoothly using the brake. The system seems to disable itself if it senses you are pressing brake. It’s a little aggressive on its own. Maybe try setting it to early. It should react sooner and maybe less aggressively in that mode.
     
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  8. Yeah, I may just try a different drive mode, where I have to use the brake to slow, and see what that does. I hate to do that, though, as I really like the near one pedal operation in ECO mode. I could try some different FCA settings as well, to see if anything changes.

    I am going away after tomorrow for a few days, so probably won't drive it again until later next week.
     
  9. CJC

    CJC Well-Known Member

    Not to offend you, but I do notice driving styles now are very different than perhaps even 5 years ago. Being a 70 year old driver, I really notice the style difference in that I would estimate the majority of drivers in my neck of the woods (Vancouver, British Columbia) do follow cars very closely and if I allow what I was taught to be a safe distance for emergency stopping another car will move into that space. So I am always amazed that we don't have more collisions. What distance for that lane change would be typical for you? For me at 60 to 80 kilometers per hour, I would be anticipating the lane change and there would be at least 3 to 4 car lengths ahead of me while making the lane change. Typically I do see the majority of lane changes happening with the car making the change less than a half to one car length behind. Just curious.
     
  10. Like I said, I don't consider myself an aggressive driver, and yes, lots of bad drivers in Metro Vancouver (where I live). It usually happens just before I come to a stop behind another car. And I have as perfect a driving record as can be. But thanks for your response, I am really interested if others have found this to be a problem. Or is it my car, or how I use ECO one pedal driving. And like I said, my other car (also with FCA) does not have this problem.

    My main issue is how violently it applies the brakes. I can see it gently slowing a bit, if necessary, but that is not how mine works. It is always all or nothing.
     
  11. If mine activates, it is very violently as well.

    Just a thought: make sure your forward facing radar sensor is clean. It's the flat about hand sized thing in the middle bottom front of the car.

    Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk
     
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  13. First time it happened to me the seat belt locked up, extremely fast, way faster than I could possibly react. I paused waiting for the inevitable rear end collision to my car, but fortunately no one was behind me.
     
  14. SeanH

    SeanH Active Member

    Yes, this has happened to me disturbingly often. I've had it ABS on me several times.
    Things I've noticed:
    • It is worse between 35 and 50 miles an hour. This could be slinky traffic on the highway, or just an arterial surface street. There's something about those speeds that makes the system extra panicky
    • It happens in situations that require a firm braking response, but not ABS
    • I've had it happen at dawn (some light) and the middle of the day
    • Playing with the 3 intensity settings doesn't seem to help. I thought putting it on early so I could tap the brake when it audio alerted would help, but no. Plus, then you get to deal with it yelling at you every time you approach a car as you are traveling uphill because it doesn't realize you will slow down more than your braking rate.
    I wish there was a way to turn on ALERTS without having ASSIST on (like you can with things like lane keep). Nope. Also, turning off FCA lights up an error on the dashboard.
     
  15. victor_2019

    victor_2019 Active Member

    I experienced something weird twice now.

    I am driving at high speed and I push the brake and the wheels lock up and I can hear the tires skidding for a second or two. Then it goes away but I'm not sure if it does on it's own or it's because I react to it and release the brake then press it again.

    I am not sure of the first time it happened, but the second time the car in front of me was slowing down and I received the warning that I should brake, even though the car in front was quite far away from me.

    I pressed on the brake pedal very lightly (since the car was quite far and I didn't feel a collision was imminent) and the tires immediately started skidding.

    My collision avoidance is set to normal.

    this lasted only a fraction of a second, I did not get my seatbelts to lock up or anything like that.
     
  16. What speed were you going, is the fluid level normal?
     
  17. victor_2019

    victor_2019 Active Member

    The car is only a month old.
    I was going about 100km per hour.
     
  18. This happened to me yesterday. I was following a string of cars at a couple car lengths, we slowed suddenly (due to a farm vehicle) and as I was breaking the warning sounded and the auto-breaking kicked in. The wheels locked up, skidded and squealed. I thought it was a pretty extreme overreaction to a fairly standard hard- breaking situation - one that didn't really concern me at all, at least until the car had a spastic reaction! I had the rear seats folded and a fair bit of stuff struck the back of the front passenger seats. It could have been messy. So, yes, I think the car's settings are a bit too "nervous Nelly" for my liking.
     
  19. So what you are saying is that the car overrides when you are actually already applying the brake pedal?
    This is not (the way I understand it) the way it is supposed to work!
    Just how much room does the Kona require at its least sensitive setting to avoid this from happening.
    Not good news
     
  20. I was definitely on the brakes, just not hard enough or fast enough to satisfy the car. I don't believe the follow distance setting has anything to do with emergency breaking. I think it's just for the automated cruise control.
     
    electriceddy likes this.
  21. I can't stand the way auto fill keeps forcing the misspelling of "brake".!
     
    Esprit1st likes this.
  22. victor_2019

    victor_2019 Active Member

    well, why not?

    I don't remember where I read it, if it was about the Clarity or the Kona (I have both) but I was reading about one of the collision avoidance systems and how it won't do anything if you already have the foot on the brake, and I was thinking that system is useless.

    my girlfriend crashed one of my cars while exiting the highway because she says "the car did not brake hard enough" and "the ABS did not kick in" and I think she didn't press down on the brake hard enough because I drive the car after and the brakes always worked and the ABS kicked in when I locked the tires.

    I would expect the emergency braking system to brake harder if a collision is imminent.

    we just disagree on what imminent collision means... to me it's definitely not when there's lots of space between me and the car in front.

    It looks like this system is too sensitive. I'll try to reduce the system to "late" and see what happens.
     

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