My Cruise Control is Dangerously Broken (? - may be DE specific)

[QuRace]

So I went on my first long (ish) road trip w/ the MME today, 300 mls into the most beautiful 'middle of nowhere' in Bavaria one can imagine. Yay!

While my foremost worry for this trip, finding a free HPC somewhere along the Czech border, turned out to be a non-issue, something else came up, quite scarily, and it concerns cruise control: I'd like to hear your take on it:

• So I'm driving on the Autobahn, on a stretch where there is no speed limit. The car correctly identifies this and displays the appropriate road sign on the driver's display. (And yes, in Germany we actually do have a road sign that signifies 'Do whatever you want'...)
• Despite the no-speed-limit situation, I'm using (adaptive) cruise control set to 111 km/h (don't ask). The car is chugging along nicely, at 111 km/h, including reacting by slowing down when approaching slower cars from behind. All is well.
• THEN, I pass an actual speed limit sign (120 km/h, higher than my cruise control setpoint). Again, the car identifies it and displays the correct road sign on the driver's display.
• Immediately after, all HELL breaks loose: The setpoint of cruise control jumps up to 139 km/h, and the car, going 111 km/h at that point, effectively floors it, all by itself.
  
  
• Now, that doesn't seem right, right?
  
  
• BTW, the numbers given above probably don't mean much all by themselves, but the phenomenon actually WAS perfectly reproducible, with the exact same set of numbers given, on different stretches of Autobahn.
• BTW2, I realize this is a US forum, and the 'Do whatever you want' situation may actually not be part of your daily driver's lives, but there are also Germans reading along here, as does @FMC, so something might come out of this post anyway.

Any comments? (And thanks for getting this far reading!)


[Germany just got it's first recall, WRT the HVBJB. Of course I'm going to mention this incident when I bring in the car for that. But I always prefer to go into battle well prepared...]


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[generaltso]

It’s working as designed if you have Speed Sign Recognition enabled under Adaptive Cruise Control. If you turn that off, it won’t automatically adjust the set speed.

 

[QuRace]

It’s working as designed if you have Speed Sign Recognition enabled under Adaptive Cruise Control. If you turn that off, it won’t automatically adjust the set speed.

Well, even if I have that option enabled (not sure), cruise control

• should have put the new setpoint at 120 km/h, the posted speed limit, and not 139 km/h,
  
  and
  
  
• it would be somewhat counterintuitive if cruise control INCREASED the setpoint, while my previous intent (111 km/h in an unlimited zone) clearly indicated I did NOT want to go faster, under any circumstances. (OK, that line of reasoning would require some programming logic, I admit)

But thanks for mentioning that option, General. If all else fails, I will use that route, if applicable.


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[Ghost Ryder]

We do have a "do whatever you want" section. Its called "California." But I agree, something is buggy with the software.

 

[generaltso]

There is also a tolerance you can set above the speed limit. Not sure if it allows for 19km/h over, but you should definitely check your settings.

 

[Benny’66]

Also, there is an off-set that you can add, so I would check that as well. Say like speed limit plus 10mph (~16km/h). Your offset would be weird at 19km/h, but it’s something to check.

 

[mikeflash]

Well, even if I have that option enabled (not sure), cruise control

• should have put the new setpoint at 120 km/h, the posted speed limit, and not 139 km/h,
  
  and
  
  
• it would be somewhat counterintuitive if cruise control INCREASED the setpoint, while my previous intent (111 km/h in an unlimited zone) clearly indicated I did NOT want to go faster, under any circumstances. (OK, that line of reasoning would require some programming logic, I admit)

But thanks for mentioning that option, General. If all else fails, I will use that route, if applicable.

Watch the offset speed. You can add or decrease the set speed in the settings. It happened to me to after one of the over the air updates and I set a plus 5 over and then forgot that I did that and when the car took off I too thought the car lost it’s mind. Then went back and checked the settings and I remembered that I had done it to myself.
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[Kamuelaflyer]

There is also a tolerance you can set above the speed limit. Not sure if it allows for 19km/h over, but you should definitely check your settings.

I think the tolerance on speed sign recognition is 19 mph. That would easily cover the op’s 19 kph jump. Definitely needs to check the settings.

 

[DYohn]

It's page 220 of my owner's manual.

 

[macchiaz-o]

@QuRace, there is an "Intelligent Speed Limiter" button on your steering wheel next to the Cruise Control on/off button.

We don't have this extra button in North America but if I understand it correctly, it would allow you to set an upper limit on speed when adaptive cruise control with traffic sign recognition/adjustment is being used.

Here are some references from the UK owner's manual, it should be the same for Germany:

Steering wheel:
https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...&userMarket=USA&div=f&vFilteringEnabled=False

Basic definition:
https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...rket=USA&div=f&vCode=&vFilteringEnabled=False

Enable the feature:
https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...&userMarket=USA&div=f&vFilteringEnabled=False

Configuration:
https://www.fordservicecontent.com/...&userMarket=USA&div=f&vFilteringEnabled=False

From the configuration page, there are several more details that follow as you tap the Next Page link in the bottom right corner.

 

[macchiaz-o]

I had the pleasure of driving on the German autobahn several years ago on a work trip. It took several days before I understood that a German speed limit (or lack thereof) is a legal limit and NOT a suggested normal driving speed.

There were many curves in the road where my coworkers were probably fearing for their lives as I was going 180 km/h or more in a giant Volvo XC90. ?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Well, even if I have that option enabled (not sure), cruise control

• should have put the new setpoint at 120 km/h, the posted speed limit, and not 139 km/h,
  
  and
  
  
• it would be somewhat counterintuitive if cruise control INCREASED the setpoint, while my previous intent (111 km/h in an unlimited zone) clearly indicated I did NOT want to go faster, under any circumstances. (OK, that line of reasoning would require some programming logic, I admit)

But thanks for mentioning that option, General. If all else fails, I will use that route, if applicable.

Check the speed tolerance setting under adaptive cruise. Sounds like yours is set to +19 km/hr by accident.

 

[QuRace]

Mystery solved - thank you all for your input.

Yes, speed limit recognition WAS enabled, and secondly, tolerance WAS set to + 19 km/h. So even the math adds up now.

Now, the question remains what knucklehead set the tolerance to +19 km/h, b/c I sure didn't. 19 klicks over the limit already makes for very unpleasant (read: expensive) mail in your mailbox, including, under certain circumstances, a temporary license suspension. I'm not that dense to configure mayhem like that...

So, I switched the damn thing off. Another automation I don't much care for...



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[TGIF]

There is also a tolerance you can set above the speed limit. Not sure if it allows for 19km/h over, but you should definitely check your settings.

This. I don’t remember how far above speed limit you can go, but it is controlled in your onboard settings and the car will speed up when it detects a speed sign faster than what you are going.

 

[Chuck]

So I went on my first long (ish) road trip w/ the MME today, 300 mls into the most beautiful 'middle of nowhere' in Bavaria one can imagine. Yay!

While my foremost worry for this trip, finding a free HPC somewhere along the Czech border, turned out to be a non-issue, something else came up, quite scarily, and it concerns cruise control: I'd like to hear your take on it:

• So I'm driving on the Autobahn, on a stretch where there is no speed limit. The car correctly identifies this and displays the appropriate road sign on the driver's display. (And yes, in Germany we actually do have a road sign that signifies 'Do whatever you want'...)
• Despite the no-speed-limit situation, I'm using (adaptive) cruise control set to 111 km/h (don't ask). The car is chugging along nicely, at 111 km/h, including reacting by slowing down when approaching slower cars from behind. All is well.
• THEN, I pass an actual speed limit sign (120 km/h, higher than my cruise control setpoint). Again, the car identifies it and displays the correct road sign on the driver's display.
• Immediately after, all HELL breaks loose: The setpoint of cruise control jumps up to 139 km/h, and the car, going 111 km/h at that point, effectively floors it, all by itself.
  
  
• Now, that doesn't seem right, right?
  
  
• BTW, the numbers given above probably don't mean much all by themselves, but the phenomenon actually WAS perfectly reproducible, with the exact same set of numbers given, on different stretches of Autobahn.
• BTW2, I realize this is a US forum, and the 'Do whatever you want' situation may actually not be part of your daily driver's lives, but there are also Germans reading along here, as does @FMC, so something might come out of this post anyway.

Any comments? (And thanks for getting this far reading!)


[Germany just got it's first recall, WRT the HVBJB. Of course I'm going to mention this incident when I bring in the car for that. But I always prefer to go into battle well prepared...]


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Yeah, I had that set on when I first got my car. Confused, and scared, the hell out of me. All of those stories of old people ramming into buildings ran through my head.

Turns out that it's annoying in other ways. If, for example, if you're driving 75 in a 65 mph zone and you have the tolerance set to 10 then it'll stay at 75. Suddenly there's a "construction zone" sign followed by a speed limit sign of 55 during construction. But, of course, everyone ignores that 55 during construction and the traffic flows along just as it did in the 65 zone. Except the Mustang immediately slows your car down to accommodate the new. lower speed limit. Very annoying. I turned off that feature and have never turned it back on. It's useless and dangerous.

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