Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use • Hacker News Board

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#291

Post by 1812Overture » Tue, Mar 15, 2016, 9:50 PM UTC

kazinator wrote: post #127

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor blinker usage drives me nuts. Yes, there are some cases where, well, stuff happens. A driver forgets until the last minute. Many times I see them hit the blinker a split second after they've changed lanes. But far more frequently, I see the driver who is drifting between lanes at will, without thinking of the blinker, and seemingly without a care in the world. This is disturbing, especially since if I'm seeing t…

If you want to cut in, gaining an advantage over traffic, it behooves you to keep your intent undisclosed. Some drivers in the advantaged lane will make it difficult to merge if they see the intent, by closing the gaps. (Those who make it easy are enablers of cutting-in behavior, despised by everyone). It's safer if you don't announce your intent; you don't want to be encouraging the driver in the target lane to be t…

This is how it is in Los Angeles. Lane space must be seized with an iron will. Freely giving it away is a sign of weakness that will be punished.

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#292

Post by ma2rten » Wed, Mar 16, 2016, 3:40 PM UTC

Domenic_S wrote: post #260

ma2rten wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the 2016 Honda Civic LX with Sensing. It doesn't require me to keep my hands on wheel. However, it keeps losing the lane, requiring you to steer manually. Maybe the lane markings are not clear enough here in Los Angeles. Also, the adaptive cruise control often brakes abruptly, even making the front collision warning system go off. I also don't know if it activates the brake lights when it brakes (since traditi…

> (since traditional cruse controls don't) of course they do, where are you getting that?

I was under the impression that they use engine breaking, which does not trigger the break lights.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_braking

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#293

Post by Domenic_S » Wed, Mar 16, 2016, 4:13 PM UTC

ma2rten wrote: post #292

Domenic_S wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (since traditional cruse controls don't) of course they do, where are you getting that?

I was under the impression that they use engine breaking, which does not trigger the break lights. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_braking

For normal (non-adaptive) cruise control there are few situations where the brakes would make sense, but one of those is a steep hill. An easy way to find out what happens if you have a decent grade nearby: set a low speed and point yourself down the hill. I commuted over a large grade for some years and all the cars I drove would brake on it. Can't speak for every system ever made, obviously.

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#294

Post by api_or_ipa » Wed, Mar 16, 2016, 4:40 PM UTC

toomanybeersies wrote: post #265

noir_lord wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and my favourite "coder" I'm not a coder, I'm a programmer, I lack the lumberjack shirt, skinny jeans and macbook.

Related to terminology of what people who write computer programs call themselves: http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pro...

After reading that same article a half dozen times since starting my career, I still don't know what to call myself.

Engineer? I don't have an engineering degree. Computer Scientist? The stuff I do feels a lot more engineering than science-- I have never completed a formal scientific methodology when writing code. Besides, my profs at university do a lot more talking/writing than coding. Programmer? As others have said, this cheapens me to the simple action that I take, not the problems that I solve. Developer? Along with being conflated with Real Estate Developers, this does very little to describe even the domain of my expertise. Is a chef a food developer?

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#295

Post by Grishnakh » Wed, Mar 16, 2016, 9:29 PM UTC

MBCook wrote: post #191

Grishnakh wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the parent was talking about restarting from a full stop, it looks to me like he was saying that his car's radar-cruise system won't actually stop the car in heavy traffic, so if you're not paying attention and don't brake manually in time, you could rear-end someone.

Honda's system cuts out at some 'slow' speed like 35mph. If you don't do anything the car should fully stop but that's because you'll trigger the automatic emergency breaking. The problem with the system is it's relatively simplistic. You set a following distance (there are 4 options) and the car will never get closer to the car in front of you than you've specified. It will slow down as necessary to maintain that di…

I'll also add that on my Mazda, there's a button on the steering wheel to adjust the following distance. There's only 4 choices like the Honda's. It appears to be selecting by car lengths, so this distance would be greater (at the same setting) at higher speeds than at lower speeds. I haven't used it enough yet to really verify this though, but it seems to be the case, and seems nonsensical to design it any other way: of course you're going to want to follow at a greater distance at higher speeds. In practice, I don't have to fiddle with mine much at all; I just set a speed and leave it there. But I also don't use it in tight traffic; I wouldn't trust it for that, and I'm sure I do a better job of driving smoothly (and fuel-efficiently) since I can see what other cars are doing around me and use my predictive ability, rather than constantly speeding up and slowing down as people change lanes in front of me as you say. (If traffic's not too tight, and is fairly smooth, I will use it though, but I do reduce the following distance to the second-lowest setting or sometimes lowest. But I wouldn't use it in stop-and-go bumper-to-bumper traffic.)

I don't believe there's a way to set mine in "dumb cruise control" mode. I'm not sure why you'd want to. It acts like normal CC as long as there's no one in front going slower than you, and if there is someone going slower, you're either going to want to slow down, or go around them. One thing that'd be nice, though, would be an additional indicator showing the speed of the vehicle ahead so I can see the speed differential and decide when/if to change lanes.