Rear Ended Yesterday

[breeves002]

I suppose that’s possible if people slow down differently as a result of 1PD, independent of what the brake light does. Like if people slow down too early or too late because they are getting used to 1PD and not quite adept at it and it surprises the driver behind them.

I’ve noticed something similar the last five or so years as adaptive cruise control has gotten more common. Specifically, in stop and go traffic where someone using adaptive cruise control sets something like four car length follow distance.

When people do this it surprises the drivers behind them - there is an expectation that a car will gently slow down while closing a gap with stopped traffic before coming to a stop right behind the nonmoving car. But with this max follow distance enabled, the car will unexpectedly aggressively slow down and stop far short of the car in front because the adaptive cruise control does not want to violate the max follow distance rule that has been set.

I find this makes a rear end collision much likelier and perhaps something similar might be happening with 1PD for some drivers if they are slowing down in a pattern that is unusual for other drivers on the road.

1PD uses brake lights as if it were a human...including when stopped.

The follow distance is time based not length based. I don't remember the exact figures but it assumes time for you to reach the car ahead assuming they come to a complete dead stop instantly. I believe the shortest is 1.2 seconds then it goes up by 0.4 second intervals or something like that. Don't quote me on that but it is time based. The faster you go the larger the gap becomes. In stop and go it will get much closer at low speeds. Sometimes it gets uncomfortably close for me.

The car aggressively slows down because it can't anticipate. If the car ahead quickly starts to accelerate it will do the same then they quickly brake it will quickly brake. It does a pretty good job honestly. I've used adaptive cruise in traffic for years in various vehicles without issue.

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[Kabish]

I personally use the adaptive cruise control daily, I have a love hate relationship with it.

As others have said, it has a tendency to over react, and other times hardly react at all. Driving 75 down the freeway and a car slows, it will legit throw you forward to slow down, to a point where my belt has locked multiple times. Drivers behind you are not going to be expecting that... Other times I've been driving 75 and a car slides in maybe one length in front of me, car does not brake at all and just gradually slows to get the buffer back in place. It also, in my opinion, does a HORRIABLE job when coming up to slowed traffic. So in cases where I'm doing 75 and 2 miles down the road you can see people are doing 30. It will run at 75 till you are REALLY close, then it will brake hard and start flashing the pre collision alert. Once again, very bad for distracted drivers behind you. I never run it when I see stopped or slowed traffic coming up, always turn it off, get to the speed of the slowed traffic and turn it back on.

I do personally think 1PD in the MME is a bit risky, and I think the adaptive cruise control should work a little better. I know Teslas use cameras now, I've seen a few videos where the Teslas were seeing traffic two to three cars in FRONT of the car they were behind and pre adjusting, that is pretty cool. I think the MME could do a better job at evaluating traffic.

 

[RocketsArePrettyCool]

2nd update:

Repair estimate came out to a little over 4k after labor is included. I'm on vacation right now so I haven't gotten the chance to talk to the body shop to get a time estimate. But will hopefully get that early next week.

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