Scary Collision alert warning light activated

[Ev Blau]

Just driving along on a 2 lane road at 45 mph around 2pm today, very little traffic around me, certainly no cars in front of me for blocks. Suddenly a bright red alert flashed on my dash, collision alert and three beeps sounded - scared the crap out of me!

The alert message disappeared very quickly and there was no change to the handling, steering, or braking functions in the car. But now I’m very wary of driving the car. There was no reason for a collision warning. This had to be some sort of software error, right?

Has this happened to others and what should I be doing now?

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[DevSecOps]

This is the forward collision warning system.

Sometimes it's triggered by shadows. The few times it's happened to me (false alarms) in the MME are normally at dusk/dawn and passing semi trucks or going under an overpass. My Audi is much worse than the MME and the alert is at least double the loudness. Unless it's constantly happening it's not something to worry about and shadows normally clear quickly as you noticed.

 

[MW1515]

A couple times that happened to me going up a ramp in between floors of a parking garage.

 

[azerik]

Mine freaked out going over the train tracks in Flagstaff off 66. I can’t blame it, it would look like a wall to the car, pony wall but a wall because there is a severe dip right before them. Oh pony, now that’s kinda funny.

 

[Mach-Lee]

If there was a sharp hill or dip in the road, that can reflect a lot more radar and look like a stopped car to the collision system. So you may get some false alerts on hilly roads or other situations described above.

 

[Ev Blau]

If there was a sharp hill or dip in the road, that can reflect a lot more radar and look like a stopped car to the collision system. So you may get some false alerts on hilly roads or other situations described above.

Thanks for the explanation. Since we live in the mountains of WNC, I guess we’ll see this alert more often. The alarming thing is that today’s alert is the first time it’s happened in the 3 months we’ve owned our MME and on a flat road we drive all the time.

 

[heisnuts]

You can also adjust the sensitivity of the system in the car settings. You might find that yours is set to the highest sensitivity setting and by scaling it back one setting might reduce the false alarms.

 

[RickMachE]

It more than likely was set off by a nearby car you passed, one sticking out of parking lot waiting to come on the road, or a car turning in front of you where you thought it was no problem but the software did not.

I would recommend you read the section in the manual describing this feature, including things it may, or may not do, like AEB (automatic emergency braking) and evasive steering assist. You can also turn it off (I wouldn't). Clarification - the distance alert is what you can turn off.

Starts on page 258.

 

[Susanne76]

I have this happen occasionally especially when driving on a particular narrow and hilly street in my neighborhood. You can change the alert sensitivity but it defaults back to High when you start the car.

 

[Tom L]

It more than likely was set off by a nearby car you passed, one sticking out of parking lot waiting to come on the road, or a car turning in front of you where you thought it was no problem but the software did not.

I would recommend you read the section in the manual describing this feature, including things it may, or may not do, like AEB (automatic emergency braking) and evasive steering assist. You can also turn it off (I wouldn't). Clarification - the distance alert is what you can turn off.

Starts on page 258.

I have had the same experience as described by Rick. I think his analysis is right on.

 

[dmastro]

The alert on our MME has been activating very frequently in the last couple weeks under conditions that it shouldn't. I'm wondering if something in a recent update caused a bug, or perhaps there is some faulty hardware... I don't know but it's annoying.

 

[RKinWA]

Just driving along on a 2 lane road at 45 mph around 2pm today, very little traffic around me, certainly no cars in front of me for blocks. Suddenly a bright red alert flashed on my dash, collision alert and three beeps sounded - scared the crap out of me!

The alert message disappeared very quickly and there was no change to the handling, steering, or braking functions in the car. But now I’m very wary of driving the car. There was no reason for a collision warning. This had to be some sort of software error, right?

Has this happened to others and what should I be doing now?

I was pulling out of a parking spot yesterday and the side traffic alert went off with the red indicator saying it was coming from the left. I looked and looked but nothing, started to pull back again and same thing. I was like "Why are you freaking out, there's nothing there!" I finally got out of the vehicle and checked and there was nothing around. Have no idea what it was 'seeing' but there was nothing ?

On a related note, I was actually saved by the safety features the other day. I was pulling out of a spot and all looked clear, I was watching the screen, had looked physically, nothing, then suddenly the car slams on the brakes, and I notice some guy in a large pickup behind me decided to pull out at the same time, we would have hit had it not been for the vehicle stopping me. He was in a Ford F150, so might have had the same software as he also stopped. That was a near miss ?

 

[rhfritz]

Just driving along on a 2 lane road at 45 mph around 2pm today, very little traffic around me, certainly no cars in front of me for blocks. Suddenly a bright red alert flashed on my dash, collision alert and three beeps sounded - scared the crap out of me!

The alert message disappeared very quickly and there was no change to the handling, steering, or braking functions in the car. But now I’m very wary of driving the car. There was no reason for a collision warning. This had to be some sort of software error, right?

Has this happened to others and what should I be doing now?

I was unaware of the "shadow" issues in the other responses. I most often see this when the car in front of me slows and makes a right turn. Even though I've always been following at a safe distance and see nothing out of the ordinary, the car does display this jarring alert.

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