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Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

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Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#71
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just leave more space on the highway when someone is turning? Auto brake isn't just for "inattentive" drivers. It's also for self proclaimed "attentive" drivers that can still lose focus at a bad instant. A turning car can still slam in their brakes when they're not completely out of your lane. Its rare, so your maneuver will be fine most of the time. But sometimes other drivers do unexpected things.

And if someone is following you too closely, but the lane to your left is clear, so it is in your interest to absorb the slack from someone in front of you turning because you can swerve left if they do something unexpected? I don't think anyone would complain about these systems if they had all of the context and made good decisions. But it is a problem when either humans or automated systems stand on the brakes bas…

I've never had a false alarm from the system on my car. But then, I actually follow the recommended minimum following distances and generally drive safely.

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#72
post #61
post #10

Oof, my experience with with auto-brake in a 2021 Subaru Crosstrek (anecdotal, sample size of one, all that good stuff) is much the opposite. It's too sensitive and tends to brake shockingly hard during fairly mundane maneuvers. When backing up near a wall/obstacle, the auto-brake seems to kick in when anything is closer than three or four feet away from the bumper. I use my mirrors and have an accurate impression of…

"I'm only one car-length away and still going 40 MPH. Another half-second and they'll be gone," These numbers must be wrong, and are terribly unsafe. Just off the top of my head, that's like travelling 60fps for .5 seconds is 30 feet, which exceeds 1 car length, even for my truck.

Assuming that a "car length" is always equal to the length of a car is the unsafe bit. A car length is simply the minimum safe follow distance based on weather, traffic, and speed. To my mind it has almost nothing to do with the literal length of a car.

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#73

I have a 2017 Outback and there exists a cluster of switches on the dash for easily toggling all the EyeSight features. They actually recommend to disable the "pre-collision braking" feature before driving through an automated carwash. Apart from that situation, I also disable it when I'm facing highly congested traffic for the reasons indicated in the other comments. It's very easy to do. I don't understand why this…

It's more startling but dangerous, but also, disabled the Reverse Automatic Braking when pulling a trailer. If you try to back into a parking spot with it engaged, the car will freak TF out and make an awful noise as it jams on the brakes. Or so I've heard.

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#74

I have a 2017 Outback and there exists a cluster of switches on the dash for easily toggling all the EyeSight features. They actually recommend to disable the "pre-collision braking" feature before driving through an automated carwash. Apart from that situation, I also disable it when I'm facing highly congested traffic for the reasons indicated in the other comments. It's very easy to do. I don't understand why this…

I drive a 2017 Forester and in 5 years of driving it I never had to turn off any of its safety features including pre-collision braking.

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#75
post #51
post #10

Oof, my experience with with auto-brake in a 2021 Subaru Crosstrek (anecdotal, sample size of one, all that good stuff) is much the opposite. It's too sensitive and tends to brake shockingly hard during fairly mundane maneuvers. When backing up near a wall/obstacle, the auto-brake seems to kick in when anything is closer than three or four feet away from the bumper. I use my mirrors and have an accurate impression of…

> 'Sometimes, though, I will allow the distance between myself and the next car to close, for example, if they're turning and will be gone in a second...' I often wonder what advantage in life people think they are gaining by this behaviour. Care to share?

> I try to do this instead of braking sometimes as I believe it assists with keeping the flow of traffic predictable for others.

Just that bit from my original comment. The other child comment worded it better than I did though.

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#76
post #38

Got a new M340i a month ago, first day driving it I get cut off by some 90 year old in a buick who didn't want to miss his turn. Was really glad to have automatic braking, by the time my foot had lifted off the gas it was already braking.

It should be mandatory on all new vehicles

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#77
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was just one example. I've clarified my original comment, previously I was using the term "car length" in a way that did not make sense to others. I should have said "seconds of follow distance" All of this is infinitely nuanced anyway. There might not be a side street. It can happen on the highway too when cars switch lanes to exit. And it's not like it happens every day, it's fairly rare, I just have yet to ac…

Have you ever looked up stopping distances? https://www.automotive-fleet.com/driver-care/239402/driver-c... I don’t know how accurate the above is, but it suggest that the stopping distance at 40mph is 5-9 car lengths, so I have to agree with the above poster that if you are routinely leaving one car length and your car system is freaking out, you are probably driving unsafely. Keep in my that statistically this coul…

> And then another driver t-boned her because he didn’t have enough distance to stop, also cleary partially at fault IMO.

Not partially at fault; completely and totally at fault (except if we're talking about someone deliberately trying to cause a crash in which case I'll settle for partially). The reality is there could be a hundred reasons the car stopped, the driver being an idiot is only one of them. Mechanical failure, something unseen from the following car, a door flying open, someone stepping out in front of them, a queue in front of them which is not obvious from behind etc.

If you are not leaving enough room to come to a stop when the car in front does then you are riding your luck, there are no two ways about it.

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#78
post #38

Got a new M340i a month ago, first day driving it I get cut off by some 90 year old in a buick who didn't want to miss his turn. Was really glad to have automatic braking, by the time my foot had lifted off the gas it was already braking.

Such a great feature, both of my last cars had this "presense" breaking. I was never really in a situation where it was critical, but the feeling that the breaks are already in a ready state (touch it slightly and you knew a little bit more will do hard breaking instead of going all the way) when I was touching it felt pretty reassuring and a little magic at the same time.

There's also a more basic version of something like this in older cars, "emergency brake assist", which senses a hard application of the brakes (determining from the nature of how the pedal is pressed) and applies full brakes.

Apparently most drivers don't actually apply the brakes fully when emergency braking, so this helps with that.

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

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#79
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, everyone’s got that one story in a billion that tries to be the counter example. I remember back in the day when seatbelts were controversial because someone was thrown free from a car.

Many of us are quite familiar with the reliability of software, and have serious concerns about trusting it to make the right decisions in a complex real-world situation.

Many of us are quite familiar with the reliability of humans and have serious concerns about trusting them to make the right decisions in a complex real-world situation.

There are almost 2 million rear end collisions in the US every year. Humans just don't have the reaction times to handle many situations. That is also best case. Many people are distracted while driving.

Re: Studies find automatic braking can cut crashes over 40%

#80
post #10

Oof, my experience with with auto-brake in a 2021 Subaru Crosstrek (anecdotal, sample size of one, all that good stuff) is much the opposite. It's too sensitive and tends to brake shockingly hard during fairly mundane maneuvers. When backing up near a wall/obstacle, the auto-brake seems to kick in when anything is closer than three or four feet away from the bumper. I use my mirrors and have an accurate impression of…

> It's too sensitive and tends to brake shockingly hard during fairly mundane maneuvers.

I've had a Crosstrek since 2018, and it has prevented accidents for me at least 4 times. It can be annoying when someone edges into your lane, or is edging out of your lane (and usually braking), but for every time it autobrakes for that, there's probably a situation where I'm glad it did. I'm sure the tech will just get better over time.

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