Terrifying BMW lane assist problem

[ecotourist]

Honest/serious question: Did you use your turn signal ? If you did, I'm 99% confident it wouldn't have steered you back.

Whether you use or don't use your turn signal doesn't matter. In a true emergency there is no time for turn signals.

If my BMW had fought me when that car blundered in front of me, I'd most likely be dead. And the other driver would have been dead for sure. I'd have T-boned him right where he was sitting at 80 Km/hr (50 miles/hr).

 

[JHZR2]

Honest/serious question: Did you use your turn signal ? If you did, I'm 99% confident it wouldn't have steered you back.

As I recall it was a new exit lane forming. And it confused the thing. I may not have.

 

[JHZR2]

If you are in a panic maneuver, I doubt you will think to use your turn signal. I just had to make one this morning, when a FedEx truck driver decided to go full reverse out of a hidden driveway onto a busy 45mph road.

Whether you use or don't use your turn signal doesn't matter. In a true emergency there is no time for turn signals.

If my BMW had fought me when that car blundered in front of me, I'd most likely be dead. And the other driver would have been dead for sure. I'd have T-boned him right where he was sitting at 80 Km/hr (50 miles/hr).

Yeah but that question was aimed at me commenting on how the Malibu pulled stronger than I expected,,,

 

[Hall]

As I recall it was a new exit lane forming. And it confused the thing. I may not have.

There are definitely flaws or shortcomings in these systems. I was driving my wife's on this stretch of road, in the left-hand lane, and a left-hand turn lane veers off. I had the adaptive cruise control on and was letting it steer and it followed the left-hand lane marking, which meant veering me into the turn lane. We only had the car for a short time so I was still experimenting, but this is one thing I'm aware of now.

 

[Hall]

If you are in a panic maneuver, I doubt you will think to use your turn signal. I just had to make one this morning, when a FedEx truck driver decided to go full reverse out of a hidden driveway onto a busy 45mph road.

I was specifically asking @JHZR2 based on the scenario he described.

That said, these system also have collision-avoidance features and so on so I wonder at what point does it swerve (or does it) into another lane to avoid a vehicle. I don't know if these systems will attempt to steer away from another vehicle or only brake. Under a certain distance, these system know based on the speed they're going and how far the other vehicle is if emergency braking will even work. Or, maybe the logic is emergency brake and ideally slow down enough to reduce the collision speed.

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[ecotourist]

The Tesla logic must be that a driver crossing in front of me is going to stop right across my lane, so I must stop before I get there. That isn't what happens of course and I can see that his path is clear, can see that he isn't stopping, and "know" he isn't going to stop.

It seems that second step ("knowing" he isn't going to stop) is beyond the Tesla system's powers of observation and logic.

As I said earlier I think Tesla got bent out of shape because of that death, so their default approach is to stop, rather than default to driving on smoothly. That maybe makes sense in a "we don't want to get sued again" world but it doesn't make for sensible driving.

 

[Kurtatron]

Reminds me of an air crash investigation episode I saw recently. Commercial jet liner crashed because the autopilot was trying to force the pilots to abort landing while the pilots were trying to finish landing. Plane ended up stalling and killing everyone. Technology has its limits.

 

[dubber09]

The title should be like - 'Tech that can kill you, shoved up your throat, and elsewhere!'.

 

[jeepman3071]

Yeah but that question was aimed at me commenting on how the Malibu pulled stronger than I expected,,,

Good catch, my mistake. That's what I get for reading this thread on my phone haha.

 

[jeepman3071]

The title should be like - 'Tech that can kill you, shoved up your throat, and elsewhere!'.

I think tech can be extremely helpful. My grandparents have lane assistance that beeps as well as the radar cruise and back up camera, blind spot monitoring, etc in their new Rav4 hybrid. I'm not sure I would feel comfortable with them driving without these features being 84 and 85 years old. IMO there are a lot of older people who should not be anywhere near a car, that might offend some people on here, but I worked in AARP auto insurance previously, and the things I saw were insane.

With that said, a technology that actively moves the steering wheel is going way too far, even if it does work somewhat well, there is too much risk.

 

[mk378]

There is a not zero chance that a car turning into a driveway could stop halfway, and it will be your fault if you hit him because you didn't expect that.

Always drive defensively. The present generation of automatic features may work well on freeways but could be dicey on surface roads.

 

[Leo99]

Good thing it was a test drive. Now you know that you don't want a car with a computer controlled and motorized steering wheel. Or more generally, a car that can forcefully and suddenly take over from you as the driver. I resemble that. I have a car that I drive, not a car that drives me. That said, there are so many terrible drivers out there, perhaps we should be glad that these automatic driving features are so popular.

I'm going the other way. I'm getting older, people are getting crazier. I've almost hit two people traveling fast going the wrong way on electric bikes.