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

I’ve had cars with fog lights for years, and they did not seem significantly better than the headlights in fog (I suppose marginally better in heavy fog). Then one day, I was driving in the dark with heavy snow falling. I tried turning the fog lights on, and the light switch from ‘headlights and rear lights’ to ‘sidelights and rear lights’. My goodness: I could see objects at three times the distance! It was a massive improvement.

Yeah, I’ve done this a couple of times over the years too.

But as I said earlier, can the car not determine this as a condition and react accordingly? Or if we do have a manual override (perhaps linked to the fog light settings), why not “really dim” rather than “off” then you’re at least visible.

Many cars these days make it impossible to left foot brake as if you press the brake and accelerate at the same time it cuts all engine power 😞

You can blame Toyota for that.

Brake Override Accelerator was a feature in a few cars until Lexus had those run away cars in the late 00s(?) now all cars have to have it.

They all do it in a slightly different way though. Some have delays so you can left foot brake, some just kill the power.

Who on earth needs to left-foot brake in a regular road car in the 21st Century? Do you double declutch as well, bit of heel-and-toe maybe?

Good heavens.

the car should work for 100% its drivers

try telling that to many women when cars are designed around an ‘average’ man and present some significant problems to getting the right position: seatbelt adjusters too high; controls at weird distances; mirrors that don’t turn in enough; …
https://www.wired.com/story/caroline-criado-perez-invisible-women/

Who on earth needs to left-foot brake in a regular road car in the 21st Century?

I don’t get that one either. On the track to keep the engine responsive, maybe, but on the road…

Do you double declutch as well…

Yes, smoother gear change when you’re happy with the speed but want a lower gear to match for flexibility

…bit of heel-and-toe maybe?

No

When I did the scottish ambulance driving assessment they wanted to see a throttle blip on downshifts.  Not a true heel and toe or double declutch but they wanted to see the throttle blipped as you passed thru neutral on downshifts

When I did the scottish ambulance driving assessment they wanted to see a throttle blip on downshifts.  Not a true heel and toe or double declutch but they wanted to see the throttle blipped as you passed thru neutral on downshifts

Which decade was this in.

2010 ish.  I thought it weird at the time considering 30 years before I was told by my driving instructor not to change down sequentially and to slip the clutch on downshifts to smooth the shifts out but here they wanted a sequential downshift and a throttle blip in neutral

@tjagain that’s the System of Car Control developed by the police and used by ambulance services. They separate out braking and gear change in to different phases. Set your speed <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>then</span> get your gear. The lower gear will require higher revs, not blipping the accelerator but allowing some revs to balance it out and make it smoother.

Ta. – I was just surprised thats what they wanted to see.  Because I can double declutch I ended up double declutching from muscle memory which I was not marked down for IIRC

Yes no heel and toe – they wanted to see the braking and gear shifting done separately and sequential shifting

Its quite similar to doing clutched downshifts on a motorbike but very different to how I was taught in a car

It’s only a matter of time before there’s a class action lawsuit (or action by the transport authorities) in the US against some manufacturers dumb implementation of “driver aids”…

Teslas FSD already has several class action lawsuits against it.

One of the hire cars I had with lane assist certainly steered you back into the centre of the lane if you drifted and did nothing. It actually turned the wheel to stop you crossing the white line with a fair amount of force.  You could override it of course by being firm on the wheel but left to its own devices it did steer the car

This is one of those grey areas, some manufacturers treat Lane centring as literally that, just keep an  eye on the dashed and solid lines and nudge and/or warn the driver in some manner when they drift, depending on which line they are approaching, some have upgraded and integrated it with the ACC to give a basic level 2 autonomous drive. And then you have all the permutations and combinations between the two that you could imagine.

A regenerative  system that gives something like engine-braking with a semiautomatic is something I would love on my car.

A) you need something to generate the resistance B) you need somewhere to put the energy or C) your fuel consumption will take a pounding. (Some cars use smart alternators to charge the 12V battery during coasting, light hybrids (48V) also do something similar, but a bit more advanced.)

Got our velle serviced today and was given an absolutely brand new (43 miles on the clock) skoda %instantlyForgetgableSmallPretendySUV% with VWs latest implementation of lane assist almost permanently enabled.

What an absolute stinking pile of dog faeces that is. Grabbed the wheel as it detected overbanding or recently blasted-off lane markings through roadworks. Would happily direct you into parked cars rather than let you pull out to the centre of the road to avoid them. Whinges incessantly should you attempt to adopt any form of road positioning other than in the centre of the lane at all times. Truly dangerous $hite. A totally distracting step backwards in safety.

Yep, I have a meeting with the various other drivers on the National Championships tomorrow about turning the whole bloody lot off every time you turn the engine on.

Having Lane Assist, auto brake etc in the middle of a bike race with other cars and riders in close proximity including on the wrong side of the road is a recipe for disaster. 😳

I tested the Lane Assist feature on my 68 reg Prius today, out of curiosity. Its just operated via an on/off button on the steering wheel, and I knew that it beeped a bit if it saw the car drifting out of lane at a reasonable speed, cos its done that a few times in the past. Itll let you drift across at ‘slow’ speed without getting arsey, eg just pulling round parked cars in town, theres presumably a threshold speed above which it comes alive.
Rather to my surprise, it did actually gently pull me back into the left lane, left to its own devices with hands off. But if i persisted in moving across with a hand on the wheel, there was no sudden jerk, no ‘force’ or pull on the wheel at all. Just a bit of beeping and a couple of lights in the headsup display, presumably designed to wake you up.

Having Lane Assist, auto brake etc in the middle of a bike race with other cars and riders in close proximity including on the wrong side of the road is a recipe for disaster. 😳

This was being talked about when i was on the regional committee, 20 years ago… How do we switch it all off.

This was being talked about when i was on the regional committee, 20 years ago… How do we switch it all off

Not a lawyer but isn’t this the sort of thing for which you need a manufacturer safety bulletin with step-by-step instructions? There’s lane assist, which can be switched off, but the core system will continue to run in the background and might reactivate if it thinks crossing the white lines will lead to a head-on collision or the vehicle leaving the road.

Gaffer tape over the camera might be a better option, or pop the cover off and unplug.