[azny]

Hoping to get thoughts on this topic. A couple of weeks ago I rolled into the car in front of me. Scenario: waiting at intersection to make a left onto a 55mph state route. Guy in front starts off and then decides against it and slams on the brakes.

My question is why did the car not give me a warning or slam on the brakes automatically - I have the active driver assistant and the active driving assistant Plus. The only thing switched off is the lane departure intervention (where it auto pushes you back into the lane - and I think is really unsafe esp. when you’re out of the lane to avoid something in the lane)

[jmciver]

Originally Posted by azny

Hoping to get thoughts on this topic. A couple of weeks ago I rolled into the car in front of me. Scenario: waiting at intersection to make a left onto a 55mph state route. Guy in front starts off and then decides against it and slams on the brakes.

My question is why did the car not give me a warning or slam on the brakes automatically - I have the active driver assistant and the active driving assistant Plus. The only thing switched off is the lane departure intervention (where it auto pushes you back into the lane - and I think is really unsafe esp. when you’re out of the lane to avoid something in the lane)

Best answer? The system is not perfect and can get confused from time to time. There have been times when I was driving on the highway at speed, with other cars around me also driving at speed, and the alert went of in my dash/HUD that a car/object was directly in front of me (that flashing red car and audible alert). The brakes did not activate (as I think the brakes are only applied below a certain speed), but the system still got “confused” when there was clearly nothing in front of me....

[toddwalton]

Same thing happened to me in our third car that I lease for our kids.

Driving 30 mph down a local street in my town, coming up to a crosswalk, a person was standing on the curb on the phone and not moving into the intersection at all, and suddenly full brakes came on, seat belt throws me back in my seat, and the car behind me had to stop suddenly and came close to rear ending me.

Turned the thing off and won't use it again. Instead of protecting a pedestrian it almost got two drivers injured. I could tell that the person on the curb was on the phone and facing the other way and not going to enter the intersection. The car couldn't.

[gsobol]

Originally Posted by azny

Hoping to get thoughts on this topic. A couple of weeks ago I rolled into the car in front of me. Scenario: waiting at intersection to make a left onto a 55mph state route. Guy in front starts off and then decides against it and slams on the brakes.

My question is why did the car not give me a warning or slam on the brakes automatically - I have the active driver assistant and the active driving assistant Plus. The only thing switched off is the lane departure intervention (where it auto pushes you back into the lane - and I think is really unsafe esp. when you’re out of the lane to avoid something in the lane)

Was your foot on the brake at the time? If it was, the system assumed you were in control and it did not activate.

[azny]

Originally Posted by gsobol

Was your foot on the brake at the time? If it was, the system assumed you were in control and it did not activate.

No, it was on the accelerator as I was taking off to join the highway. And the eyes were on the highway looking for oncoming traffic

[azny]

For the other responses, thx. I get that it’s not perfect and probably can’t be. But it seems to be worse than other cars. Admittedly anecdotal, but my brother’s Tahoe seemed to work quite well and saved him a couple of times. He has the Tesla Suv now and that seems more ‘aware’ as well of its surroundings.

You shouldn’t of course rely on this but I thought the chances of you making a mistake at the same time as the car should really be zero (or very close to it). I have a feeling that’s not the case - and the car will catch it 50% or less. Leave alone the false positives as in the example above.

[azny]

On the positive front, the driving assist on long highway drives is really helpful - I feel it meaningfully reduces the strain by keeping the speed, slowing down for traffic ahead and steering the car. You can’t look away obviously but it still helps

[RSouthern]

Originally Posted by azny

Hoping to get thoughts on this topic. A couple of weeks ago I rolled into the car in front of me. Scenario: waiting at intersection to make a left onto a 55mph state route. Guy in front starts off and then decides against it and slams on the brakes.

My question is why did the car not give me a warning or slam on the brakes automatically - I have the active driver assistant and the active driving assistant Plus. The only thing switched off is the lane departure intervention (where it auto pushes you back into the lane - and I think is really unsafe esp. when youÂ’re out of the lane to avoid something in the lane)

I had a surprising lack of safety system intervention too. My wife hit a deer (search for the thread on this forum) and the car was completely blind to the fact that a 400 lb animal moved in front of the car's direction of travel. My wife hit the deer head on, slightly on the passenger side, but almost dead center of the car. It damaged the front of the X7 to the tune of $45K in parts and labor. Ironically, among the various parts that were destroyed in the collision were the front facing radar sensor unit and the bumper mounted ultrasonic sensors on the front and passenger side, things that are supposed to be working to identify potential risks.

It seems that manufacturers have a difficult time tuning the sensitivity of the safety systems. Too sensitive and you get a lot of false alarms and too relaxed and you miss actual events. We had a 2019 Buick Enclave before the X7 and it would false and slam on the brakes and trigger the audible alert when we'd drive near/past trash cans on the side of the street (in the bike lane area). The X7 ignores those but it didn't do anything when we hit the deer (no alerts, no braking, nothing!). I can only speculate that since there was a car some distance ahead of the X7 that she was following, that the deer was ignored since the radar sensor was getting a stronger radar signal return from the car further up the road?

The avoidance system in my Mercedes (2015 S550) seems a bit better tuned and has neither falsed with trashcans nor failed to activate when the vehicle ahead suddenly stopped, however I haven't tested it with a high speed animal collision (and never plan to!)... however the night vision camera on the Mercedes has detected and warned me about countless deer and people on the sides of the road over the years, so I hope it would have done something since it at least demonstrated awareness of the risks.

I'm honestly disappointed in the forward facing collision avoidance system on the X7. I feel like it failed this critical test. I know that I'll get a lot of people responding negatively to this post, defending the safety systems and providing examples where their X7 did stop or alert, but this is my opinion based on my experience with what I feel is situation perfectly suited for the system and it didn't do anything.

[djbonsu]

Originally Posted by azny

Hoping to get thoughts on this topic. A couple of weeks ago I rolled into the car in front of me. Scenario: waiting at intersection to make a left onto a 55mph state route. Guy in front starts off and then decides against it and slams on the brakes.

My question is why did the car not give me a warning or slam on the brakes automatically - I have the active driver assistant and the active driving assistant Plus. The only thing switched off is the lane departure intervention (where it auto pushes you back into the lane - and I think is really unsafe esp. when you’re out of the lane to avoid something in the lane)

Originally Posted by RSouthern

I had a surprising lack of safety system intervention too. My wife hit a deer (search for the thread on this forum) and the car was completely blind to the fact that a 400 lb animal moved in front of the car's direction of travel. My wife hit the deer head on, slightly on the passenger side, but almost dead center of the car. It damaged the front of the X7 to the tune of $45K in parts and labor. Ironically, among the various parts that were destroyed in the collision were the front facing radar sensor unit and the bumper mounted ultrasonic sensors on the front and passenger side, things that are supposed to be working to identify potential risks.

It seems that manufacturers have a difficult time tuning the sensitivity of the safety systems. Too sensitive and you get a lot of false alarms and too relaxed and you miss actual events. We had a 2019 Buick Enclave before the X7 and it would false and slam on the brakes and trigger the audible alert when we'd drive near/past trash cans on the side of the street (in the bike lane area). The X7 ignores those but it didn't do anything when we hit the deer (no alerts, no braking, nothing!). I can only speculate that since there was a car some distance ahead of the X7 that she was following, that the deer was ignored since the radar sensor was getting a stronger radar signal return from the car further up the road?

The avoidance system in my Mercedes (2015 S550) seems a bit better tuned and has neither falsed with trashcans nor failed to activate when the vehicle ahead suddenly stopped, however I haven't tested it with a high speed animal collision (and never plan to!)... however the night vision camera on the Mercedes has detected and warned me about countless deer and people on the sides of the road over the years, so I hope it would have done something since it at least demonstrated awareness of the risks.

I'm honestly disappointed in the forward facing collision avoidance system on the X7. I feel like it failed this critical test. I know that I'll get a lot of people responding negatively to this post, defending the safety systems and providing examples where their X7 did stop or alert, but this is my opinion based on my experience with what I feel is situation perfectly suited for the system and it didn't do anything.

I believe you can setup "how early" you want the system to intervene/react to the hazards. Do either of you know/recall the setting at the time of the incidents? Not making an excuse for the system, that would be a sad one at that, but more so just curious as maybe that was a factor?

[RSouthern]

Originally Posted by djbonsu

I believe you can setup "how early" you want the system to intervene/react to the hazards. Do either of you know/recall the setting at the time of the incidents? Not making an excuse for the system, that would be a sad one at that, but more so just curious as maybe that was a factor?

I believe it was whatever the default is, I don't remember having changed it any my wife doesn't play with these sorts of options, she just drives.

[RSouthern]

Originally Posted by RSouthern

I believe it was whatever the default is, I don't remember having changed it any my wife doesn't play with these sorts of options, she just drives.

Just curious, has anyone been told that the collision avoidance is only for humans and not for animals?

[azny]

As an update, I’m still waiting to get the car fixed. Parts are on back order (approaching 2 months since the accident). The last one we’re waiting for is.......the $4,000 front distance sensor (aka “the eye” or as I call it “insult to injury”). Also, the total cost has ballooned to $22k - the left headlight had some internal damage and costs a whopping $6k (standard light, not laser etc). I guess no one said these were cheap cars so I shouldn’t complain too much about the cost. But lack of parts is annoying (I know there’s a pandemic but we’re a year into it).

[RSouthern]

Originally Posted by azny

As an update, I’m still waiting to get the car fixed. Parts are on back order (approaching 2 months since the accident). The last one we’re waiting for is.......the $4,000 front distance sensor (aka “the eye” or as I call it “insult to injury”). Also, the total cost has ballooned to $22k - the left headlight had some internal damage and costs a whopping $6k (standard light, not laser etc). I guess no one said these were cheap cars so I shouldn’t complain too much about the cost. But lack of parts is annoying (I know there’s a pandemic but we’re a year into it).

Misery loves company.... our accident with the deer was at the end of November. I heard yesterday that the remaining parts have come in finally, so that only took 5 months to get parts! We have the laser headlights and they were $8K retail, but I believe the discounted price for the repair was $6k. Hopefully insurance is taking care of everything for you!

[dmann33]

Originally Posted by RSouthern

It seems that manufacturers have a difficult time tuning the sensitivity of the safety systems. Too sensitive and you get a lot of false alarms and too relaxed and you miss actual events. We had a 2019 Buick Enclave before the X7 and it would false and slam on the brakes and trigger the audible alert when we'd drive near/past trash cans on the side of the street (in the bike lane area). The X7 ignores those but it didn't do anything when we hit the deer (no alerts, no braking, nothing!). I can only speculate that since there was a car some distance ahead of the X7 that she was following, that the deer was ignored since the radar sensor was getting a stronger radar signal return from the car further up the road?

The avoidance system in my Mercedes (2015 S550) seems a bit better tuned and has neither falsed with trashcans nor failed to activate when the vehicle ahead suddenly stopped, however I haven't tested it with a high speed animal collision (and never plan to!)... however the night vision camera on the Mercedes has detected and warned me about countless deer and people on the sides of the road over the years, so I hope it would have done something since it at least demonstrated awareness of the risks.

I'm honestly disappointed in the forward facing collision avoidance system on the X7. I feel like it failed this critical test. I know that I'll get a lot of people responding negatively to this post, defending the safety systems and providing examples where their X7 did stop or alert, but this is my opinion based on my experience with what I feel is situation perfectly suited for the system and it didn't do anything.

Did your x7 have the also have infra red camera (aka night vision) like the MB you mentioned. Like you said, I don’t think the regular sensors are designed to stop the car at full speed for a deer that suddenly jumps out in a road. I think there at least has to be several converging data points which a last second animal moving onto road May not have. But city traffic that slows / brakes faster than you or an object behind you when backing up is quite different. Very sorry about the accident. I’m not attempting to “defend the system” per se, but I really don’t think it is designed to react to a moving deer at speed without the BMW’s IR camera system which can detect the deer before it even gets to the roadway and alert.

JD power: “ (BMW) Active Driving Assistant, the automatic braking works only at lower city speeds. On faster-flowing highways and freeways, the driver must respond to potential collision situations.

[dmann33]

Originally Posted by azny

Hoping to get thoughts on this topic. A couple of weeks ago I rolled into the car in front of me. Scenario: waiting at intersection to make a left onto a 55mph state route. Guy in front starts off and then decides against it and slams on the brakes.

My question is why did the car not give me a warning or slam on the brakes automatically - I have the active driver assistant and the active driving assistant Plus. The only thing switched off is the lane departure intervention (where it auto pushes you back into the lane - and I think is really unsafe esp. when you’re out of the lane to avoid something in the lane)

This is frustrating with or without the active system. I have a thought or two. Did you hit the accelerator at all? If so, Perhaps the system assumes you fully see the stationary object after so much time as elapsed and grants you control. There have been instances where I recd an alarm and hit the gas (as I was maneuvering or the car ahead was vacating my path. It seems to go away when I made the opposite input vs the alarm. This is not the scenario you describe exactly, but the elapsed time the object was there may play a role. I’d imagine it would brake if you tried to roll into a parked car from 25 feet away, but would it let you roll into a car that you have been stopped 24” away from for a period of time. Just a thought.