[Fegelein]

Like or dislike?! My wife freaked out and hates it, so I turned it off for her. Same for me, I didn't freak, but don't like "something" jerking the wheel. I'm "more" ok w/ the semi autonomous driving though, in which the car maintains your lane w/ no hands until it tells you. However, I don't use really any of this. I'm a "hands on" type of guy!

[JFU]

Originally Posted by Fegelein

Like or dislike?! My wife freaked out and hates it, so I turned it off for her. Same for me, I didn't freak, but don't like "something" jerking the wheel. I'm "more" ok w/ the semi autonomous driving though, in which the car maintains your lane w/ no hands until it tells you. However, I don't use really any of this. I'm a "hands on" type of guy!

I turned it off. Unless I'm driving late into the night on a highway I'm gonna leave it off.

[Gdwheel]

I don't use it.

[ppagiga]

Originally Posted by Fegelein

Like or dislike?! My wife freaked out and hates it, so I turned it off for her. Same for me, I didn't freak, but don't like "something" jerking the wheel. I'm "more" ok w/ the semi autonomous driving though, in which the car maintains your lane w/ no hands until it tells you. However, I don't use really any of this. I'm a "hands on" type of guy!

start by adjusting the sensitivity and live with it a bit

[like2short]

Originally Posted by Fegelein

Like or dislike?! My wife freaked out and hates it, so I turned it off for her. Same for me, I didn't freak, but don't like "something" jerking the wheel. I'm "more" ok w/ the semi autonomous driving though, in which the car maintains your lane w/ no hands until it tells you. However, I don't use really any of this. I'm a "hands on" type of guy!

Sam reaction to it for us, but we are keeping it on.

[JAKE_7]

Terrible. X7 ride is very smooth but the frequent vibration of the steering because of the so called drive assist was too much for me. I reduced the intensity to the lowest and was still bad so turned if off completely. Now I enjoy driving again!

[Wild Blue]

I'm VERY leery of the lane keeping assistant, and other automation in cars. Automation is great when it works, and helps the operator as designed. However, as a pilot and highly experienced accident investigator, I can point out many accidents, over and over, where automation has malfunctioned in some way and CAUSED an accident, the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do.

Perhaps a timely example, investigations not complete yet, but possible that automation on 737 MAX aircraft caused Lion Air and/or Ethiopia Air aircraft to crash.

Multiple new G05 owners are reporting that lane keeping automation have either caused an accident, or a near miss. In most cases, this wasn't a typical environment with straight, dry, clearly painted roads, but rather when a lane split, or lane markings were non-standard, or such. In multiple cases, G05 owners have reported the automation being so strong, to have overridden the driver's input, and unexpectedly "violently" jerked the car steering out of the blue.

Yes, you can reduce the automation strength, or turn it off, which is what many G05 owners are doing. Me personally, when I experienced it on G07 test drives, it was interesting, and could be useful under the right circumstances. But automation has to be able to work safely and accurately under ALL conditions of when it's used, and I'm concerned that this BMW automation isn't where it needs to be yet.

[/soapbox]

[Fegelein]

Originally Posted by Wild Blue

I'm VERY leery of the lane keeping assistant, and other automation in cars. Automation is great when it works, and helps the operator as designed. However, as a pilot and highly experienced accident investigator, I can point out many accidents, over and over, where automation has malfunctioned in some way and CAUSED an accident, the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do.

Perhaps a timely example, investigations not complete yet, but possible that automation on 737 MAX aircraft caused Lion Air and/or Ethiopia Air aircraft to crash.

Multiple new G05 owners are reporting that lane keeping automation have either caused an accident, or a near miss. In most cases, this wasn't a typical environment with straight, dry, clearly painted roads, but rather when a lane split, or lane markings were non-standard, or such. In multiple cases, G05 owners have reported the automation being so strong, to have overridden the driver's input, and unexpectedly "violently" jerked the car steering out of the blue.

Yes, you can reduce the automation strength, or turn it off, which is what many G05 owners are doing. Me personally, when I experienced it on G07 test drives, it was interesting, and could be useful under the right circumstances. But automation has to be able to work safely and accurately under ALL conditions of when it's used, and I'm concerned that this BMW automation isn't where it needs to be yet.

[/soapbox]

Very good points and insight Wild!

[FreddyBMW]

Originally Posted by Wild Blue

I'm VERY leery of the lane keeping assistant, and other automation in cars. Automation is great when it works, and helps the operator as designed. However, as a pilot and highly experienced accident investigator, I can point out many accidents, over and over, where automation has malfunctioned in some way and CAUSED an accident, the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do.

Perhaps a timely example, investigations not complete yet, but possible that automation on 737 MAX aircraft caused Lion Air and/or Ethiopia Air aircraft to crash.

Multiple new G05 owners are reporting that lane keeping automation have either caused an accident, or a near miss. In most cases, this wasn't a typical environment with straight, dry, clearly painted roads, but rather when a lane split, or lane markings were non-standard, or such. In multiple cases, G05 owners have reported the automation being so strong, to have overridden the driver's input, and unexpectedly "violently" jerked the car steering out of the blue.

Yes, you can reduce the automation strength, or turn it off, which is what many G05 owners are doing. Me personally, when I experienced it on G07 test drives, it was interesting and could be useful under the right circumstances. But automation has to be able to work safely and accurately under ALL conditions of when it's used, and I'm concerned that this BMW automation isn't where it needs to be yet.

[/soapbox]

Well said and I'm in the same boat as the others stated. If you don't see continuous Road markings, the car sees the same and reacts to it. I sometimes have to fight with the steering wheel to gain control. That's when its really freaking.

Sometimes putting in the Drive Assist mode requires me to pay attention to the vehicle controls/behavior PLUS the focusing part on the road ahead!

My grandpa used to say "It should be YOU taking control over the car and not the CAR taking control of you."

[dmann33]

I would not consider getting an X7 or any new car w/o lane keep assist. We have it on our Pacifica, and its saved my bacon many times. Maybe I'm becoming a poorer driver because of it, but sooner or later you'll be distracted and it will keep 4 tires on the pavement.

Just the other day a lady passed me on a lonely highway in a black Charger. 15 minutes later I found her dead (head on with another car). Its believed she dozed off and crossed the center line.

[LittleJoe]

I've had the driver assistants on my last 4 cars and find it helpful in some instances. For example, when driving on a divided highway with clear road markings. I generally do not use these assistants on back roads with some twists and turns where I'm paying very close attention to the road. In the X7, the lane assist features are activated by default when you set the cruise control but you can quickly and easily enable or disable the steering assist by pressing the Mode button. This is very well thought out by the engineers as I can take advantage of the adaptive cruise control without having the system try to steer the X7 if I don't want it intervening. Our previous three GL/GLS did not include a way to disable steering assist. Well done on BMW's part.

As for steering assist on the X7, if you stop steering the car it begins to alert you to put your hands back on the wheel within a few seconds and flashes two LED's on the steering wheel in "Yellow". A few seconds later they begin to flash "Red" and will begin to slow the X7 to a stop if you do not resume steering. Overall it's the best implementation of a driver assists system I've personally experienced. If you haven't yet purchased the X7, test these systems out during a test drive.

[OtisX7]

Originally Posted by LittleJoe

I've had the driver assistants on my last 4 cars and find it helpful in some instances. For example, when driving on a divided highway with clear road markings. I generally do not use these assistants on back roads with some twists and turns where I'm paying very close attention to the road. In the X7, the lane assist features are activated by default when you set the cruise control but you can quickly and easily enable or disable the steering assist by pressing the Mode button. This is very well thought out by the engineers as I can take advantage of the adaptive cruise control without having the system try to steer the X7 if I don't want it intervening. Our previous three GL/GLS did not include a way to disable steering assist. Well done on BMW's part.

As for steering assist on the X7, if you stop steering the car it begins to alert you to put your hands back on the wheel within a few seconds and flashes two LED's on the steering wheel in "Yellow". A few seconds later they begin to flash "Red" and will begin to slow the X7 to a stop if you do not resume steering. Overall it's the best implementation of a driver assists system I've personally experienced. If you haven't yet purchased the X7, test these systems out during a test drive.

Agreed. We own an Audi Q7 also, which was my first exposure to these kinds of systems. It works fairly well there, but better and more user friendly in many respects in my X7.

[groove1]

I have the radar cruise on my Escalade that only handles breakinging and exceleration and keeps a safe distance from the car in front of but has no steering input. I like the system because I have a heavy foot and it keeps me from speeding on long trips. I agree on divided clearly marked highways I think the X7 driver assistant will be a good feature to have.

[Wild Blue]

Originally Posted by FreddyBMW

I sometimes have to fight with the steering wheel to gain control.

That. That statement right there. That's when automation has crossed the line and hindered safe driving, not helped it.

My grandpa used to say "It should be YOU taking control over the car and not the CAR taking control of you."

Exactly right. Yes, many of you are pointing out how the automation is helpful. 99.9% of the time, it's working correctly, and either not noticed as it silently works in the background, or subtle corrections. Then there's the .05% time where it saves your butt. That's great. But is that worth it, if the designers haven't overcome the other .05% time when it overrides the driver, and causes an accident?

Whose responsibility is it to control the car? The driver. Drivers have to be drivers.