^^^^
Very interesting. What make of car do you have?

I had active cruise control be disabled in a 2024 VW GLI but I’d read that that was due to faulty steering wheels and my 2024 Mazda 3 did it this weekend on my way home from work.

As someone who deals with and calibrates ADAS Systems on various makes of vehicles, I can give some insight to these systems and how they work.

As far as Lane Departure Systems, they are based off of the camera(s) located behind the windshield. There are various things that could cause the system to not perform properly.

All vehicle manufacturers state in their manuals about not mounting items (such as toll road transponders or dash cameras) within a certain area close to the camera or having things on the top of the dash that could cause reflections off the windshield and having the camera(s) read said items as being in the roadway.

Windshield tinting covering or within the restricted viewing area of the camera(s) will cause issues.

If the windshield is too dirty, snow, frost, ice covered, dense fog, heavy rain or severe harsh early morning or late evening sun head on for a prolonged period of time, then the system will shut down as the camera(s) cannot see far enough ahead or make out the road markings.

If your vehicle also has a front radar, that radar and the Lane Departure camera(s) are tied together as they use information from each other to perform their respective functions more accurately (such as emergency automatic braking). Therefore issues with the front radar will effect the Lane Departure system and vice versa. Anything blocking the radar signal such as stickers, snow, frost, ice, mud, heavy coating of bugs, or if your radar reads through your bumper cover clear bra film or repainted bumper paint thickness can cause issues and also shut down the systems.

If your windshield has been removed and reinstalled or replaced then it is imperative that the camera(s) are re-calibrated as the will not be back in the exact same place as before. Also many manufacturers state that even minor collisions can jar the cameras out of alignment and are to be re-calibrated.

If your front bumper or grille has suffered an impact it can also throw off the calibration of the front radar and should be re-calibrated.

The same circumstances listed above also pertain to the blind spot radars located behind or on your rear bumper cover.

If you get too close to a roadway lane marking you may feel a slight nudge(correcting) or vibration(warning) in the steering wheel to correct or warn you. If this happens going around a curve it is either because you are riding too close to one of the lines or the calibration is off. Many people don't realize they are crossing over the inside line of a curve, but I see or experience people doing this every day that I drive around where I live. If it happens after you have your turn signal on and are changing lanes, that is definitely an issue that the Dealer or Manufacturer needs to diagnose and fix.

The only Lane Departure system that I despise is Toyota's newer systems that have their Lane Trace Assist function. That system keeps you centered in your lane on the highway to such an extreme degree that you can't "float" in your lane at all without you feeling like the steering wheel is fighting you the entire time. Some models that have this can be easily switched to standard Lane Keep Assist mode using the steering wheel button, others hide it in menus or could require the Dealer Techstream software to disable it.

There is so much more to be said about how these systems work that I would have to write a full book on it so I will stop for now.

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(such as emergency automatic braking).

All of this crap should be something that the manufacturers allow to be turned off, or better yet not put in standard to begin with.

I don't want a computer making those decisions for me.

quote:

Originally posted by Black Pepper:
As someone who deals with and calibrates ADAS Systems on various makes of vehicles, I can give some insight to these systems and how they work.
<snip>

Thanks much for that reply Black Pepper. Very informative – I can see that you know what you’re talking about.

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Originally posted by a1abdj:

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(such as emergency automatic braking).

All of this crap should be something that the manufacturers allow to be turned off, or better yet not put in standard to begin with.

I don't want a computer making those decisions for me.

I know that most people think that they can react fast in an emergency braking situation( I am one of them) but I and many other drivers are glad that these systems exist because they do react faster than they can. I experienced a situation myself where I was test driving a customers vehicle after calibrating the front radar, and there is a certain curve with a rise in the road that you can't fully see over. I was in that curve and just as I could see over the rise, traffic was stopped a short distance away. The vehicle activated the brakes before I could get my foot on the brake pedal. I most likely would have stopped in time of my own use of the brakes without the automatic braking kicking in, but it would have been close or possibly not fast enough.

Some Manufacturers actually sometimes do allow you to turn off some or all of the systems

Unfortunately for people who don't want these systems, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will require passenger vehicles by September 2029 to have Automatic Emergency Braking that can avoid a crash with a vehicle in front at speeds of up to 65 mph, reduce the effects of a crash at speeds of up to 90 mph, and avoid a crash with a pedestrian in both darkness and daylight at speeds of up to 45 mph. So it is no longer up to the Vehicle Manufacturers if their vehicles have these systems or not.

I don’t mind emergency braking for the most part, but I prefer normal cruise control in most situations so I can pass slower vehicles (when it is safe to do so, of course). I have had a few times where I’ve forgotten that I had active cruise control on and it took me a second to figure out why I wasn’t gaining on the car in front of me. Lol

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:

quote:

Originally posted by Black Pepper:
As someone who deals with and calibrates ADAS Systems on various makes of vehicles, I can give some insight to these systems and how they work.
<snip>

Thanks much for that reply Black Pepper. Very informative – I can see that you know what you’re talking about.

I do know a lot about these systems, But I am not all-knowing. There are so many variations of these systems and advancements year after year among the Manufacturers that it is impossible to know everything off the top of one's head unless their full-time job is to study and know this and nothing else.

What I wrote in my post above is just the basics for me that has taken years of working with these systems to learn and gather resources on and hopefully will help members of this forum know how these systems work and that they are not infallible due to other factors whether it be environmental, collision damage or repairs (or improper or incomplete repairs) to the vehicle.

quote:

Originally posted by Black Pepper:
I know that most people think that they can react fast in an emergency braking situation( I am one of them) but I and many other drivers are glad that these systems exist because they do react faster than they can.

It's amazing how so many people will dismiss modern technology and think they can do things manually faster.

While a clutch pedal and shifter are fun to drive, it's not likely we can shift faster than a DCT.

I also enjoy automatic headlights and AC, set a temperature and be comfortable.

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It's amazing how so many people will dismiss modern technology and think they can do things manually faster.

I have training that most don't, but that's not the point. It's not about the reaction time, it's about the decision making.

If I want to hit something and push it out of my way, I want to do so without the car applying the brakes and trapping me.

As it pertains specifically to Mazdas, we have a CX-9. It has locked the brakes on me multiple times when there was zero chance of collision.

As much of a bore it is to look at and drive (but it has never left me walking), I hope my 2009 Corolla runs as long as possible. Being a base model, it only has ABS, none of the other junk. And I think even this is only a help on dry pavement, not wet or icy, on gravel, or other slippery conditions.

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It's not about the reaction time, it's about the decision making.

Exactly. I don't mind warning systems - even then they are no better than simply adjusting mirrors properly and paying attention - but no car is going to make decisions for me if I can help it. There is no way they can account for every situation, every time.

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As it pertains specifically to Mazdas, we have a CX-9. It has locked the brakes on me multiple times when there was zero chance of collision.

While road testing a Subaru once, a car turned left in front of me. I had already seen it, was prepared for it and ready to hit the brakes if necessary. But no, it hit the brakes for me, and rather abruptly, too. It wasn't necessary.

For me, active cruise control is so much better than passive that I can’t stand the latter. Recently rented a Chrysler Pacifica, set cruise control and saw that I was creeping—well more than creeping—up on the car in front. I realized the stupid car has completely separate controls for passive and active cruise control!

So I would definitely NOT ever want to have ACC disabled. I have a Mazda CX-90, and its ACC is fine.

Some of these new safety features take getting used to; some do not yet have all the bugs worked out. But I can see that manufacturers would want to make it at least difficult to disable them for liability reasons. Would they want you to be able to disable the driver’s air bag?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
As much of a bore it is to look at and drive (but it has never left me walking), I hope my 2009 Corolla runs as long as possible. Being a base model, it only has ABS, none of the other junk. And I think even this is only a help on dry pavement, not wet or icy, on gravel, or other slippery conditions.
<snip>

Living in San Diego I don’t know about icy, but current ABS on slick wet streets is flat out impressive.

We have a 2017 Mercedes that I have disabled the “nanny” features, as I don’t want a vehicle deciding that I’m going out of the lane and fighting me on the steering wheel wh3n I was trying to avoid debris on the road or a bike getting too close the the lane I’m in. Warning me is fine. Wish I could have the mode settings remembered instead of defaulting to the comfort setting every startup.

The CX-50 is supposed to have lane keep assist, adaptive CC and all of the other safety nags, but from new our relatively early production CX doesn't seem to have any of that working or at least turned on as its default setting. I can weave all over the place in a lane and even cut corners and cross over lane markers without any hint of the car fighting me; the only thing that happens is the annoying warning beeping if I run over tactile marker bumps with no turn signal on, and even that doesn't always occur. The collision avoidance system just gives the visual warning in the HUD and digital dash with a loud audible warning as well but the couple of times that the car's radar lit off the warning each time I would have had to hit the brakes for the car to slow down or stop. Both times I did think that the system was overreacting to the situation. As for the ACC, I never use cruise control. I vehemently prefer my left foot to be exactly where it's supposed to be. VERY old school, thankyouverymuch.

About the only thing that does seem to work as you might expect is the blind spot detection. I do sometimes wish that the car did have a forward facing camera; it took some time to figure out where the front of the vehicle is relative to pony walls and bollards I sometimes park up to, and even now a year and a half later I'm not always sure. Must be due to all those years of driving cars with flat pointy noses where even short obstacles are almost always in sight...

I do not drive a Mazda. I drive a Ford.

When I first got my car I had to drive from Magic Mountain area to Huntington Beach.

They had all the lane keeping and distance features on. I really didn’t like it especially in LA traffic.

The first thing I did once I got to spend time going through the settings was to turn the lane keeping off.

I do like the ACC and it activates without the lane keeping. I also have hands free BlueCruise too.

I have turned off most of the nanny stuff.

Another thing I can’t stand is the speed sign recognition feature. The first time I experienced that feature was coming home from Huntington Beach to the Bay Area. I was cruising down the freeway and the car kept slowing down. It was quite annoying to say the least. I turned that off too.

Even some warning systems are annoying, like the butt cheek buzzer in the seats of large GM SUVs. Depending on which way you drifted from the lane, it will even selectively buzz your left and right cheeks.

So I've come up with something that I've found really annoying with my cruise control, and this issue affects both regular CC and adaptive CC. If I accelerate beyond the speed at which my cruise control is set, as soon as I take my foot off of the gas my car will aggressively brake to get back down to the set speed. It's borderline dangerous in my opinion.

I don't understand the appeal of adaptive cruise control at all.

If I'm coming up to a car traveling slower than I am, I want to go around it. Why would I want to match it's speed? What happens when the two of you come up on a third car, then the three of you come up on a fourth car, etc?