Emergency braking on level crossing with no nearby cars

[Cocijo]

it's more or less unconscious.

I would always recommend staying conscious when driving - particularly Important when on a bike….

 

[Rolfe]

 

[Eber]

Tesla have binned the ultrasonic parking sensors too. They now favour the Tesla Vision system for parking also. No sensors in bumpers etc. I prefer the ultrasonic - the vision system is not great for parking - it gets distances wrong and doesn’t detect objects at lower levels that well.

Plus the ultrasonic system wasn't affected by weather. It's really a step backwards.

 

[PowderblueKes]

Just had my first false positive of the AEB which was a bit of a shook up.

Following a <5mph cyclist on the road into our village up an incline, I was close, probably too close. Once we'd go past the blind hill/corner, I indicated to overtake as we had a few cars behind us now. Started to turn wide to get past, put my gas down a bit and the AEB slammed in. Thankfully, car behind wasn't super tight so didn't get rear ended.

Wasn't a fun one. System must've assumed I was just accelerating straight into the back of the cyclist as I hadn't quite moved out wide enough before putting my foot down. Interesting one to assess in hindsight for me, probably a few bits that were sub-optimal driving wise.

 

[Cocijo]

Just had my first false positive of the AEB which was a bit of a shook up.

Following a <5mph cyclist on the road into our village up an incline, I was close, probably too close. Once we'd go past the blind hill/corner, I indicated to overtake as we had a few cars behind us now. Started to turn wide to get past, put my gas down a bit and the AEB slammed in. Thankfully, car behind wasn't super tight so didn't get rear ended.

Wasn't a fun one. System must've assumed I was just accelerating straight into the back of the cyclist as I hadn't quite moved out wide enough before putting my foot down. Interesting one to assess in hindsight for me, probably a few bits that were sub-optimal driving wise.

I think that it’s really professional of you to analyse your driving in conjunction with how the cars systems performed. Many would just criticise the system. By reviewing in the way you are, you will be able to continually develop your driving skills and also be more aware of when the software does not perform as it should. ???

 

[Rolfe]

That sounds quite similar to the one I had where the car "saw" a pedestrian apparently walking into the road between two parked cars. I'm not sure whether it was simply the act of him walking like that or the fact that he then opened his car door almost - but not quite - into my path that triggered it.

I don't think there's anything I could have done differently driving-wise, but I also think that one was in the "better safe than sorry" bracket at this stage of the development of these systems.

 

[WilmslowMG]

Hi , had emergency braking scare yesterday afternoon, for no reason, just pulling away from traffic lights, car ahead already gone, nothing to left or right except static road furniture (the traffic lights and railings). It scared the XXXX out of me. Car behind fortunately didnt rear end me but must have thought I was trying a crash for cash, albeit with a car that is only 2 and a half weeks old. Car going in to dealers this morning for other issues Ill just have to add it to the list.

 

[Ian Key]

Hi , had emergency braking scare yesterday afternoon, for no reason, just pulling away from traffic lights, car ahead already gone, nothing to left or right except static road furniture (the traffic lights and railings). It scared the XXXX out of me. Car behind fortunately didnt rear end me but must have thought I was trying a crash for cash, albeit with a car that is only 2 and a half weeks old. Car going in to dealers this morning for other issues Ill just have to add it to the list.

Do you also have aggressive LKA?
I'd ask for the camera to be recalibrated

 

[bowfer]

Hi , had emergency braking scare yesterday afternoon, for no reason, just pulling away from traffic lights, car ahead already gone, nothing to left or right except static road furniture (the traffic lights and railings). It scared the XXXX out of me. Car behind fortunately didnt rear end me but must have thought I was trying a crash for cash, albeit with a car that is only 2 and a half weeks old. Car going in to dealers this morning for other issues Ill just have to add it to the list.

You’ve made a good point, about the ‘cash for crash’ thing.
I still don’t fully accept its ‘always’ the fault of the driver behind in a rear end crash, otherwise ‘whiplash’ con merchants would always win…which we know they don’t, their cases do get thrown out and they do get done for manufacturing crashes.

It would be interesting to see what would happen if they had rear ended you and had a camera showing ‘you’ did a full blown emergency stop for absolutely nothing.

 

[Rolfe]

It's an interesting point. But the fact remains that even leaving aside these phantom braking incidents, it's always a possibility that something happening inside the car or to the driver might necessitate an emergency stop for a perfectly valid reason the driver of the car behind can't see. I mentioned earlier an incident where my vision suddenly clouded over and went while I was driving. Fortunately it was in a situation where I was able to brake in a relatively controlled manner, but the driver(s) behind must still have wondered what the hell was going on. If circumstances had been different I'd have had to slam the brakes on.

 

[JimD]

It's an interesting point. But the fact remains that even leaving aside these phantom braking incidents, it's always a possibility that something happening inside the car or to the driver might necessitate an emergency stop for a perfectly valid reason the driver of the car behind can't see. I mentioned earlier an incident where my vision suddenly clouded over and went while I was driving. Fortunately it was in a situation where I was able to brake in a relatively controlled manner, but the driver(s) behind must still have wondered what the hell was going on. If circumstances had been different I'd have had to slam the brakes on.

I agree - if you're following someone you HAVE to be able to stop safely no matter what they do.

 

[Rolfe]

I suspect the circumstances Bowfer is referring to relate to cases where there was reasonably compelling evidence that the incident was deliberately provoked. I don't know exactly how the law deals with it, but I imagine you can't get away with deliberately slamming on your brakes in the hope of an insurance settlement by saying "well he should have been able to stop."

But from the point of view of the following driver, that last remains true. If it can be proved it was a set-up, lucky you, but don't rely on that!

 

[bowfer]

It's an interesting point. But the fact remains that even leaving aside these phantom braking incidents, it's always a possibility that something happening inside the car or to the driver might necessitate an emergency stop for a perfectly valid reason the driver of the car behind can't see. I mentioned earlier an incident where my vision suddenly clouded over and went while I was driving. Fortunately it was in a situation where I was able to brake in a relatively controlled manner, but the driver(s) behind must still have wondered what the hell was going on. If circumstances had been different I'd have had to slam the brakes on.

We can go round and round with this, it’s a fact of modern driving that we can’t/don’t/won’t always leave a gap that could bring you to a halt if the vehicle in front slammed the anchors on.
Then you get into the debate about certain vehicles stopping faster than others blablabla.
I still think there are ‘shades of grey’ to rear end accidents rather it being the black and white scenario people assume.

 

[Ian Key]

They showed the difference in the braking distance on a wet road surface of two identical cars both braking from 40mph and with the same driver on TV. One had 2mm of tread and the other was on new tyres. The stopping distance of one with 2mm of tread was 11 metres further.

 

[Rolfe]

We can go round and round with this, it’s a fact of modern driving that we can’t/don’t/won’t always leave a gap that could bring you to a halt if the vehicle in front slammed the anchors on.
Then you get into the debate about certain vehicles stopping faster than others blablabla.
I still think there are ‘shades of grey’ to rear end accidents rather it being the black and white scenario people assume.

There obviously are shades of grey, but I think they refer mainly to instances where it can be proved that the driver in front was deliberately trying to engineer an accident. What about the situation where the driven is suddenly blinded for whatever reason - and as I said, it can happen spontaneously even in a young healthy non-diabetic person. It's going to look just like the engineered accident, but the outcome of the police investigation is going to be very different.

They showed the difference in the braking distance on a wet road surface of two identical cars both braking from 40mph and with the same driver on TV. One had 2mm of tread and the other was on new tyres. The stopping distance of one with 2mm of tread was 11 metres further.

Sobering.

 

[WilmslowMG]

Do you also have aggressive LKA?
I'd ask for the camera to be recalibrated

Hi have checked, its in the max position. Car now with MG Doncaster Service fingers crossed.

 

[ianwlk]

A pretty horrifying thread. Amused by folk who accept the chance of a semi-random stop bomb occurring because the system might protect them one day.

 

[tsedge]

A pretty horrifying thread. Amused by folk who accept the chance of a semi-random stop bomb occurring because the system might protect them one day.

The system has protected me twice in previous cars, so this is not theoretical. I have had zero false stops with my MG4, so it stays on. Nothing amusing about avoiding a crash.

 

[Martinonline]

The insurance fraud programme on BBC1 today showed an example of someone stopping suddenly without a clear reason. One of the factors that showed the fraud was that there were no brakelights, the driver had used the handbrake. The bus behind had no indication the car was stopping and thus did not stop causing a minor collision.

I have had emergency braking a number of times, some for obvious reasons - fast cars passing as I reversed out of my drive; pulling out to overtake parked car with a car coming towards; passing pedestrians walking on a narrow pavement. In all cases I was aware of the possible danger but the car decided to apply the brakes, fiercely. Safe but not clever enough.

 

[WilmslowMG]

Hi Folks,
Does anyone know if the car saves a record of automatic braking emergency activation that can be downloaded by a dealer to be used as proof for example in court. The ramifications of the event day before yesterday have obviously got me more perturbed than I would have liked to admit.