Active Cruise Control

@GvilleGuy in this post wished the ACC worked better when driving towards the sun and when driving on roads where trees made shadows on the road.

 

I really enjoy the ACC on my 2022.

It will come to a stop if needed. It will also proceed again automatically if able in a brief period of time. I haven’t timed it but it feels like 10s or so.

If stopped for more than that period, it will disable. Then you’ll have to press the accelerator and the resume button to engage it again.

Not sure what the follow distances actually are, I tend to use the second-closest when driving at speed. One improvement would be for it to adjust itself to be closer at slower speeds, but it doesn’t do that.

If you have the HUD engaged the ACC status appears there as well.

Writing this makes me wonder if there are any BimmerCode settings related to ACC… I never checked.

 

I think it might need binocular vision or LIDAR for that. Our 2018 Subaru has the former and it’s almost uncanny.

 

You can set the default follow distance. I don't remember if there is anything else.

 

My wife's 2018 Subaru Outback has ACC, and we really love it. So I sprung the extra $750 for it on our 2022 Mini SE last year.

Unfortunately, its been a real disappointment for us. I'm not sure I've had a single commute (~30 miles each way, mostly highway) where I've been able to use ACC without it disabling itself at some point (or 2 or 3 points, more likely). A low sun definitely messes it up, but it also generally fails for me at night as well.

Any construction and reflective road signs at night seem to give it trouble. Also, it doesn't seem to track lanes well. Meaning that often, when there is a curve in the road, the ACC will cut out if there is a car ahead of me in an adjacent lane. As if the ACC thinks the car is in my lane. And don't even try using it in the rain.

This surprised me, because of how well the Outback ACC works. It has never given us an "ACC disabled" error. It adjusts speed based on traffic in your lane. It doesn't accelerate or stop too aggressive. It just seems to work, regardless of the conditions. The Subaru lane assist logic isn't perfect (it bounces you between the lines, as opposed to keeping the car in the center of the lane), but it's better than nothing.

Not sure why Mini's implementation is so much worse than Subaru's. Some articles seem to think Subaru's large (8-inch?) binocular camera separation helps a lot, as you can use image differences to judge distance, and not rely so much on image size. But also, it seems their software is better, especially around detecting what obstacles ahead are in your lane vs. outside of it.

Maybe BMW is just being very conservative with their algorithms for safety reasons, but it's propensity to shut itself off constantly is very frustrating and really limits ACC's usability. In retrospect, I wouldn't have paid the extra money for that feature.

 

Well that’s just it: I use the Subaru’s ACC all. The. Time. Not just on freeways, but even along suburban stroads and access roads. It just works.

 

I've had ACC fail on radar based cruise control in prior BMWs due to dead bugs while highway driving. I don't love the camera based system, but if it means I don't need to have a HUGE grill to hide the radar unit then so be it!

 

Agreed, I also have a Subaru and *love* my ACC. It's only been disabled if I'm in a really heavy rain (this morning, for example) or if my windshield is fogged up. Disappointed to read that Mini's is not as good, but what'cha gonna do at this point. :/

 

Bottom line is the SE adaptive cruise system can be frustrating, there are better$$ implementations. If you've driven a car with a better system, the disconnects will be frustrating, if not then it seems amazing. I'd prefer a more reliable technology for collision avoidance however.

BMW didn't do a great Job. My 10 year old Jeep combines both RADAR and video. The only time it deactivates (and gives you a clear indication) is in conditions that you shouldn't be using cruise control, like heavy enough snow which ice covers the front, including the headlights. I rode cross country with my neighbor in his recent Subaru and wasn't impressed with its performance. But then, if you've not experienced a better performing system you wouldn't know. They all have compromises and seem to do amazing things.

Cameras are cheaper than RADARs so the bean counters would prefer a passive optical based system and the marketeers are charged with convincing the public that its the best thing like sliced bread. Last I heard, you damage one of those fancy front RADAR sensors you are into a $2000-$3000 repair bill Of course thats cheap compared to repairing damage caused when you rear end a stopped short vehicle on a on-ramp as you are glancing over your shoulder looking for a merge opportunity Or its dark/raining and don't notice an obstruction in time to stop and avoid it. I miss most the Jeep's side firing RADARs that do a great job detecting objects in adjacent lanes, or an approaching vehicle or pedestrian as you back out of a mall parking space. The SE's acoustic sensors don't have enough range for other than short distance parking assistance, and can't be silenced.

Anyway, they all have some compromise and its nice to have choices.

 

I guess ignorance is bliss for me, as I've never experienced ACC elsewhere.

I have had it disengage randomly a couple times, maybe due to driving into the sun.

I've also had the parking sensor alarms go off when there's nothing there... definitely not a perfect system but I'm easily impressed!

 

I haven't had ACC in any of my previous cars, but use it in my MINI all the time both on the highway and in stop&go city traffic. I've had it cut off and suddenly brake on me maybe twice in the 2 weeks that I've started using it.

Once you understand how it works and which icons to look out for in the HUD/dash, it works pretty well. e.g. when the car you're following cuts to a different lane, the car logo will disappear and it will just be regular cruise control. I've had another car cut back in and it was able to catch it in good time and continue to maintain speed.

Another thing to look out for after a stop is the speed limiter on the ACC. If it's a long stop or you're at a stop light, the speed you set (displayed at the top) will disappear and you will need to tap on the throttle, or press the plus button on the steering wheel to continue ACC. If the green icons go away completely, then you need to press the ACC button (twice) to reactivate it.

I've used Bimmercode to set my default distance to the closest distance because I use it in city stop&go traffic a lot. it's worked well so far even in the rain at both slow and highway speeds. But disclaimer: I have my whole car ceramic coated along with the windshield so that may help the camera out a bit as well.

 

Just to follow up - after almost 8,000 miles of driving the SE my opinion of the ACC has only gone down. Lidar/camera systems are far superior to the Mini camera-only version. It loses tracking more often than not on a majority of my drives. A long press of either of the follow distance buttons enables regular cruise control when ACC fails.

 

Not to go too far off subject but really curious about the coil overs you'll be installing on the SE. How much are you expecting to lower the car?

 

Does the Mini also have regular cruise control? I’ve had ACC on a previous car and also in many rental cars. I don’t like it and always use regular cruise control.

 

Yes, if your SE has ACC capabilities, you can override it to use simple cruise by holding down either of the ACC follow distance buttons on the steering wheel. I believe only the level3/Iconic SE's come with ACC, the rest will have plain cruise.

My i3 had ACC, camera-based, exactly like the SE and it was okay in my experience. My Mach-E's BlueCruise certainly has me spoiled, but the i3 generally worked okay, unless the sun was in front of it. I wasn't a fan of it randomly turning off and regen causing it to rapidly slow down. Always wished it'd just switch to regular cruise if the camera didn't like what it saw.

 

I agree with most of the folks above. The ACC just isn't well implemented in the MINI, in my opinion. I like to use CC often as it removes maintaining speed from my immediate attention. Other drives not maintaining speed is a HUGE peeve of mine. I also like to use cruise on my neighborhood streets as I can keep a steady 27 mph and keep my focus on kids, pets and other cars.

We have it in our 2019 Toyota RAV4 and that is radar-based. It works great, both in detecting cars, avoiding false detections and over the last 3 years has MAYBE only had to turn itself off twice. It decelerates and accelerates smoothly and just plain works well. I love it and use it all the time.

I paid the $750 for the driver assistance package (Active Cruise Control and Parking Distance Control [I think that is the correct name]). In the MINI, it seems to over-react to changes, mis-identifies parked cars and cars in other lanes as being in your path and after slowing down takes FOR EVER to speed back up. It is like a new teen driver. Slow down, speed up, fall behind, etc. It also doesn't work well in rain, darkness or with low-angle sun (as has been mentioned above). I usually turn off the distance following feature and use it as standard cruise.

The annoying behavior of stopping too quickly and suddenly might well be due to the regen braking. But it really annoys me.

Rob

 

From my experience cruise control is also key to maximizing range of the SE. It seems to be a good "hypermiling" way to drive.