[buck eejit]

I had an instance over the weekend where I was driving along behind 3 cars doing approx 55mph. I noticed in the distance a cyclist. As the group approached the lead car had slowed down and was sitting behind the cyclist the golf had already slowed as usual to the same speed as the car in front of me. Car No1 overtook the cyclist as did car No 2. Car No3 (in front of me) couldn't get past as there was more oncoming traffic. We waited, Car No3 had a gap and he went for it. My car started to speed up (only 1-2mph), but immediately spotted the cyclist and slowed right back to the same speed as the rider. At no time did the car attempt to speed up until I saw a gap and initiated the maneuver around him, then the ACC took over once I let off the throttle. I would normally have turned off the ACC in this instance, but I really wanted to see how the car would react to this situation. It performed admirabley I have to say

 

[KenB]

I my opinion the ACC is potentially dangerous/life threatening.
1) in the case you highlighted beaware that signalling disengages ACC
2) If you pull out behind a overtaking car the car may decide to brake and the car behind will be in the back of you.
3) If a overtaking car pulls in front of you your car will brake/rapidly slow down just because he has taken your space. The human brain would say "no bother he is going the same speed and is pulling off at the sliproad coming up"

The only time i use it now is in the 50mph roadworks queue on motorways.

 

[buck eejit]

I my opinion the ACC is potentially dangerous/life threatening.
1) in the case you highlighted beaware that signalling disengages ACC
I was in control of the car at all times. Hands on the wheel and foot resting on accelerator, ready to brake if needed.
2) If you pull out behind a overtaking car the car may decide to brake and the car behind will be in the back of you.
If they did hit me then they shouldn't have been close enough to do so...
3) If a overtaking car pulls in front of you your car will brake/rapidly slow down just because he has taken your space. The human brain would say "no bother he is going the same speed and is pulling off at the sliproad coming up"
This scenario has happend me 100's of times while on an M'way or even on an A road driving at 60mph, when someone cuts in or overtakes me and maneuvers in front of me. I find the ACC copes very well in this situation. I have yet to have the ACC stab on the brakes, instead it has always read the situation very well noticing that the car cutting in was driving faster than i was. You can feel the car letting off the power and coasting to ease off the gap, or if needed it will apply some brake/regen to slow the car more if needed to gain a bigger pre set gap.

The only time i use it now is in the 50mph roadworks queue on motorways.

Replied in Bold

 

[Jayne]

What @buck eejit said.

But also for point 1, if you have ACC set at a higher speed than you are currently driving, then indicate to overtake the car will often start to speed up marginally just before you actually pull out into the other lane. Then when it's clear ahead it accelerates up to the set speed. So indicating definitely doesn't disengage ACC. Pressing the brake pedal does though. I've only used ACC overtaking on dual carriageway/motorway, on single carriageway I manually disengage it and overtake myself before re-engaging it.

 

[buck eejit]

What @buck eejit said.

But also for point 1, if you have ACC set at a higher speed than you are currently driving, then indicate to overtake the car will often start to speed up marginally just before you actually pull out into the other lane. Then when it's clear ahead it accelerates up to the set speed. So indicating definitely doesn't disengage ACC. Pressing the brake pedal does though. I've only used ACC overtaking on dual carriageway/motorway, on single carriageway I manually disengage it and overtake myself before re-engaging it.

I would also normally disengage the cruise in this situation. But this time I just wanted to see how Smart or Dumb the ACC was in this situation. From now on I'll cancel ACC and do the maneuver myself. You're also correct about the ACC not cancelling if speed is set higher. My speed was set @55. As soon as I had turned the wheel to overtake the car started to pick up speed, and as soon as it saw the road was clear it ramped up the power getting back to 55.

 

[Arianto Nugroho]

you could also just press the gas to overtake (in case you need to do a quicker overtake) .. when you are done, just release the gas pedal, the ACC will automatically (re)engage ..

 

[Jayne]

you could also just press the gas to overtake (in case you need to do a quicker overtake) .. when you are done, just release the gas pedal, the ACC will automatically (re)engage ..

Very true. Despite doing just that quite often I forgot about it when I wrote my reply earlier.

 

[Tgolf]

What's everyone's view on using ACC in the rain? I was always taught to never ever use cruise control in wet conditions as it can lead to the losing control when unable to grip the road.

 

[Danny8oy]

I always use it motorway and city driving it’s very useful and in no way dangerous. Obviously you have to know what limitations it has and manage that just as you would normal cruise potentially ramming the car in front... Mine will also keep it between the lines without input from me.. again you have to know the limitations of the tool.

 

[Jayne]

What's everyone's view on using ACC in the rain? I was always taught to never ever use cruise control in wet conditions as it can lead to the losing control when unable to grip the road.

Hmmm... I can see the reasoning but don't quite buy it unless you've got loads of standing water. Normal rain I'm not worried about.

I got a new warning this evening. ACC unavailable because sensor was impaired. I think it was because I was driving through a heavy snow shower with those big, sticky kind of snowflakes. Normally no issue with the weather.

 

[robtree]

Had ACC and got a red "brake now" light and car braked itself at 35mph in very heavy rain yesterday. Turned it off. Today I got the huge red collision warning out of nowhere and ParkPilot beeped for no reason. Probably shouldn't have driven in such heavy rain.

 

[Tooks]

I got a new warning this evening. ACC unavailable because sensor was impaired. I think it was because I was driving through a heavy snow shower with those big, sticky kind of snowflakes. Normally no issue with the weather.

I’ve had that happen to me in the old Golf on heavy snow.

It also piped up once on a nighttime journey, when I pulled over somewhere safe to take a look, a sort of tar covered paint tin lid had stuck itself to the grill blocking the sensors ‘view’.

Add my name to the people impressed with the ACC system, as long as you understand its limitations.

 

[Woodulike]

Had ACC and got a red "brake now" light and car braked itself at 35mph in very heavy rain yesterday. Turned it off. Today I got the huge red collision warning out of nowhere and ParkPilot beeped for no reason. Probably shouldn't have driven in such heavy rain.

I had the red 'brake now' and long beep in normal conditions the other day. I wondered why it was telling me to brake when the ACC was on and it was braking already.

Since the service last month I have noticed that I'm getting more red 'exploding car' warnings, and half of them are on empty country lanes.

 

[Mtcm]

I'm super impressed with it more every day. It even spots middle lane hoggers on the motorway and doesn't undertake.

I love it in stop/start driving. There are some roadworks near me which cause queues. I leave ACC engaged and a quick press of resume if you're stationary for too long and it'll set off again. Fantastic and very relaxing.

 

[Super squirrel]

I my opinion the ACC is potentially dangerous/life threatening.
1) in the case you highlighted beaware that signalling disengages ACC
2) If you pull out behind a overtaking car the car may decide to brake and the car behind will be in the back of you.
3) If a overtaking car pulls in front of you your car will brake/rapidly slow down just because he has taken your space. The human brain would say "no bother he is going the same speed and is pulling off at the sliproad coming up"

The only time i use it now is in the 50mph roadworks queue on motorways.

Re point 3 ken, it doesn't do that, if a vehicle which has overtaken then pulls in Infront of you, it's able to determine that it's going quicker than you and that the car doesn't need to slow.

And for 2...don't pull in to small gaps!

 

[robtree]

Since the service last month I have noticed that I'm getting more red 'exploding car' warnings, and half of them are on empty country lanes.

I've only had the car (from new) for a month and this is exactly where I got my red 'exploding car' warning... going to watch this closely. I hate bugs that are difficult to reproduce.

 

[KenB]

I should have said when you indicate it disengages the radar distance control , not the cruise control. It will still stop you hitting the car in front. This is in the manual also.

 

[tom66]

I my opinion the ACC is potentially dangerous/life threatening.
1) in the case you highlighted beaware that signalling disengages ACC

Signalling does not disable ACC, it just allows the ACC to go closer to the car in front, so essentially making overtaking easier, while reducing the safety margin momentarily to allow overtaking. If there is a non-stationary obstruction then it will slow, it won't collide with the vehicle in front intentionally.

2) If you pull out behind a overtaking car the car may decide to brake and the car behind will be in the back of you.
3) If a overtaking car pulls in front of you your car will brake/rapidly slow down just because he has taken your space. The human brain would say "no bother he is going the same speed and is pulling off at the sliproad coming up"

In all cases you can press the accelerator while on ACC to override the braking, this becomes a second instinct. The ACC is like a nervous student driver, sometimes the instructor has to intervene a bit with the gas pedal .

The real danger that goes underreported with ACC is that it doesn't reliably detect stopped vehicles. A number of times I have pulled up at speed to a stationary traffic jam on the M1, and the car has not slowed down until I intervened. It might have done it at the last moment, but far too close for my liking.

 

[robtree]

The real danger that goes underreported with ACC is that it doesn't reliably detect stopped vehicles.

I think it prefers to lock onto moving vehicles and track those. Otherwise you could be, e.g. driving through a village and every time you approached a parked car on your side of the road it'd panic even though you're obviously going to pull out and drive around it.

 

[tom66]

I think it prefers to lock onto moving vehicles and track those. Otherwise you could be, e.g. driving through a village and every time you approached a parked car on your side of the road it'd panic even though you're obviously going to pull out and drive around it.

Sure, and that's a limitation of the ACC radar. Otherwise it would brake all the time for road signs and manhole covers and the like - it has to ignore stationary vehicles. Unfortunately, this can be very dangerous on the motorway if approaching stopped traffic, which can occur sometimes.