Technology in Cars

DullGreyGuy

Lane assist is intended to deal with you drifting out of lane and so it can tell the difference between you just not having the wheels quite straight or not steering the right amount to go round a motorway style bend and stay central in the lane -v- a material shift in the wheel to swerve or change lane etc.

Park assist would tell you when it had found a space it could park it in for you. It then did all the steering and the throttle but you had to change between Drive and Reverse for it

photome

Lane assist on my Corolla will steer the car for me  but if I let go of the steering wheel it activates a warning buzzer to tell me to keep hold of the wheel 

I have it switched off

the park assist will park the car for me, tried it once and it took so long that I have never used it since

prowla

Overall, I think the informative features are good, but I have mixed experiences with the active ones.

• I found lane assist quite intrusive and turned it off; I keep the steering wheel rumbling on though.
• I've never used my car's parking assist.
• My car is quite good at spotting pedestrians/obstacles, though it doesn't quite get things right: once it triggered on a motorbike rider stopped at a give-way on a bend, another at a pedestrian on the pavement on a bend, and another square manhole in the road at the bottom of steep hill.
• It is pretty bad at speed limits; beyond generally missing signs, in particular there's a 30 mph road which it thinks is 80, and a couple of weeks ago it told me that a 40 mph road was 100 (there are no public roads in the UK with 80 or 100 mph limits)!
  
• My reversing camera and warnings is very good.
• I was looking at getting a new car and would've included an all-round camera, but the dealer messed up the sale (this week) so I've walked away.
• I regularly use satnav, but oftentimes prefer to take different turns on the overall route. Once the satnav went completely wrong and thought my driving along a dual carriageway was in the middle of a lake; it must've been an overall glitch, but it was a fail.
  

So, I have to say I don't 100% trust the active tech.

MouldyOldDough

prowla said:

Overall, I think the informative features are good, but I have mixed experiences with the active ones.

• I found lane assist quite intrusive and turned it off; I keep the steering wheel rumbling on though.
• I've never used my car's parking assist.
• My car is quite good at spotting pedestrians/obstacles, though it doesn't quite get things right: once it triggered on a motorbike rider stopped at a give-way on a bend, another at a pedestrian on the pavement on a bend, and another square manhole in the road at the bottom of steep hill.
• It is pretty bad at speed limits; beyond generally missing signs, in particular there's a 30 mph road which it thinks is 80, and a couple of weeks ago it told me that a 40 mph road was 100 (there are no public roads in the UK with 80 or 100 mph limits)!
  
• My reversing camera and warnings is very good.
• I was looking at getting a new car and would've included an all-round camera, but the dealer messed up the sale (this week) so I've walked away.
• I regularly use satnav, but oftentimes prefer to take different turns on the overall route. Once the satnav went completely wrong and thought my driving along a dual carriageway was in the middle of a lake; it must've been an overall glitch, but it was a fail.
  

So, I have to say I don't 100% trust the active tech.

I assumed that speed limits were set using GPS rather than reading signs? 

diystarter7

Hi again

The best gadget is the autonomous braking sytems and they vary from make/model re their ability.
I think they became mandatory on psv and certain lorries, not sure.
The simple gadget the LED headlights are a massive adi to driving as is the ESP and antilock brakes, saves millions from accidents.

I would not now by a car that did not have good autonomous braking sytem and one that catered well in city and motorway driving or buy a car with any less that 95% crash rating award.

The land departures, and blind spot all aid all drivers and make good drivers even better and is a good gadget that gives you a peace of mind on motorways from those that over and undertakes like racing drivers.

Since I bought my car it did no have the option but on some cars the revesting camera gives you a wider view and warnings,

I've never used the selg park thing on my car but if we get one where you stand outside and let the car park itself, I may use that

Since having the 4x4 years ago I cant see myself not having a permanet 4 wheel drive car as it feels more stable.

Gadgets, safety gadgets are a great aid to driving.

Thnaks

diystarter7

Btw - is it me  - I find it hard to control stuff on the touch buttom dashboards as I have to take eyes of the road, I'm glad I still have a radio knob and two for climate control. As I wear glasses for driving, diffuclt to see the little symbols on the lower dash to trun on rear hear/seatsheat/cool and or chaing the air vents to sides/scress down etc

I'm confident in a few years time car makers will return to put more knobs on  cars as you dont need to look down really.
 The voice commands are hit and miss in my car but I've had steering controls to adjust radio etc etc since 95 and these are often well though out


BTW - a gadget that I've not heard about in other cars is when I ope my car door and lets say I have forgotten to take it out of drive, opening the door with the engine running automatically puts the car into park mode,

Thnaks

jefaz07

MouldyOldDough said:

prowla said:

Overall, I think the informative features are good, but I have mixed experiences with the active ones.

• I found lane assist quite intrusive and turned it off; I keep the steering wheel rumbling on though.
• I've never used my car's parking assist.
• My car is quite good at spotting pedestrians/obstacles, though it doesn't quite get things right: once it triggered on a motorbike rider stopped at a give-way on a bend, another at a pedestrian on the pavement on a bend, and another square manhole in the road at the bottom of steep hill.
• It is pretty bad at speed limits; beyond generally missing signs, in particular there's a 30 mph road which it thinks is 80, and a couple of weeks ago it told me that a 40 mph road was 100 (there are no public roads in the UK with 80 or 100 mph limits)!
  
• My reversing camera and warnings is very good.
• I was looking at getting a new car and would've included an all-round camera, but the dealer messed up the sale (this week) so I've walked away.
• I regularly use satnav, but oftentimes prefer to take different turns on the overall route. Once the satnav went completely wrong and thought my driving along a dual carriageway was in the middle of a lake; it must've been an overall glitch, but it was a fail.
  

So, I have to say I don't 100% trust the active tech.

I assumed that speed limits were set using GPS rather than reading signs? 

Mine reads and changes as you pass. So temp speed limits and temp signs are included. 

searchlight123

New Qashqai Tekna+ has excellent parking cameras all round but the best one is the overhead view done by AI (artificial intelligence) software giving you a birds eye view of your car from above. The best parking aid I've ever used on a car tbh.

daveyjp

Lane assist, make me feel ill as it steers the car without input.

Parking assist had it on other cars only ever used it to show passengers, never used it myself, far too much faff.

Johnmcl7

diystarter7 said:

Btw - is it me  - I find it hard to control stuff on the touch buttom dashboards as I have to take eyes of the road, I'm glad I still have a radio knob and two for climate control. As I wear glasses for driving, diffuclt to see the little symbols on the lower dash to trun on rear hear/seatsheat/cool and or chaing the air vents to sides/scress down etc

I'm confident in a few years time car makers will return to put more knobs on  cars as you dont need to look down really.
 The voice commands are hit and miss in my car but I've had steering controls to adjust radio etc etc since 95 and these are often well though out


BTW - a gadget that I've not heard about in other cars is when I ope my car door and lets say I have forgotten to take it out of drive, opening the door with the engine running automatically puts the car into park mode,

Thnaks

No, not just you:

https://www.whichcar.com.au/news/swedish-study-finds-physical-buttons-are-safer-than-touchscreens

It's something I appreciate about my car is that it has a range of well designed physical controls that can be easily adjusted without looking.  Unfortunately at the moment cars seem to be moving towards less controls which I assume is simpler and cheaper but I feel a step back for drivers.