Car collision avoidance systems?

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Batman

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#237998 28-Jun-2018 11:28

I'm interested to follow a list of car companies that have collision avoidance systems, esp against pedestrians and cyclists. Anyone own cars that avoid these?

At the moment only Subaru and Volvo have them? That's pretty poor form of the other car companies.

Reason I an interested is when driving at night on the open road, it scares me a lot if someone happens to be on the road and I can't see them. Seeing around bends would be even better but I think that might break physics.

Geektastic

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#2045319 28-Jun-2018 11:35

Mercedes Benz and BMW have them.

I think the newer Land Rover vehicles have them too.

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#2045345 28-Jun-2018 11:50

My VW Golf has collision avoidance, but only by radar. Some vehicles also utilise cameras and/or LIDAR which I suppose are more advanced

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WyleECoyoteNZ

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#2045350 28-Jun-2018 11:53

Depends on what you mean in collision avoidance

Is it as simple as a lane keep assist\lane departure warning system or autonomous braking?

I know the high end Mercedes S Class did have night vision cameras\displays built into the dashboard displays, not sure these days who else is doing it.

re you headlight question, I think the new high end Audi's have LED adaptive headlights. From what I've seen from various reviews is with these headlights, is you can have the visibility as if you were using high beams, but the car angles the lights so as not to blind those coming towards you, or those you are following.

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#2045455 28-Jun-2018 12:47

WyleECoyoteNZ:

Depends on what you mean in collision avoidance

Is it as simple as a lane keep assist\lane departure warning system or autonomous braking?

I know the high end Mercedes S Class did have night vision cameras\displays built into the dashboard displays, not sure these days who else is doing it.

re you headlight question, I think the new high end Audi's have LED adaptive headlights. From what I've seen from various reviews is with these headlights, is you can have the visibility as if you were using high beams, but the car angles the lights so as not to blind those coming towards you, or those you are following.

No, I'm worried about pedestrians and cyclists (or humans in whatever form!) on the road, even if you are travelling round an open road bend say, if you have a system that can rapidly slow down the vehicle ASAP, that is a lot better than me seeing them and reacting. Worries me every time I am on the open road. Not overly worried at 50 kph, unless you are distracted, which is also possible.

JoshWright

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#2045465 28-Jun-2018 13:01

There are two common systems for these scenarios:

- Forward Collision Warning (gives an audible/visual alert)

- Autonomous Emergency Braking (applies the brakes automatically, as well as alerting the driver)

I searched 'autonomous emergency braking' on Trade Me, and it looks like a lot of new cars have it now (Kia, Hyundai, Holden, Subaru, Toyota, Jaguar, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, VW, Volvo etc all did).

I think autonomous emergency braking is probably what you're after here?

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#2045470 28-Jun-2018 13:08

Batman: No, I'm worried about pedestrians and cyclists (or humans in whatever form!) on the road, even if you are travelling round an open road bend say, if you have a system that can rapidly slow down the vehicle ASAP, that is a lot better than me seeing them and reacting. Worries me every time I am on the open road. Not overly worried at 50 kph, unless you are distracted, which is also possible.

Is this a recent worry you've got or have you always had it?

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Batman

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#2045475 28-Jun-2018 13:23

clevedon:

Batman: No, I'm worried about pedestrians and cyclists (or humans in whatever form!) on the road, even if you are travelling round an open road bend say, if you have a system that can rapidly slow down the vehicle ASAP, that is a lot better than me seeing them and reacting. Worries me every time I am on the open road. Not overly worried at 50 kph, unless you are distracted, which is also possible.

Is this a recent worry you've got or have you always had it?

Always had it. If you must know why the post now - I was looking at some really powerful cars (not that I can afford to service them!) and was wondering ... why the heck would you have a 500hp car and no collision avoidance system of any sort! But even not so powerful cars, if you can go at 100 clicks, it is fast enough that human reaction to sudden appearance of stuff is too slow. Sudden appearance is very possible at night (when not on high beam, low beam is pathetic, and is required when cars are coming towards you, further reducing field of vision) or round bends.

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#2045476 28-Jun-2018 13:31

Obviously? Tesla also has them.

ISTR that you can buy aftermarket night-vision systems. My understanding is that the cheap ones aren't much chop... all they do is illuminate with IR and display reflections. The really good ones detect the animal/person's radiated IR.

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#2045515 28-Jun-2018 13:45

I purchased a new Outback last month which has autonomous emergency braking. Two weeks ago, I encountered a car coming towards me in the fast lane of the Wellington motorway (!). Instinct, I pulled immediately into the left lane, only a matter of feet behind another car in the lane, and the Outback immediately self-braked and displayed a collision warning.

The Outback also has adaptive cruise control. Last week I set this to 105 km on a drive from Waikanae to Wellington and don't think I touched the brakes at all - the car self managed itself through a range of speed zones, including bringing itself to a complete stop behind stalled traffic at McKays crossing. I wouldn't normally let the car self-manage a journey, but I was interested to see how effective it was. Pretty impressive stuff, me thinks.

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#2045613 28-Jun-2018 15:53

dafman:

I purchased a new Outback last month which has autonomous emergency braking. Two weeks ago, I encountered a car coming towards me in the fast lane of the Wellington motorway (!). Instinct, I pulled immediately into the left lane, only a matter of feet behind another car in the lane, and the Outback immediately self-braked and displayed a collision warning.

The Outback also has adaptive cruise control. Last week I set this to 105 km on a drive from Waikanae to Wellington and don't think I touched the brakes at all - the car self managed itself through a range of speed zones, including bringing itself to a complete stop behind stalled traffic at McKays crossing. I wouldn't normally let the car self-manage a journey, but I was interested to see how effective it was. Pretty impressive stuff, me thinks.

Yup I know Subaru and Volvo has them.

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#2045632 28-Jun-2018 16:17

Batman:
Always had it. If you must know why the post now - I was looking at some really powerful cars (not that I can afford to service them!) and was wondering ... why the heck would you have a 500hp car and no collision avoidance system of any sort! But even not so powerful cars, if you can go at 100 clicks, it is fast enough that human reaction to sudden appearance of stuff is too slow. Sudden appearance is very possible at night (when not on high beam, low beam is pathetic, and is required when cars are coming towards you, further reducing field of vision) or round bends.

Even collision avoidance systems aren't foolproof. There was a recent case where a person pushing a bicycle was perceived as a cyclist who would have moved out of the way.

If your low beam is pathetic have it checked. I have had the WoF testers crank the headlights down below the correct angle. If you are using halogen bulbs the +50 are a reasonable compromise between bulb life and tweaking the filament focus to get more light at the outer reach.

And yes corners on ordinary roads are a nuisance, if only they had flag marshals like race tracks so you didn't have to drive responsibly.

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#2045639 28-Jun-2018 16:30

I like some of the systems, the new Rav4's have adaptive radar and autonomous braking. It has surprised me once, following a car at some distance at 100kmh, it indicated to turn into a side road, I could see it indicate, resisted the urge to slow down as it was going to turn, then wallop, car braked heavily when it decided there was an object. Gave me quite a fright. But the adaptive cruise control is great, I don't like the lane departure wiggle either, if you cut the lines on a left hander, it gives the steering wheel either a jolt, or turns you back (I never worked out which, turned it off immediately).

As for needing to slow down round bends for something, well it's common sense. I know people like to rag on cyclists riding two abreast on country roads etc, but I come across plenty of tractors and slow moving vehicles, just drive as though you might need to stop in a hurry.

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#2045776 28-Jun-2018 21:50

Also consider a car with adaptive Xenon headlights; the low beams are excellent, as is the ability to have them follow the steering and provide additional side illumination when turning at junctions etc. We have two vehicles with them (Range Rover and Volvo) and one without (Honda Jazz) and driving the Jazz at night is hopeless in comparison - it may as well have two candle lanterns on the front!