Tips and tricks to live with the MG4 ACC

[Vingnut]

My AAC setup: LKA off.
Note: I have regen on the left star button as I use it actively.

If I'm driving without other cars around I mostly let the car stay in Normal mode, in traffic I use Sport so the car keep better up with the traffic.
When using ACC I toggle regen between Adaptive and 1, without ACC I prefer 3.
Distance 1 when alone on the road and 3 while following (will test 2).

I find ACC the smoothest with drivemode Sport and regen 1.

Hard bends on my own is done either by taking the joystic step by step down (thats the way I do it when speed limit changes) or by turning off ACC (button or brake) in to the bend and joystic forward to reengage or button to set the speed to what speed I have and then use joystic to tap the speed gradualy up. If I use the brake to kill ACC It is definitely smoothest to do so in Regen mode 1.

 

[Rolfe]

I didn't find much difference between Sport and Normal while ACC was engaged. I did find Sport quite perky before I engaged ACC though.

I had a great Sport mode in my GTi, which I seldom used because the damn thing drank petrol like it was going out of fashion. (I took it up the Meldons in Sport the last evening it was insured, before the MG4 came, and scared a few sheep, because I had put more petrol in it than I should have!) I haven't been using Sport in the MG4, does it do awful things to miles/KWh?

I tend to leave the car in regen 3, but I put it into Adaptive when ACC was engaged because that's what people were recommending.

I seem to have settled on doing what you were doing with the bends - either braking to turn ACC off (except I was tending to do it in a rather panicky way at the last minute when I should have thought ahead), or toggling down the speed. I'm not persuaded the game is worth the candle on bendy roads though, and I don't think I'd use it on the A701 for choice unless it was to play follow-my-leader. I think the system is probably more suited to roads with shallower bends. In retrospect when I got to Moffat I should have gone on to Abington and joined the M74 so I could have come back with a bit of motorway and then a bit of less bendy trunk A road (the A702) rather than retracing my steps. Perhaps another day.

I was toggling down for the speed limits and that was fine when there was nobody in front, but I realised that if I was following someone who themselves was sticking to the speed limit I didn't really have to bother! In retrospect I have a suspicion that Kia EV in front of me was playing the same game I was, because he took the 20mph section in Broughton bang on the limit. There was a van behind me at first, then he passed me at a point where I must have accidentally disengaged the ACC and lost a bit of speed, and then he got stuck behind the Kia. I think he was a bit frustrated.

How on earth did people use cruise control when it was no more than a button saying "keep going at 60"? I never understood what earthly use that was. Come to a bend, you have to slow down. Come up behind another car, you have to slow down. Why use it at all?

 

[wandle MG4 trophy]

Living in London where many streets have 20 mph speed limits I use ACC a lot. Twice recently the car has not responded to slowing vehicles ahead. The first time I manually braked. The second time the collision assist auto brake kicked in.

I don’t think any of the cameras and sensors were obstructed by anything.

Although I love ACC I certainly don’t trust it as it can give a false sense of security. As others have said, these technologies are driver aids and you need to be the driver and not be driven.

 

[MoDolph]

I never use it on any road with corners that I have to slow down for. I also don't use it where the traffic is changing speed a lot as I can do a better job of anticipating for a smoother ride.

It works best on an empty motorway or when the traffic is flowing nicely and it only needs to adjust the speed slightly to maintain the gap. If I'm not in a rush I like to set it to the longest following distance behind a lorry so I can chill out.

 

[jenco]

I'm wondering if ACC veterans could give me some very basic tips on using the thing?

I've never used any sort of cruise control at all. I've never had a car with the facility. (I think it's always been an option on cars I've bought and I didn't take it.) However. Last week I had a passenger in the car and we were talking bells and whistles, and she said did it have a cruise control and how did that work with the regenerative braking? She said she found her basic cruise control very useful.

We were driving on an A road following other traffic, so I said, well, let's try it. I managed to use the left joystick to set it at 60 mph (the speed limit) and to stay three bars behind the car in front. More by luck than good judgement I have to say. It was an interesting experience and on the whole I quite liked it. I could see that setting the regen to adaptive, or maybe medium, would probably be better, because the braking was a wee bit fierce. But it worked pretty well.

One interesting thing was when we got to a roundabout and the car ahead was no longer "ahead" because it had turned into the roundabout. I felt the car speed up because there was nothing in front, but then when I steered into the roundabout myself it picked up the car in front again and settled down.

I was able to tab the speed down to 30 and then to 20 as we came into the village speed limits. However, when I turned off the main road to take my friend home, it all seemed to give up. If I took my foot off the accelerator the car simply slowed down, it didn't try to cruise at 20. Once I'd dropped off my friend I had thought to coast home at the 20 limit, but nothing doing. 20 was still showing on the dashboard, but the car needed me on the acceperator or it was just going to slow to a creep.

So not bad for a first try, but I could do with some inside tips and tricks.

My first ever forum post, so please bear with me! After dropping your friend I am guessing you touched the brake which cancels ACC. All you need to do is to flick up the left joystick and it will re-engage at the previously set speed. The next flick up or down then reverts to speed increments.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, thank you, I finally realised this. In fact I touched the brake in order to turn off the main road into the road where she lives, and that's what did it.

I went on a little joyride yesterday and I'm gradually getting to grips with the thing. I think after figuring out what it does and doesn't do, the next trick is to figure out when to use it and when not to use it!

 

[Rolfe]

I had another little trip to Moffat this evening, and incidentally got a feel of how the nude light sensor behaves at dusk. Still some annoying on/off going under bridges or in the shade of trees, but it's been very good most of the time. I took the trunk road and the motorway this time and figured out more about how to use the ACC. On the A702 it was better than on the A701 most of the time because the bends aren't so tight, also I'm getting used to it. Again it's best when following someone. I'm not convinced I like it on a single carriageway when driving without anyone in front, though.

On the motorway it was rather good, and in particular it prevented me from doing what I often do, which is creep faster and faster until I'm in serious licence-points territory without realising it. The grading of the motorway, without any tight bends, makes it a much more reasonable proposition.

I think I've got the measure of the thing so that if I want to use it then I know what to do, and I know in what situations it might be useful. Thanks to everyone.

I had thought to take in some of the 25p/unit electricity on the Moffat rapid charger, which I see is going to rise in price in a couple of weeks. No such luck, the charger wasn't working, and when I phoned the ChargePlace Scotland number the guy said it had been out of order since the 10th. Probably trying to avoid having to give people 25p electricity. He was very nice though, checked where I was going and if I had enough range to get me there, told me the West Linton charger was working, and said if I thought I was in trouble to ring him back.

I went back on the motorway even though it was slightly longer and faster, because I knew there were more chargers there if I was in any trouble - as opposed to bugger-all between Moffat and home on the A701. But when I stopped at Abington services thinking about maybe having five minutes expensive GridServe charge I realised when I checked the mileage that I was OK to get all the way home.

The car was very good indeed as it neared empty. At about 10% it asked if it should go into energy-saving mode, but knowing I was OK to get home I said no, and it didn't make any fuss. On the Dolphinton straight, which is only a couple of miles from home and I was already down to about 5% charge, the car let me overtake a slowcoach in front and get up to 80 without limiting the power at all.

When I was turning off the main road to get to the charger (less than half a mile away) and went below 4% charge the dashboard got quite lively with warning triangles and the SoC monitor on the centre screen being amber for real and exhortations to "please charge!", but the car was still perfecly responsive - or as much as I could tell, in a 20 mph zone. So no sign of Bowfer's problem, though to be fair the outside temperature was about 15C, not cold as it was when he had all his problems.

 

[Vingnut]

I didn't find much difference between Sport and Normal while ACC was engaged. I did find Sport quite perky before I engaged ACC though.

Sport responds faster in AAC than Normal does (does not hesitate so long before speeding up). It's not "sporty"

How on earth did people use cruise control when it was no more than a button saying "keep going at 60"? I never understood what earthly use that was. Come to a bend, you have to slow down. Come up behind another car, you have to slow down. Why use it at all?

Wel I use the CC in my 2007 Toyota Auris 2,0d as this. Set it to whatever speed I want to drive at (usualy 1-2 or 8kmt over) and drive that speed in turns and everything, always fun to see the boyracers that push up my back on the straight disappear in my back mirror after a couple of bends. ?
My front tyres tend to not last that long but hey, some fun one must have to not get old and too boresome. ?

That is why the MG4 ACC is driving me crasy with its slowdowns in turns, I am used to accelrate in the turns not to slow down in them (It's the same when the roads are full of snow because there are no speed controlls in turns and on snowy roads).?

 

[Rolfe]

You're crazy, you know that?

 

[Vingnut]

You're crazy, you know that?

Nah, just a bit noughty old boyracer that did not show off in fancy slow cars but drove fast in everything with wheels (busses and big lorries included) who did not kill myself or anybody else. And by accident, luck and more than some prayers from people that keept pray for me got a lot older and a bit wiser.
Today I considdering my self sped limit slow but I stil like to keep my average speed up and you do not do that by driving slow in the bends or stay many seconds behind slow pokes.

Oh a top tip on the way, your average speed is realy hurt if you crashes the car or get pulled over by the police. So not too fast in the bends and not too fast when tic toc either. ?

 

[Rolfe]

It's the cornering at speed that rattles me. I'll go like the clappers on the flat, but fast cornering scares the willies out of me.

I learned to drive a car before I took up motorcycling, but I never had access to a fast car for mre than ten years after I passed my test. I think the motorbike training about slowing down to take corners really stuck. Yes I have seen motorbikes doing crazy stuff on corners too, but I just can't do it.

This is my problem with the ACC, I think I'm the opposite of you. I see a bend coming up, and normally I'd take my foot off the accelerator and try to coast round the bend, in control, trying not to touch the brake if possible. I've been doing this more so with the MG4 because of the regenerative braking. Then I'll be accelerating already as the bend straightens out.

When the car, on ACC, approaches a bend that I can see and it can't, it freaks me out. I start tabbing down the speed on the joystick, or I lose my nerve completely and jab at the brake. I do not have the confidence to let the car take that bend at the set speed, relying only on the cornering itself to slow down a bit. Yes I know the MG4 is remarkably stable and well planted on the road, but my instincts don't like it.

I think I'm likely to use the ACC for "follow my leader" on busy roads, and on motorways, but probably not on single carriageway roads if there's nobody in front of me.

 

[Vingnut]

Rolfe@ To be honnest you are spot on how the ACC work, for me it's like you say in thight bends (I'm not crasy just have a different skill set) and frustrating in bends I can see or know is ok to cruise trough. It's extra bad when this happens with a car that is well behaved like the MG4.

The truth of cornering speed on public roads are that the speed limit on many roads are whell below technical construction speed for the road, in those cases there might bee room to exploit this difference providing other factors is not interfering. That meaning that the speed limit might be the slow in and there are no need to slow further down to take the corner at speed limit or with a moore frisky exit.

 

[Rolfe]

We have a system here where if there is a particularly difficult bend in a road of a certain speed limit, before the bend there will be an advisory speed limit indicating that it is foolhardy to try to take that bend at a higher speed. The advice is usually pretty accurate. I encountered several of these when trying out the ACC, and tabbed down the speed on the joystick to the indicated speed. This worked OK.

But often there is just a sign to warn of a bend with no speed suggestion, and often if you don't know the road you don't know how tight the bend is going to be. I didn't know whether to keep going or whether to tab down the speed or to brake.

If you can take bends at high speed that is indeed a skill set. I've only ever driven one track day (in my Peugeot) and I didn't really like it. I prefer to ease off the speed before I start to turn, which obviously the ACC doesn't allow, and to take the bend at a speed where I feel I'm in control. I also tend to accelerate fairly quickly out of the bend, which I've seen several people say the ACC isn't good at.

I don't think the ACC is for me on single-carriageway roads with unpredictable bends - unless I'm following another car, in which case it's great. On the other hand I think I will use it quite a lot on motorways. I tend to try to hold myself to the maximum speed that won't get me nicked, which is 78 or 79 as far as I know. But good intentions and all that. I speed up when the traffic around me is going faster. I overtake, and then don't pull back enough. I did a bit on the M74 last night with the ACC set at 80 and it worked very well indeed.

On the way back I set it to 60 because I knew I was short-ish on charge. I couldn't stand it. I put it up to 65 then to 70 and it still seemed stupid slow! So something in the car holding me back from further excesses is probably a really good idea.

 

[Rolfe]

I just wanted to thank people in this thread for talking me through this feature. Whether I use it much remains to be seen, but now I know what it can and can't do, and which of its features I might use in different circumstances. Muchos gracias!

 

[Tigger]

It doesn't engage below 20

Interesting. . . My trophy engages as long as I'm moving, but not when I'm stationary. I like using it at slow speeds in traffic jams, because my car stops if the car in front stops.

A question: You are supposed to be able to alter the ACC speed selected in increments of 1mph by gently prodding the toggle thingy. However, it always goes up in 5mph increments whatever I do. Anybody got any tips to get finer control?

Edit: The reason I want this is that I like going along the motorway with ACC set to 72mph. This means I'm not really speeding, and I lock on to the car in front.

 

[boboulas]

Mine engages down to 10mph but no lower.

+1 for the how to select increments of 1mph, I too would like to know this as didn't know was possible I've just been pushing up or down 5mph then pressing the button in when I'm at my desired speed in between

 

[Martinonline]

You should be able to increment or decrement by 1s by holding the button up / down. It is counter-intuitive but does work

 

[siteguru]

You press and hold the toggle up/down for 1 mph increments. However the rate of change in speed setting is not easy to control.