‘Lane assist’ – how do I switch it off?

BMW i4 here. It turns on by default on every start. It’s OK on dual carriageway and motorways – a sensible reminder to signal before changing lanes as otherwise is “tugs” the car back into the lane, and a useful safety net should I actually wander out of lane.

On A and B roads though it’s rubbish – constantly interfering and trying to steer around bends itself which makes it feel like driving on patchy ice.

I’ve set up a “shortcut” to turn it off so that just 2 clicks of the iDrive controller turn it off – and have developed the habit of turning it off every time I jump in the car.

A bit annoying but just a single button press when you remember.

My wife said she read it was an EU reg. Didn’t happen in the USA in the same model!

On A and B roads though it’s rubbish – constantly interfering and trying to steer around bends itself which makes it feel like driving on patchy ice.

Surely it’s only doing that if you drift out of your lane though?

Surely it’s only doing that if you drift out of your lane though?

Who drifts when you are driving? That implies not being in control.

On country B roads where its easier to just cross the centre line rather than stay within lane and straighten out the bends (if safe to do so)

At worst you can straighten the line whilst staying in lane. You dont have to cross the lane for these things to start pulling you back, just get close to them

It also picks up all kinds of stuff on country lanes, such as seams in the tarmac, and frantically starts pushing you over. It’s just not designed for minor roads.

Got very upset when I forgot to switch it off the other day in motorway roadworks with narrow lanes, kept picking up the original lane markings…

Got very upset when I forgot to switch it off the other day in motorway roadworks with narrow lanes, kept picking up the original lane markings…

Have to say its not as bad as that in either of our cars

It’s just not designed for minor roads.

Completely agree with that, and that’s why I think we will never get to the stage of fully autonomous driving (thank fully).

It could be that some cars have capability to do it on certain roads ie a major road, but then you wouldnt want them mixing with ‘manual’ cars and vice versa

That might explain why 2 cars on the M62 roadworks suddenly lurched across,  nearly putting those in the inside lane into the hard barrier.

Luckily all of them slammed on.

Luckily all of them slammed on.

Probably did that automatically too!

Not the cars veering over, the ones they were heading towards.

It looked odd as the offending vehicle drivers immediately pulled their cars back into lane.

I was a few cars back and it looked like when people jerk the wheel to spook another driver into moving over.

Who drifts when you are driving? That implies not being in control.

That was my point. If you stay in the lane then it doesn’t kick in.

It turns on by default on every start.

That’s bloody annoying in itself. How hard is it to remember settings? More computing power than the gods damned space shuttle and I’ve got to do the ****ing Macarena every time I get into a car.

The Seat has this fancy profile system where each key has it’s own user, it sounds great in theory but it’s braindead. As far as I can tell its suite of functionality is to go “hello, [username]” when you get in; remember whether you wanted square or round dials on the dash; and occasionally **** up at random and load the wrong profile.

Back when I had (“bing!”) the i40, the auto-hold brake thing defaulted to being switched off. On what planet is “yes, I’d like to roll backwards” a desirable setting, let alone the default behaviour?

I’m a proper technophile but my god, I miss real switches. Remember devices that had power switches which actually controlled the power delivery, so you could switch the ****ing thing off when it went tits up? The old joke, “have you tried turning it off and back on again?” Yes, I have, it’s too bollocksed to register the “off” button and you’ve Araldited the case together so I can’t get at the sodding battery. So, now what?

We’ve gone from user-friendly to actively user-hostile and it boils my frozen sausages.

I can’t even abide automatic lights in a car, god help me if/when I need a newer car, luckily I like motorbikes & yes despite having lights on all the time, they don’t appear to be going down the safety control route that cars do, just abs, traction control & power limiting modes. All the above seems crazy when one safety feature above all would be to limit cars to a maximum as per the other thread & oh yes ditch the infotainment screens.

All of these extra ‘stupid driver’ aids just seem an additional expense to go wrong.

Dacia get low Euro NCAP results as they are selling cars without all these ‘aids’, its the same car underneath but without some of this expensive shoot.

My daughter is learning in a Puma, with hill start assist, clutch assist etc etc. She struggles with the clutch in our Aygo and learning to pull away, despite it being a piece of cake to drive and it copes with lazy gear changes well.

It also picks up all kinds of stuff on country lanes, such as seams in the tarmac, and frantically starts pushing you over. It’s just not designed for minor roads.

It is not just minor roads. We don’t have lane assist, just front radar and bongs.
This week it kicked off as mrs_oab drove at 20mph into a coned road works.
Last week it kicked off on our local lane as the hedges need a trim – every 30seconds for about a mile.
In 18 months of owning the car it has bonged usefully properly once – and even then I think I was braking already.

Sh*te doesn’t even come close.

extra ‘stupid driver’ aids

Mate, given how many drivers ARE stupid, surely we need all the aid they can get?

ditch the infotainment screens

What do you think happens on those screens? They don’t show you movies (when you’re driving).

We’ve gone from user-friendly to actively user-hostile

This is objectively not true, and you know it. I’m sure you remember trying to explain how to use Windows 3.0 or GEM or whatever to old people back in the day – I do. Now all I get is the occasional legit question from my Dad (being the same people from back in the day when they weren’t even that old then) about something like cloud storage delivered via WhatsApp.

I can’t even abide automatic lights in a car, god help me if/when I need a newer car

Automatic lights are an essential safety feature as many drivers are just too thick to realise that when its dark you need to put lights on.

Now automatic dimming and cornering headlights are a must for me, or at least they make life so much easier living in the country. I just leave it on auto lights and full beam on all the time and the car dips the headlights automatically as and when necessary. They make a nice light pattern when they start up, and the curtain of light that moves as you drive along is quite intoxicating to watch

All of these extra ‘stupid driver’ aids just seem an additional expense to go wrong.

It seems all too often that they’re great ideas implemented really badly. Like I mentioned before, the reversing camera overlay is probably great in a LHD vehicle but no-one thought to change it for a RHD model. The lane assist (ooh, back on topic!) for me is a misstep because even somewhere straight-forward like a motorway it takes a piss-poor lane position and I wonder suddenly now whether that’s the same problem.

On the other hand, the more mature technology like auto lights and brake hold work well IME. Other than in poverty-spec hire cars (or when someone else has been buggering about) I don’t think I’ve had to touch a headlights switch since back when I was driving a 1985-plate Ford Escort.

Implementations vary (as I say, mine’s alright) but there’s also an element of just learning to deal with it, on the basis that it might save your life one day either on your car or someone else’s. I know I don’t drive perfectly all the time, and I actually feel safer in my car with the driving aids. And no, I don’t drive it deliberately recklessly because of that…

There’s one spot on the way into town that confuses our car. But it just tugs the wheel, and I just tug back and we continue down the right path.

@thisisnotaspoon

On A and B roads though it’s rubbish – constantly interfering and trying to steer around bends itself which makes it feel like driving on patchy ice.

Surely it’s only doing that if you drift out of your lane though?

sadly not – it picks up on the curve of the road just ahead and tries to steer, even when dead central within the lane. It doesn’t steer well enough that you can just leave the car to it like in a full self-drive, it’s just enough to annoy the driver.

I did test drive a Tesla which was capable of steering itself quite impressively – it drove itself through a village and along a country road impeccably, I just had to keep my hand on the wheel otherwise it warned and then slowed down to a stop.

@cougar

It turns on by default on every start.

That’s bloody annoying in itself. How hard is it to remember settings?

It’s not that it can’t, it is actively designed to do this – part of either NCAP or EU (or both?) rules. I think that manufacturers only get to score NCAP points for systems that can’t be turns off permanently, hence they have to deliberately come each time the car is started. EU rules are either in place or coming along soon, not sure which.

This is objectively not true, and you know it.

Not in all cases, no, of course not. But it is in many and it feels like it’s getting worse.

I do like a big flashy electronic dash but I’m increasingly of the mind that a touchscreen has no place in a vehicle. Remember when you could change radio stations by pressing [1] or [2] from muscle memory, rather than switching out of the satnav, opening the radio app, swiping through to scroll to the station you want and crashing into the now stationary car in front? It’s no wonder we need sodding driver aids, we’ve made simple tasks a pain in the ass.

Another example. The ATM round the corner. It gives you the options [cash only | cash with receipt | check balance]. Cash only please. “Do you want to check your balance before you proceed?” No, otherwise I’d have pressed the ducking “check balance” option wouldn’t I. “Would you like a receipt?” Argh! Pointless pointless bloody duplicated questions that take an eon to work through on a system which is like wading through molasses whilst telling me three times that it’s charging me £1.65 to draw out a ****ing tenner and is that OK because that’s another goddamn confirmation button and I’m standing here growing a beard and gods help you if there’s a queue because you’ll invariably be behind some absolute hatstand doing their annual finances across six cards.

I swear the people who design this garbage never actually have to use it. The handheld scanners at Tesco had an interface refresh a couple of months back. When you ding the till it asks “was there anything you couldn’t scan? [Yes|No]” Except with the update, “yes” and “no” have switched places from the earlier design. WHO THE ACTUAL FRANK THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?! First against the wall when I’m in charge.

I think that manufacturers only get to score NCAP points for systems that can’t be turns off permanently, hence they have to deliberately come each time the car is started.

My point in part was the opposite – it automatically switched things of.

TBH with DRL’s I see more drivers stupid enough to drive round at night with those on only, and the rear lights off as they think the lights are on. Many cars have a dial for auto and manual.

The world is full of stupid drivers, but its not getting better with those relying on the tech.

I have never driven a lane assist car, what happens if you gaffa taped over the sensor? Would it go batshit?

I’m increasingly of the mind that a touchscreen has no place in a vehicle

I 100% agree with this. No tactile feedback means you have to look at it whilst using it – properly dangerous stuff. A reason to choose a BMW i4 was that this is all controllable via the iDrive controller – much better but apparently future versions are focussing more on the screen and BMW plan to not fit the iDrive controller in future vehicles. Arghhhhh.

In WW2 it was identified that many crashes happened due to pilots activating the wrong switch, so they were changed to all feel different – saved many crashes apparently – see link below.

Cars have been pretty good for this feature until recently – now touchscreens are actively re-introducing this failure mode and worse

https://uxdesign.cc/pilot-error-and-the-shape-of-things-to-come-2128d6c6bcb1?gi=a1a4b2751894

I have never driven a lane assist car, what happens if you gaffa taped over the sensor? Would it go batshit?

I expect it’d sit there dinging at you. This is the way.

I’ve had variations of lane assist in cars for well over a decade. I’ve yet to see one you can’t switch off. But maybe that’s coming as Whatgoesup says.

One of the reasons I like my 20 year old car. Has sat nav I’ve been able to update, reversing camera etc, but the screen isn’t touch. I can do everything by pressing one of two big buttons and a few smaller ones by touch, no need to look at the screen. I don’t like the Mrs car’s touch screen as you’ve got to look at it to press it.

TBH with DRL’s I see more drivers stupid enough to drive round at night with those on only, and the rear lights off as they think the lights are on. Many cars have a dial for auto and manual.

Riddle me this,

Outside of, say, police cars, why do headlights have any settings at all other than “auto” and “on”? There’s a logic to turning off some assist systems in exceptional conditions but under what circumstance might you think “it’s really dark, best turn my lights off”?

In general I quite like all the safety features/tech, on the Kodiaq but the lane assist gets switched off on rural roads, too much of a liability. Rear collision assist is a pain too when reversing in a car park and cars passing on nearby road (on the other side of a wall or barrier) car stamps on the brakes making you look like a clutch-incompetent driver. Also had the front braking radar fail early in its life (warranty job thank god) resulting in the Kodiaq, fully loaded for holidays, standing hard on the brake at 130kph on a French Peage. Literally, 130 to 0 in the middle of the carriage way. Thanks god nobody behind me, absolutely terrifying. Did this a couple of times before I realised it was reacting erroneously to the grey speed camera boxes…. Then went into fault mode!

I’ve just had the misfortune to drive a brand new Renault Megane rental car in holiday. EVERY SINGLE TIME me or Mrs Vlad got in the car to drive, it would behave differently in terms of whose phone it would connect to, whether or not we’d be able to stream BBC Sounds or YT Music or a podcast (and from which phone) and/or whether the driving directions we input on either phones Google Maps would actually display as intended on the cars nice large display (and whether the driving directions would play through the cars audio system or whether we’d have to listen thru the phones tinny speakers)

From a UX POV, it was hateful…and made much worse as the car would take over control of the phone once the car door was opened. You can’t even override by switching off the Bluetooth on the phone as the car overrides that.  So, you can’t sit in the car and plot the route on your phone before setting off…you have to do all the plotting before opening the car door. Madness!

This Renault was my first experience of a “modern” car during experience – my own car (5 yr old Subaru Forester) is too old to have any of this complexity.

(In fairness to the Renault, the lane assist was fine once I realized what was happening)

Riddle me this,

Outside of, say, police cars, why do headlights have any settings at all other than “auto” and “on”? There’s a logic to turning off some assist systems in exceptional conditions but under what circumstance might you think “it’s really dark, best turn my lights off”?

Quite agree.

And tell me this – who in a European car safety meeting decided to legislate for front only DRL’s? Thankfully a few companies are sensible enough to do both front and rear, or like our car you can re-programme to do both.

Month old BMW iX3 and thankfully all the safety interventions can be adjusted or turned off and the settings are remembered.
Turn off too many though and you get an angry red ring on one of the dash buttons

Auto steer turned off, but the steering wheel rumble left on but no noise, that keeps it green. Also only turns on above 40. Kept on, it kept trying to steer me into incoming traffic on narrow roads.
Proper hard buttons for heater and programmable shortcut buttons. Never need to use the I-drive on the move.

Systems not perfect though. Collision detector can’t tell tbe car in front is indicating to take a slip road. If their car starts to slow and I ease off, mine doesn’t know it’ll be in another lane before I get too close and brakes a bit too hard for my liking. Easy way round is to keep power on but that can close gap too much. Have tried turning the setting to their latest intervention setting but still a bit eager. Same if a car overtaking me pulls in a bit soon. Car panic brakes even though other car is going faster than I am.

I swear the people who design this garbage never actually have to use it.

I used to drive 30000 km a year (commuting) in a car i’d designed quite a lot of, and another 15-20000 actively testing…

I’m down to about 30000 a year now as i’m doing less of both.

I’m even driving prototype software at the moment.

It’s clearly @mert s fault. Let’s get him lads…

brakes a bit too hard for my liking

You can adjust how hard mine brakes.

However, if I see a car slowing and I don’t want the car to slow, I just disengage cruise and I can then control the car. The actual collision avoidance thing only kicks in in an actual emergency when you’re going to hit – that’s not the same thing as adaptive cruise.

@mert is this thread valuable feedback for you? 🙂

I have never driven a lane assist car, what happens if you gaffa taped over the sensor?

Minor alert and system disabled.

Vauxhall FWIW. Overall, The lane assist system is generally minimally intrusive.

YMMV.

…the curtain of light that moves as you drive along is quite intoxicating to watch

Figurative I hope 🙂

However, if I see a car slowing and I don’t want the car to slow, I just disengage cruise and I can then control the car. The actual collision avoidance thing only kicks in in an actual emergency when you’re going to hit – that’s not the same thing as adaptive cruise.

Not in my car. Even with cruise control off, unless I’m actively accelerating the car will intervene if it thinks I’m getting too close. Not emergency stop type braking but still more than it needs. The way you do it is the way always have as well, but new car don’t like it. Coasting or even steady throttle and it still slows

So essentially you disagree with the car about how close is too close? Without seeing your driving, that could be either you or the car in the wrong 🙂

Is it configurable? I have a setting to change for that, I also have a steering wheel button that adjusts how close it should be when using automatic cruise/queue creeping.

 If you stay in the lane then it doesn’t kick in.

Strong wind was enough to push the T-Roc I rented far enough in it’s lane to activate the lane assist. Maybe a rare thing, but it is intrusive when it doesn’t need to be.

ditch the infotainment screens

I had to rent a car recently and the MG they offered me had a dash so complex that I honestly thought that I wouldn’t be safe to drive with it in an unfamiliar busy city like Barcelona, so I rejected it. First time ever. It had moving displays with yellow and green dashes for when the hybrid was on or off, a massive touch screen telly in the central dash, it was overwhelming.

Cougar

Riddle me this,

Outside of, say, police cars, why do headlights have any settings at all other than “auto” and “on”? There’s a logic to turning off some assist systems in exceptional conditions but under what circumstance might you think “it’s really dark, best turn my lights off”?

Thick fog.