…..works as intended.
Driving onto the IOW ferry, the marshall guiding us up to him activated the system thus throwing me forwards towards the windcreen as i had not put my seatbelt on for the 50 metre journey. Oh how we laughed 😉

Why were you trying to run the Marshall over?

I wasn’t…. he wanted me to drive right up to him ,and it wouldnt let me 😁

I’m surprised they aren’t deactivated below a certain speed.

I’ve never tested the one on my C-estate but it’s never been triggered rolling gently up to the oh so tight parking in the Eurostar.

My car’s auto braking activates when crawling towards the barrier to the work car park to swipe my ID. Usually as I’m leaning out of the window as the ID thingy is set back too far from the kerb.

Had a few bangs of the window frame before I learned to anticipate the sudden stop.

I’m surprised they aren’t deactivated below a certain speed.

Someone stepped out in front of my mum in a car park as they were crawling forward, it slammed on and stopped the old dear (not my mum) from being sprawled over the bonnet.

I’m surprised they aren’t deactivated below a certain speed.

I think the Kia system switches off if you’re going slower than 10mph, so you can park right up against a wall etc.

Someone stepped out in front of my mum in a car park as they were crawling forward, it slammed on and stopped the old dear (not my mum) from being sprawled over the bonnet.

Is this true? How do these systems then cope with slow moving inner city traffic and jaywalkers/weaving cyclists etc. Is there room for a modern variation of chicken played by kids? How will self driving cars handle people stepping deliberately in front of them?

My Leon will sense a bush when I reverse out of the drive, stops with a hell of a bang!
Got to be better than not having it – a mate was an AA man, fixed a car in a car park and they promptly drove out of the exit and flattened a pedestrian walking past!

First time I triggered it in my old v60 I shit a brick. Swung into a parking spaces with bushes at the far end, that were blowing in the wind. Full anchor on jobby.
Thought I’d driven into a rock or bollard I’d missed for a split second. Sort of sat there in slow motion waiting for the crunch.

Mine (vw golf) bizarrely seems to trigger just before the penultimate notch of the forward parking sensor display. So as I’m creeping down the bar chart to squidge onto my tiny drive, suddenly bang! It might be out of calibration, but it’s become a fun variation of Parisian parking to feel it slam on.

My Leon will sense a bush when I reverse out of the drive, stops with a hell of a bang!

How big a bush does it have to be? Presumably not just a thin strip of vegetation?

How big a bush does it have to be?

Answer can be given as a decade.

Way more than a Brazilian:-)

How will self driving cars handle people stepping deliberately in front of them?

People will start to game them. See a self driving car? Just step out, pull out of junction, cut it up. Probably not great for the passengers in the self driver, but they’re not the ones in control. I’m assuming they’ll be properly programmed not to unexpectedly slam into stuff by then.

My car’s auto braking activates when crawling towards the barrier to the work car park to swipe my ID. Usually as I’m leaning out of the window as the ID thingy is set back too far from the kerb.

Mine does that but only when there’s a line of people to point and snigger.

I had one of the precursors to this in a 2013 mondeo. The anti collision warning system. Used to drive me mad beeping all the time. I just turned it off. That car had adaptive cruse control too but it was like being driven by a learner driver, very erratic. Had the basic ideas there just not finely honed at that point.

There was an interesting article about self driving cars and the fact they were being programmed for maximum safety and to fear any situation. This is why they slam the brakes on when some plant is blown in front of them.

Extend this to self driving cars and what happens if they all get stuck at merging junctions while they wait for the other car to move forward. It used to happen with pensioners in Peugeot 306’s at mini roundabouts. They would stop and all wait for the other car to move first.

The suggested solution was that the more you paid for the car, the more assertive the AI would be and so if you bought a top of the range Mercedes you would be able to pull out of any junction or round about with impunity but if you were in a low end Dacia you would be stuck at the junction forever.

D’you know, had a 65 plate company car Focus that once stopped very suddenly when entering a car park – thought I’d hit something, no sign of damage or anything to hit. I wonder if it had that and the gate startled it…?

Big fan of the driver assistence stuff – lane drift warning, fatigue warning, self-park, etc. That car didn’t have adaptive cruise but the Golf I had after did – fantastic on the motorway.

@pondo absolutely. The golf 2013 GTD we had at the same time as the mondeo had adaptive cruse control too world of difference. Far more polished. I’m sure they’ve all improved since then. I wouldn’t know I drive a transit now.

My car does this in reverse. Even with parking sensors off. It keeps picking up the bike rack and slamming on the brakes. Super frustrating

How will self driving cars handle people stepping deliberately in front of them?

Thats just the tip of the iceberg. Those developing self driving autonomous cars are having to grapple with the ethics of it. Suppose there was a freak emergency situation where the cars system had to choose between mowing down a pregnant woman or a cyclist or crash into a brick wall and sacrifice the occupant of the car?

Is there room for a modern variation of chicken played by kids? How will self driving cars handle people stepping deliberately in front of them?

By stopping, I presume. I doubt they’ll program the car to get angry and red face and shout ‘bloody kids!’ whilst revving and inching forward aggressively, then threaten to kill them.

I have adaptive cruise on my Hyundai and it’s surprisingly good. Little touches like if I signal and start to change lanes it then accelerates on its own before I am out from behind the slower car, which means I be up to speed in the new lane when I get there. It’s all very natural. However, being electric there aren’t any audio cues to how fast you’re going so it’s easy to end up at 65mph without realising it because of the car in front.

Adaptive Cruise is a bit different to most the other ‘assists’ in that yo choose to use it and so you mostly choose to use it in sensible situations like roads where the traffic is mostly travelling around similar speeds and the same direction. You wouldn’t use it in a car park.

The auto braking stuff is different in that it senses a bike rack as other traffic and brakes, some plant blowing in the wind and brakes. At the moment the systems are not clever enough which is why the manufacturers are desperate to back pedal on autonomous car driving launch dates. 10 years ago it was 10 years in the future, now it is closer to 15 years in the future.

Thats just the tip of the iceberg. Those developing self driving autonomous cars are having to grapple with the ethics of it. Suppose there was a freak emergency situation where the cars system had to choose between mowing down a pregnant woman or a cyclist or crash into a brick wall and sacrifice the occupant of the car?

Much easier to program a response into a computer than for a human to make the decision in real time.

Thats just the tip of the iceberg. Those developing self driving autonomous cars are having to grapple with the ethics of it. Suppose there was a freak emergency situation where the cars system had to choose between mowing down a pregnant woman or a cyclist or crash into a brick wall and sacrifice the occupant of the car?

If it’s got time to make that choice then steer one way or t’other to effect an outcome, it’s got time to stop. See this always-impressive example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI9EIjUx20I

If it’s not got time to stop, it was going too quickly for the conditions – which shouldn’t happen with an autonomous car.

If it’s not got time to stop, it was going too quickly for the conditions – which shouldn’t happen with an autonomous car.

Exactly. If there is a person in road ahead (pregnant women is not relevant so not sure why mentioned) and a cyclist and no room other than a wall then car will be going 5 mph.
This is of course what a human driver should do but can you imagine people slowing down to 5 mph in that situation.

My anti collision system (Toyota) has never triggered in 3 years although it does beep when I am heading towards parked cars at an angle on a corner. Next time I get a large cardboard box I may go somewhere empty and test it out.

I’ve swung into the uphill against a hedge parking at work rather too keenly and triggered it.

Mrs_oab had a kid cycle out between parked cars – the classic – and is utterly convinced the emergency system saved the kid as she was 30mph at the time.

Thats just the tip of the iceberg. Those developing self driving autonomous cars are having to grapple with the ethics of it.

Honestly, there aren’t ethical decisions because the car can’t get into that situation in the first place.

I’ve had it activate on a car I didn’t know had it – that was a surprise 50mph-15mph in the time it took me to realize what had happened. I like to tell myself that my excellent driving skills would have avoided the jackknifed caravan that was unexpectedly round the corner but I suspect there would have at least been a low speed collision.

I driven a few cars with auto-brake in road race convoys and it always needs turning off. You absolutely do not want the car doing anything unexpected when it picks up cars or cyclists in close proximity.

Ineos had to call in a professional Ford mechanic to deactivate it when they changed their car supplier to Ford. Most of them you can turn off through the settings – the Mercedes I used on Tour de Yorkshire needed 5 mins time before driving it to turn off all the safety stuff each and every time. It reset to default ON every time you started it up.

Ford’s implementation of it seems to be a bit random. We have lots of Fords at work, and many different models, and while I was checking something out in a Fiesta handbook I came across the settings instructions, but my ST-Line EcoSport doesn’t have it, and I’ve not come across it in other Fords, so I’m wondering if it’s an optional extra.

needed 5 mins time before driving it to turn off all the safety stuff each and every time. It reset to default ON every time you started it up.

I’m ok with that it means Fred down the road is unlikely to turn off all his safety aids all the time.

Honestly, there aren’t ethical decisions because the car can’t get into that situation in the first place.

Do you honestly believe that.

As has been coming to light recently. Auto driving car following amother vehicle. Car Infront swearves at the last minute to avoid a pedestrian. Guess what hits the pedestrian ?

But the car didn’t get into that situation…..

I driven a few cars with auto-brake in road race convoys and it always needs turning off. You absolutely do not want the car doing anything unexpected when it picks up cars or cyclists in close proximity.

Tell me more about this ‘road racing’ you speak of.

I’m going 50:50 on troll.

Tell me more about this ‘road racing’ you speak of.

I’m going 50:50 on troll.

Why troll ?

Road racing (which knowing crazy legs) is cycling. You have lead cars /tail cars /medic cars and service all in and around the bunch .

^ You’re specifically told to turn off all collision braking systems when in a race convoy, along with headlights on and a few other things it’s a condition of being in the convoy.

The reason being is riders often draft the back of cars – sometimes / often quite literally rubbing the paint off the bumper

Imagine a situation where that is the case, and you get a rider randomly swiping across in front of the car’s radar – unthinkable

Auto driving car following amother vehicle. Car Infront swearves at the last minute to avoid a pedestrian. Guess what hits the pedestrian ?

And on the flip side, there is a video from a Tesla where the car in front doesn’t notice stopped traffic. The dumb car doesn’t brake and has an almighty smash. The Tesla sees the stationary traffic (presumably the radar can see the traffic under the dumb car) and performs an emergency stop before the stationary traffic is visible, and before the car in front crashes (or brakes).

Normally those sort of crashes result in a chain reaction of several impacts as there is very little braking time/distance

As has been coming to light recently. Auto driving car following amother vehicle. Car Infront swearves at the last minute to avoid a pedestrian. Guess what hits the pedestrian ?

That’s not a decision that’s a consequence of the car in front in that scenario and the inability to do anything about it for the car behind.

The ethical decision a car might have to make in the real world is whether they crash into dog or another car for example, so do they crash into a dog crossing the road or into a car with a family with young children in it? How does a computer on a car decide who lives or who dies?

Those are the situations that are a nightmare for the car makers, governments and insurers to battle through.