My wife says it engaged for her the first time yesterday when someone was making a left turn and she got a little aggressive in passing them on the right.
My wife says it engaged for her the first time yesterday when someone was making a left turn and she got a little aggressive in passing them on the right.
Altho I HATE the car overriding my inputs, and feel that inappropriate application of the brakes can be almost as bad as failing to apply them when needed... MAYBE there's a bright side in that it may encourage all of us to drive a little less aggressively.
That said, mine's set to the lowest sensitivity. Sometimes you've just got to react fast in traffic, and automatic braking can't possibly evaluate a situation as well as a good, attentive driver.
What was your wife's reaction to the car's action?
I've commented before that the Safe Following Distance display has caused my to pay more attention to my following distance, although I'm not convinced the calibration is consistent. (Today it seemed to warn me I was too close doing 45 and said nothing when I was closer than that doing 55). But as you said, you've got to be a good, attentive driver.
After 10 days of ownership, I'm finding that I have to be careful to not let the entertainment system distract me. In other vehicles, I have radio presets. If I want a certain station, I just reflexively push the preset button without taking my eyes off of the road. Here, I have to navigate to a screen, scroll to the station I want, and then select it. Part of the problem is my penchant to change stations a lot.
So I can now keep my eyes straight ahead and know how fast I'm going, know what the current speed limit is, know if I'm objectively following a safe distance, know how far ahead my next turn is and what my next turn is, and know if there are vehicles in my blind spots. But I have to take my eyes off the road every time I want to go to a preset (Favorites) radio station.
It's an interesting switch.
So true.
How hard would it be to add voice commands to the favorites? Not just to call up the list, but to switch to one.
Not hard at all.
You do know you can scroll through radio favorites with just your thumb on the steering wheel, right?
Thanks! The avatar is our pup's baby picture. She'll soon be 10 years old.
And I also looked up voice commands for the radio. Unless something has changed for the latest model year, voice commands can be used for changing radio stations. It's in the manual. **
Did it apply the brakes or did it just warn her?
Did it apply the brakes after the nose of her car was in the right-hand lane (potentially stopping her in that line of traffic she was merging into)?
I read a couple of stories where owners felt that this feature put them in a potentially unsafe situation in the exact scenario your wife apparently was in.
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What was your wife's reaction to the car's action?
She was not the one turning, if that's what you mean. The brakes were applied as she was going around on the right side of a car turning left off a two lane road, so no oncoming traffic in her lane.
Gotcha.
I read a couple of stories (I believe they may have been in the Edmunds long-term CX-5 review) where the Mazda driver was in the spot your wife was, and when they swerved into the right lane to go around the stopped car, the Mazda braked. That briefly prevented them from accelerating in order to safely merge into the traffic that was in the right lane.
I know when driving with the adaptive cruise control, the moment I move to a lane that is clear, the car downshifts and accelerates to the set speed. I have driven hundreds of miles with my foot off all pedals and just let the adaptive cruise control take care of everything with an occasional touch of the speed adjustment and resume buttons on the wheel.
I believe that the story I read was a close-quarters, low speed, in town situation. It was a story on the internet by someone I've never met...so who knows.
I've had my car a few weeks now and have yet to use Adaptive Cruise Control. I'm retired and live in a rural area, so not only am I not on the interstate that often, out here there's not much congestion even when I do get on it.
Regarding in town driving, the Smart City System engaged when I came up on someone too fast...he was stopped waiting for a guy to turn left. I don't know if I would have reacted in time or not, it happened so quickly. This was just a few days into ownership.
I use the cruise control for in city driving too as it helps keep me from speeding more than I set it to and it reacts better than I might if I were distracted by something. Also it is a lot more relaxing to not have to constantly brake and accelerate when the car can do it for me. Just set the speed and space and keep hands on the wheel.