[Video] My Experience with Lane Keep Assist & Rain

[DevSecOps]

A while back I wrote a thread about BlueCruise and a question from @RMoore was asked of me regarding inclement weather and Lane Centering. At the time of my BlueCruise trip the weather was perfect so I responded to him with my experiences using Audi's version called Lane Assist. I gave him my very favorable review of Lane Assist and touted how much I loved it. This topic also came up previously here.

Today I was driving from the Bay Area (CA) to Sacramento (CA) and we had an unusual amount of rain. Yes, I realize that us California's probably think .0005 inches an hour is a torrential downpour, no comments needed. I noticed how poorly lane keep assist was handling the conditions. It was really having a hard time, going from a lane lock to nothing, non-stop. Even at very low speeds it wasn't able to grab clearly visible lane markers.

Later on in my drive I was presented with rain again and it did better, but still had issues.

I welcome feedback on what your take is here. Since many other people have had their vehicles much longer, how was your experience in the rain?

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[JohnnyForensic]

Disappointing, but I was always taught you should never use cruise control of any type in rain due to controlling slippage. Don’t know if those rules have changed over time though.

 

[DevSecOps]

Disappointing, but I was always taught you should never use cruise control of any type in rain due to controlling slippage. Don’t know if those rules have changed over time though.

Just to be clear, this isn't ACC, it's Lane Keep Assist. So no cruise was activated at this time, including BlueCruise. I mentioned BC because it would render it useless if someone wanted to have it on. Lane Assist (Audi's language) will keep you in the lane in inclement weather on my other car when the lines are less visible which is a terrific aid.

 

[mpshizzle]

Just to be clear, this isn't ACC, it's Lane Centering. So no cruise was activated at this time, including BlueCruise. I mentioned BC because it would render it useless if someone wanted to have it on. Lane Assist will keep you in the lane in inclement weather on my other car when the lines are less visible which is a terrific aid.

Just a quick note of clarification here. It looks like what you were using there was lane departure assist, and not lane centering. There's no way on the mach e to have lane centering turned on without some form of cruise control.

As far as my experiences, yesterday in Utah we also had pretty heavy rain. I had Cruise with Lane centering on and it did very well. Once it got heavy enough it was actually my radar that started cutting in and out, but the lane centering kept going like a champ

As a side note, this is after doing the IPMA update in FDRS.. Before I ran that update lane centering was non-functional in these kinds of conditions

 

[macchiaz-o]

In your video, lane centering is NOT active. That is lane keep assist.

When lane centering is active, a "bubble" appears around the sides of the car instead of vertical lines.

It looks like you did not have cruise control active? On this vehicle, lane centering can only be used in conjunction with cruise control.

EDIT: Looks like @mpshizzle and I have our clocks synced.

 

[DevSecOps]

In your video, lane centering is NOT active. That is lane keep assist.

Thank you both I changed the title. And that would explain why @JohnnyForensic was probably confused. My apologies. Why they change the name when it's used in conjunction with cruise and without is quite strange especially since with BC you have no option to disable it, nor would you want to...

 

[mpshizzle]

Thank you both I changed the title. And that would explain why @JohnnyForensic was probably confused. My apologies. Why they change the name when it's used in conjunction with cruise and without is quite strange...

Well it's not just a name change. Lane centering does as the name implies and keeps you centered.

Lane departure doesn't kick in until you're about to cross over a lane line. At which point it'll bounce you off of the line.. if left unattended, that will just ping-pong you back and forth between the lines.

That being said, it is odd that even that was going back and forth between green and gray.

If you would like, you can send me a DM and I can check your VIN to see if you still need the image processor update

 

[DevSecOps]

If you would like, you can send me a DM and I can check your VIN to see if you still need the image processor update

Will do right now. Thank you for the offer!

 

[macchiaz-o]

Thank you both I changed the title. And that would explain why @JohnnyForensic was probably confused. My apologies. Why they change the name when it's used in conjunction with cruise and without is quite strange...

Well it's not just a name change. Lane centering does as the name implies and keeps you centered.

Lane departure doesn't kick in until you're about to cross over a lane line. At which point it'll bounce you off of the line.. if left unattended, that will just ping-pong you back and forth between the lines.

Some more info that may help clarify the differences...

Lane-Keeping Aid:

https://www.ford.com/technology/driver-assist-technology/lane-keeping-system/

Lane Centering:

https://www.ford.com/support/how-to...-control-with-stop-and-go-and-lane-centering/

 

[DevSecOps]

Some more info that may help clarify the differences...

Thank you. I guess I just assumed it was one in the same. My other vehicles called it the same thing regardless of if it was activated with cruise or without. Interestingly, Audi gives it a different name, but only for low speed, similar to Ford's "stop and go" language via the link you sent. I understand the fundamental difference in language, but even without any form of cruise on, to me at least, it feels like the car handles the centering, if you will, the same as when basic ACC is enabled. The only time I noticed a difference was with BC enabled, which will even ping-pong me around every time I hit an expansion joint, but the centering with BC feels more enforced.

 

[RMoore]

A while back I wrote a thread about BlueCruise and a question from @RMoore was asked of me regarding inclement weather and Lane Centering. At the time of my BlueCruise trip the weather was perfect so I responded to him with my experiences using Audi's version called Lane Assist. I gave him my very favorable review of Lane Assist and touted how much I loved it. This topic also came up previously here.

Thanks for bringing this up again since it is something I’m very interested in. I read the responses here as well as in the other thread you pointed us to, and it does look like several with experience trying to use these features in bad weather weren’t so enthusiastic about their benefit in those situations. In that BC post you linked to where I wondered whether these will help in rain, what I didn’t mention is that on that occasion where I was driving at night in the rain on the NJ Turnpike a colleague of mine was taking the same route at about the same time. He was in a Volvo XC90 and said he did have some help with his lane keeping feature (not sure what it was called or what exact setting he was using). I was just hopeful that the MME might help out a bit in situations like that but now not so sure it will.

 

[SnBGC]

Some more info that may help clarify the differences...

Lane-Keeping Aid:

https://www.ford.com/technology/driver-assist-technology/lane-keeping-system/

Lane Centering:

https://www.ford.com/support/how-to...-control-with-stop-and-go-and-lane-centering/

Thanks. I too didn't know there was a difference. I had been using those terms interchangeably which I now understand isn't correct.

So many other things make sense to me now that I know this additional bit of information.

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