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Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

arstechnica.com

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Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#11

Post by steve_adams_86 »

The only time my vehicle ever used its emergency braking was when my wife’s mom was driving, and my entire family was in the car. I was so grateful for it.

The scariest part was that she accelerated toward a truck that was travelling very slowly in front of us, the car braked so hard we were all pressed into our seatbelts and the car was audibly vibrating as it lurched from the anti lock brakes. We were literally inches from hitting this truck, and her mom was completely unperturbed. Like nothing had happened.

I was shaken. If I’d done that myself I’d think I needed to take a brake from driving and seriously contemplate how that was able to happen. She just kept driving and talking about whatever she was talking about. Disturbing stuff.

So, that’s why I’m generally in favour of emergency braking. It completely saved my ass.

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#12

Post by jo6gwb »

jacquesm wrote: post #6

This almost got me into a serious accident, twice. Definitely would not recommend and I switched cars because of it. The last thing I need is buggy software with the capability of instantly changing the trajectory of my vehicle (slippery surfaces, cornering). A brand car as well (MB) so really, really disappointed, what should have been a safety feature actually was the opposite. Dealer said everything was fine so th…

Touchscreens first, quickly followed by excessively bright, flickering, and aftermarket headlights.

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#13

Post by dmfdmf »

I have a modern car (2019) and the auto braking, collision and lane drift alert is a nuisance. False positives are common and there is no way to disable most of it. Some of it can be turned off but as soon as the car is restarted it resets to the default. I've even had the car emergency brake and come to a complete stop in the middle of the road due to a phantom collision. As soon as I pay it off I am going to sell it and roll back to an earlier model without all this mandated, modern tech and keep the older car rolling till I die. We will become like Cuba keeping 50's cars running into the 70's or even the 80's and this time it won't be due to the commies but the fascists.

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#14

Post by steve_adams_86 »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #9
dalyons wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet I have it in my very real world (and unexciting) Subaru for years and it never does what you say. I’m guessing it has some idea of differential speeds , not just distance-to-object

so if someone merges over into your lane where you are it doesn't activate? I must not understand the point of this feature then.

It’s for when your mother in law hurtles your family towards a truck in front of you with no indication of trying to slow down (personal experience). The car does its best to stop acceleration while maximizing braking force safely.

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#15

Post by jacquesm »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #11

The only time my vehicle ever used its emergency braking was when my wife’s mom was driving, and my entire family was in the car. I was so grateful for it. The scariest part was that she accelerated toward a truck that was travelling very slowly in front of us, the car braked so hard we were all pressed into our seatbelts and the car was audibly vibrating as it lurched from the anti lock brakes. We were literally inc…

Sounds like you don't want your wife's mom driving with you and the rest of the family in the car. Sounds like she quite possibly should not be driving at all. That must have been pretty scary.

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#16

Post by cudgy »

version_five wrote: post #2

Regulatory capture marches forward. In an environment where small, cheap, runabout electric vehicles could become very popular, I expect lots of "for your safety" reasons why cars have to be complicated and expensive.

Well they have to do something with all the new funding from the latest “infrastructure” bill.

“helped secure a historic 50 percent increase in funding and staffing resources for the agency under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law”

https://www.nhtsa.gov/nhtsa-leadership/ann-carlson

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#17

Post by mint2 »

jacquesm wrote: post #7
dboreham wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're thinking of adaptive cruise control. Automatic breaking only activates when you're about to crash.

Yes, because the automatic braking 'feature' can cause you to crash.

Keep in mind that Not every car brand has the executional prowess of Tesla. As the others have mentioned I’ve never experienced phantom braking on my Subaru while driving.

It hasn’t even done the object detected warning beeping when driving on actual roads, which I assume happens prior to the braking. The times I’ve had that warning are parking head on against walls and approach fast, and on one particular 15 mph off ramp that curved sharply such that one drove directly at a sign before turning sharply. It was understandable that it would alert there. No braking.

Assisted Lane keeping is another story, not a fan. Does not account for a ton of things such as the car or truck in the next lane is almost over the line.

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#18

Post by mint2 »

dmfdmf wrote: post #13

I have a modern car (2019) and the auto braking, collision and lane drift alert is a nuisance. False positives are common and there is no way to disable most of it. Some of it can be turned off but as soon as the car is restarted it resets to the default. I've even had the car emergency brake and come to a complete stop in the middle of the road due to a phantom collision. As soon as I pay it off I am going to sell i…

Name the car brand and model. Not all implementations are so bad, so it’s important to raise awareness of the bad ones.

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#19

Post by mkmk »

This feature once saved me from what would have otherwise been a very nasty crash, many years ago.

I was driving too fast in a borrowed car over a small hill and hadn't realized that traffic had stopped just out of my sight until too late. I heard a beep and saw flashing on my dash and I started braking but a moment later the emergency braking system kicked in, braking much harder than I would have been able to. The car stopped, hard, a foot or two short of the pickup truck in front of me.

As the brakes kicked in, my seatbelt tensioned and pulled me into my seat, which was surprising because, although I had a vague idea of emergency braking, I didn't know the seatbelts would do that. And although I may be mis-remembering since this was so long ago, it feels like the passenger seat next to me started moving (I'm not sure why) – I should look that up.

Made me infinitely grateful for the engineering that went into this system. I was quite young and insufficiently cautious, and it was an eye-opening experience.

Re: Automatic emergency braking should become mandatory, feds say

#20

Post by ddalcino »

jacquesm wrote: post #6

This almost got me into a serious accident, twice. Definitely would not recommend and I switched cars because of it. The last thing I need is buggy software with the capability of instantly changing the trajectory of my vehicle (slippery surfaces, cornering). A brand car as well (MB) so really, really disappointed, what should have been a safety feature actually was the opposite. Dealer said everything was fine so th…

Would you care to elaborate on what went wrong? The other comments here make ‘automatic emergency braking’ sound like a really good idea, and it’s hard for me to imagine that this particular feature would be so problematic.

If you’re talking about other automatic steering features, that’s very different, and your comment makes more sense to me.

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