Dangerous acceleration when driving on Highway using adaptive Cruise Control

[Breinholm]

Was driving the Highway in heavy rain. A car in front of me slowed me dawn. But suddenly my MME accelerated at its max - Had to break hard not to run him down - scary experience. After about 30 seconds a pop-up message told me the cruise-control was turned off due to a failing sensor.

so, a plausible explanation is that the car goes for the CC setting as soon the radar is not withholding it anymore. THAT shouldn’t include a turned off radar due to sensor-errors!

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[bshaw]

Was driving the Highway in heavy rain. A car in front of me slowed me dawn. But suddenly my MME accelerated at its max - Had to break hard not to run him down - scary experience. After about 30 seconds a pop-up message told me the cruise-control was turned off due to a failing sensor.

so, a plausible explanation is that the car goes for the CC setting as soon the radar is not withholding it anymore. THAT shouldn’t include a turned off radar due to sensor-errors!

Do you have speed sign recognition enabled?

it would be odd for a radar sensor to fail on a new vehicle, unless you bumped into something with your front bumper.

 

[Breinholm]

New and new? it’s an 21 AWD but only with 22000 km on the counter.
The front radar-sensor did fail - that’s what the pop-up message said and I couldn’t re-engage the CC for an hour or so - hereafter it worked again.
My front bumber has never been damaged.
There is also a “Front-collision Warning” in my phone-app.

 

[hybrid2bev]

It’s normal for the adaptive cruise control to not work when the sensor is blocked. Heavy rain or snow can block the radar signal.

When the radar cannot detect a vehicle it will resume to the set cruise speed. Would not recommend using cruise in extreme weather conditions.

 

[Breinholm]

But that’s a serious safety issue caused by a stupid software bug - should be fixed ASAP

 

[Mach-Lee]

Do not use cruise control in heavy rain.

Rain and snow block the radar signal so it won't work right.

 

[hybrid2bev]

But that’s a serious safety issue caused by a stupid software bug - should be fixed ASAP

It’s not a bug. It’s working as designed.

 

[Breinholm]

Yes, I agree - the correct reaction would be:
1. Radar detects blocking.
2. The CC turns fully off with no acceleration
3. The CC turned off message pops up

It’s ofcourse a problem if it takes a long time (+10 sec or more) to detect the blocking. A combination of radar and an ultrasonic sensor might do the job.
Couldn’t the ultrasonic sensors on the bumper be used for this?

 

[i8iridium]

Couldn’t the ultrasonic sensors on the bumper be used for this?

Engineering a solution for a problem that shouldn't exist if not using the cruise in adverse weather conditions?

 

[Breinholm]

Yes -and I won’t- that was a pretty scary experience.
But how many of us read and know the manual by hand?
I think that a possible clogging of the front -sensor, leading to an unprovoked acceleration, should be emphasized in the manual.

 

[hybrid2bev]

Couldn’t the ultrasonic sensors on the bumper be used for this?

The ultrasonic sensors don’t have the range to detect objects at the required distance for cruise control.

 

[Mache_Nor]

People seem to refuse to awknowledge a safety issue and try to blame the user. To illustrate my experience:

1) A slight uphill og downhill - Can't smoothy accelerate, will allways go above the limit values and then hard brake when it detects this 3 seconds later. Will in additional not see the cars in front
2) Raining - Can't see anything, so lets go wrooom!
3) A slight turn on the highway - Hmm, unsure, lets go wrooom!
4) Tunnel entries - can't see anything, well then I better go wrooom!
5) Snow? Get out of here! ... But not before I have accelerated hard for a couple of seconds and failed to notify my driver that the anitcollision system is fault
6) Sun in the face? Hell if I know, wrooom wrooom!
In summary; unless you are in a country with close to none of the factors above, you can't use the CC reliable.

It should be clear that if the car don't see or understand a situation, it should take precautional measures and disable the CC right away. While this car does not have it, future versions could benefit of Lidar and similar technology, to not rely solely on the camera visibility. It would drive up the cost, but it certainly would help in almost all situations mentioned above. And no, the Lidar does not have such a short range that it can't be used.

And while the driver ultimately is responsible for the driving, the assist systems should still take the precautional steps. In no other software or system is it designed in such a way that if you can't verify the integrity (quality), then it should just continue on. Think if your bank accound could not verify wether there was enough money on the account before completing a transaction; it should stop this transaction even if there are EULAS and whatnot that puts the responsibilities somewhere else.

 

[Breinholm]

The ultrasonic sensors don’t have the range to detect objects at the required distance for cruise control.

I know, but they should just register heavy weather so the CC can be turned off faster - Before the radar gets blocked and releases the car at the programmed speed.
Thinking about it, a simple solution could be: If wipers go at full speed turn off The CC and re-engage it at present speed, but without the adaptive part + issue a pop-up warning.
The vision system might also be helpful for a faster detection.

 

[ChehRob]

My 2019 RAV4 ADAS does a great job in heavy rain. I was greatly impressed with how cautious it handled freeway driving, following the vehicle in front of us as traffic slowed to under 40mph and rain was puddling badly on the road surface, as well nighttime visibility was down to less than 50 feet. I spent my energy maintaining situational awareness, the car did the driving. It was about a 70 mile trip home, and I arrived relaxed. ADAS should be able to choose and prefer lower speeds at all times in inclement weather.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

People seem to refuse to awknowledge a safety issue and try to blame the user. To illustrate my experience:

1) A slight uphill og downhill - Can't smoothy accelerate, will allways go above the limit values and then hard brake when it detects this 3 seconds later. Will in additional not see the cars in front
2) Raining - Can't see anything, so lets go wrooom!
3) A slight turn on the highway - Hmm, unsure, lets go wrooom!
4) Tunnel entries - can't see anything, well then I better go wrooom!
5) Snow? Get out of here! ... But not before I have accelerated hard for a couple of seconds and failed to notify my driver that the anitcollision system is fault
6) Sun in the face? Hell if I know, wrooom wrooom!
In summary; unless you are in a country with close to none of the factors above, you can't use the CC reliable.

It should be clear that if the car don't see or understand a situation, it should take precautional measures and disable the CC right away. While this car does not have it, future versions could benefit of Lidar and similar technology, to not rely solely on the camera visibility. It would drive up the cost, but it certainly would help in almost all situations mentioned above. And no, the Lidar does not have such a short range that it can't be used.

And while the driver ultimately is responsible for the driving, the assist systems should still take the precautional steps. In no other software or system is it designed in such a way that if you can't verify the integrity (quality), then it should just continue on. Think if your bank accound could not verify wether there was enough money on the account before completing a transaction; it should stop this transaction even if there are EULAS and whatnot that puts the responsibilities somewhere else.

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