Good and Bad - Adaptive Cruise vs Lane Centering

[Major]

I tried both of these on a 80-mile trip yesterday. The adaptive cruise control worked flawlessly. However, the lane centering scared the crap out of me. It was unnerving how it seemed to move from left to right and hung too close to the lane markers, but the frightening moment came when it suddenly attempted to swing me in to the next left lane into the car that was already there. I switched it off immediately and will not ever use it again.

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[mixduptransistor]

Lane centering as it exists now is not meant to be used with your hands off the wheel. You are supposed to maintain physical control of the car

Tesla-style autosteer with no hand on the wheel is coming later

 

[Major]

Lane centering as it exists now is not meant to be used with your hands off the wheel. You are supposed to maintain physical control of the car

Tesla-style autosteer with no hand on the wheel is coming later

Oh, rest assured, my hands were on the wheel. If they hadn't of been there is a good chance I'd be in the hospital right now.

 

[benk016]

You get used to it the more you use it, and you start to get a feel for things on the road that can confuse it. I've had this on my last 2 cars and by now I know all the spots that it will do weird things around my area.

 

[milepost1]

the addaptive cruise control is what scares me. It works just like my old car. It can see the cars stopped or stopping ahead. car keeps racing up to them, finally applies brakes then gives notice it will not be able to stop in time.

 

[lweisenthal]

I tried both of these on a 80-mile trip yesterday. The adaptive cruise control worked flawlessly. However, the lane centering scared the crap out of me. It was unnerving how it seemed to move from left to right and hung too close to the lane markers, but the frightening moment came when it suddenly attempted to swing me in to the next left lane into the car that was already there. I switched it off immediately and will not ever use it again.

Lane centering has worked brilliantly for me, including on a crowded 5 lane freeway in a driving rain with poor visibility sandwiched between and behind 18 wheelers.

Everyone should be aware that, when you activate a turn signal, this immediately switches off lane centering. If you do this inadvertently (or if you forget to turn it off when you change lanes) then the lane centering will no longer be active, until you turn off your turn signal.

ALSO, lane centering ONLY works when adaptive cruise control is operating. You can't run lane centering in the absence of using adaptive cruise control.

If there is ever any doubt, you should "reboot" the entire adaptive cruise control/lane centering system.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach

 

[lweisenthal]

the addaptive cruise control is what scares me. It works just like my old car. It can see the cars stopped or stopping ahead. car keeps racing up to them, finally applies brakes then gives notice it will not be able to stop in time.

Adaptive cruise control gives you a choice of distance between your car and vehicle ahead of you. Probably a good idea, in the beginning, to set it for the maximum distance between you and leading vehicle.

 

[eltonlin]

Adaptive cruise control gives you a choice of distance between your car and vehicle ahead of you. Probably a good idea, in the beginning, to set it for the maximum distance between you and leading vehicle.

All depends on what your comfortable with and also the types of driving conditions. I expect more traffic, so I actually have mine set to 2 bars (vs 4 bars), which works well for me.

 

[Stang68]

Tesla-style autosteer with no hand on the wheel is coming later

Just clarifying that Tesla does not have any feature that allows you to be hands-off the steering wheel.
Only Cadillac currently does with their Super Cruise tech. Ford will have it later this summer. Tesla is beta-testing "Full self driving" which, if the recent legal headlines are to be believed, is anything but.

 

[Major]

Update: I gradually have gained trust in the lane centering and have been using it, but yesterday it did that sudden jerk to the right or left again - twice. When I arrived at my destination there was another E-Mac owner there and I asked him if his had lane centering. He said yes, but he never uses it because it would suddenly decide to jerk him out of the lane. This sounds like a bug that Ford should take a look at.

 

[Jimrpa]

the addaptive cruise control is what scares me. It works just like my old car. It can see the cars stopped or stopping ahead. car keeps racing up to them, finally applies brakes then gives notice it will not be able to stop in time.

This is why I normally leave the distance set on 4 bars unless I’m in very heavy traffic. Then I’ll tighten up the distance because people always dart into the gap, which is annoying.

 

[balthisar]

I'm vocally critical about my MME's shortcomings (I want us to do better, and I love my car!), but lane centering has been pretty great for me. It's not a new-to-MME feature, either, and has been working really well for me on my previous Explorer too.

I'd really like to know the exact circumstances where it fails.

 

[JSW]

Interesting. Even at 1 bar, people use the gap to to cut in front of me. I can’t imagine what would happen during rush hour at 4 bars...

 

[Jimrpa]

Interesting. Even at 1 bar, people use the gap to to cut in front of me. I can’t imagine what would happen during rush hour at 4 bars...

Drive on I-76 into Philadelphia during weekday rush hour and you’ll see! ?

 

[Maquis]

In my experience, lane centering seems dependent on how a particular highway is marked. Normally, it's very good, however, I have experienced the same phenomenon described by the OP.
I was in the left lane on a four lane highway, came to a right curve and thought I was going to end up in the median. Missouri puts these rumble strips (looks like dozer tracks made in wet concrete) to warn drivers straying off the road. That's fine if they're outside the stripes, but for some reason, they're not good at locating them. Lane centering seems to have issues when these indentations are right on top of the stripe.

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