Duct Tape Dude wrote:2018 likely has a new car in store for me. I see all these active driving aids I'm interested in like:
Front radars/cameras:
[*]Lane keep assist (or the lesser Lane Departure Warning)
Haven't used active keep lane assist, but we do have lane departure warning... and my opinion on that is that it's not only useless, but annoying. We turned this off very soon after buying the car... The main underlying problem is that it reads things that aren't lanes as lanes... tar line on the road? That's a lane. Harsh shadow from the car next to you? That's a lane. Lines in the intersection as you're turning? Opps, you just left a lane. Even dirt on the side of the road can be a lane.
[*]Smart cruise control
This is my favorite of all of these sorts of features. Get on the highway, set it to whatever speed you like. Traffic slows down or stops, the system automatically does the same. When it speeds up again, so do you. It sounds almost trivial but it's absolutely wonderful on long trips.
[*]Automatic emergency braking
Only had this work once, and it was a false alarm. Was pulling into the garage - admittedly faster than might have been advisable - and it decided to activate. Lotsa beeping and braking, frown of disapproval from the wife... but at least we know that it works.
But in general, yeah, I am in favor of the car stopping before it hits something.
Rear radars:
[*]Blind spot monitoring
Useful. I am still really careful to check my sides when changing lanes, but this is a nice to have. Plus, my wife is... less careful than I'd like her to be when changing lanes, so it's definitely a nice to have when she's behind the wheel
One minor annoyance is that it almost always beeps if you're at an intersection with multiple turn lane... for example, you're turning left and there is another left-turn lane to your left. It sees the car behind you (also turning left) and assumes that you're cutting them off. Not a big deal.
[*]Lane change assist
I consider this to be the same as the blind spot assist...
[*]Rear cross traffic alert
Useful, especially in parking lots where you're trying to back out and can't see past the van that's next to you... Ours is kinda weird sometimes, for example it's gone off for a pedestrian on the sidewalk on the other side of the street - so no reason to warn - but failed to go off for an oncoming car. This is my one concern with these kinds of features; that they're not completely reliable.
I've test driven a few cars recently (Elantra, Civic, Impreza, Niro) but I've found test drives tend to be too short for thoroughly vetting the tech.
Well, basically, once you've narrowed down to the car you want, tell the dealership you want a longer test drive. Even if they give you crap about it initially, most dealerships aren't going to pass on a sale just to avoid spending some extra time on the road with you. If they won't accommodate you, go to another dealer.
So gerbils, anyone have any experience with Eyesight/Honda Sensing/TSS-P/etc. from any manufacturers? How is it? What works well? Is anything so annoying that you turn it off?
Ours is Mazda, but I've driven a Honda that was basically the same. I really can't say which are better or worse.
My biggest thing is that I consider them a tool, not a catch-all. I still look before I back out, change lanes, or whatever; and it irritates me when other people don't.