First World Adaptive Cruise Control Problems

[AAOO]

Just made a 600 mile trip, mostly on I-10, and even in moderate traffic with the closest following distance I find the ACC unusable.

The ACC leaves just enough space for some ******* to rush up the right lane and squeeze in between me and the vehicle I’m following, in the fast lane, causing my vehicle to slow and increase the gap. This vicious cycle happened over and over for a good hour before I finally shut the SOB (ACC) off.

I’m sure they’ve calculated the following distance for safety reasons and for allowing the vehicle time to react to its surroundings but this is ridiculous.

Now, I wonder if there is a way in Forscan to reduce the following distance. I don’t think it would be too dangerous for an alert driver to reduce the gap by 1 vehicle length which would dissuade most drivers from trying to squeeze in the lane ahead.

 

[Deadman]

Mine does exactly the same as you say, so I shut mine all OFF the day I bought my expedition. Its a horrible PITA. Even my wife absolutely HATES it.
Its great for a texter that doesn't pay any attention. lol

 

[scottdm]

Agree that ACC is most suited for light traffic where you can maintain a reasonable following distance. In those situations, it's not bad.

 

[TobyU]

First World Adaptive Cruise Control Problems

That it exists....was my first thought when reading the title. LOL

I rarely bother with cruise. I just drive. I also can get better mileage than cruise if I am trying to maximize mileage. Some have tried to argue this with me. The same one who prob say you should use 5w-20 oil in a 1st,2nd gen and other vehicles because that is what Ford says (or rather- do you think you know more than the engineers that designed the vehicle?-)

The cruise has to maintain the speed and it gets there rather quickly. IF I am maximizing fuel, I go much easier on pedal and get there much slower AND I let it go as fast as it will downhills and let it slow uphills without giving it the gs to keep speed up.
Yeah---don't get behind me.

 

[Deadman]

Mine gets a couple mpg better when I shut the cruise off too. The ridiculous cruise jams on the brakes and downshifts and all kinds of retarded things on every substantial downhill. Instead of taking the free downhill miles, it kills your momentum so you need throttle, sooooo stupid. Gotta love computers.

 

[Artie]

I don’t mind it. I think it depends on the traffic. Atlanta is bad but I don’t find that people run up in front of me. It depends on the time of day, middle of the day drivers are far nicer than the morning or afternoon commuters. I only go into the city on occasion and never during the commuting times so my experience isn’t a good representation.

 

[byathread]

I find I just run my first world cruise differently/with the acc turned on...

1. I'm quick to cancel so I can coast if I think it's going to activate the brake when I don't want it to.

2. I usually don't use it to brake to a stop from being "at speed" as that's all happening a bit late for my liking.

3. For that ******* cutting in front situation, I find the largest gap is best and just let them go and revert to 1

YMMV

 

[Rancidlunchmeat]

To each their own, I guess. I happen to love it, but I don't use it under those conditions. If traffic is too heavy and the surrounding drivers are too aggressive, I'll use the gas pedal to increase speed and decrease following distance until the traffic thins out and I can get off the pedal and let the cruise take control again. It doesn't have anything to do with me texting, it has to do with the driving conditions.

 

[GC2019]

It works great in normal interstate driving. I love it. When it comes to traffic or in city interstate travel, I hate it.

 

[Deadman]

I just hate it period, because it always does something stupid whether its the brakes or throttle. Its more wasteful that my wifes driving. It can never anticipate whats "going" to happen, so it waits until something does happen and then it reacts and hammers down on the brakes or throttle. Totally wasteful. I haven't used it lately, but I'm sure it cuts a couple mpg in many situations. Maybe that's why everyones complaining about poor milage! lol

 

[Wayne Decker]

It can never anticipate whats "going" to happen,

That's what a driver is supposed to do. It reacts when the driver hasn't paid attention.

 

[Deadman]

That's what a driver is supposed to do. It reacts when the driver hasn't paid attention.

So like when I'm going around a left hand curve on a 4 lane highway and I'm in the left lane and passing a slower car to my right and it slams on MY brakes because it senses that car a lane over because of the curve and thinks it would be safer for me to get rear ended by the car behind me in the corner and be pushed into the median......

I'm sure its ok for some, but its just not my personal cup of tea! I'm just glad it can be shut off and remain off after a restart. My wifes Ford the stupid adaptive cruise has to be shut off EVERY SINGLE TIME you restart the engine. She get so infuriated, because you have to page thru like 3 menu pages to get to it and you nearly kill yourself shutting it off because you have to look away from the road for so long.

 

[TobyU]

This is exactly why they should give us options. You should be able to turn off the adaptive cruise control and have plain old regular Cruise like a normal vehicle. Cruise should simply increase throttle and keep you at the set speed and should let you Coast downhill and never apply the brakes.
It would be a very simple programming matter and one little switch on the dash or you getting glued it in the software for the set up with the other things on our displays in the menu today. Then you could have both types of cruise control.

 

[Password]

The system isn't geared towards left lane "aggressive" driving. It's CRUISE control.

 

[byathread]

So like when I'm going around a left hand curve on a 4 lane highway and I'm in the left lane and passing a slower car to my right and it slams on MY brakes because it senses that car a lane over because of the curve and thinks it would be safer for me to get rear ended by the car behind me in the corner and be pushed into the median......

I'm sure its ok for some, but its just not my personal cup of tea! I'm just glad it can be shut off and remain off after a restart. My wifes Ford the stupid adaptive cruise has to be shut off EVERY SINGLE TIME you restart the engine. She get so infuriated, because you have to page thru like 3 menu pages to get to it and you nearly kill yourself shutting it off because you have to look away from the road for so long.

Was playing with the interval early this AM on an errand and this very thing happened with shortest interval set. Reinforced that I don't really like anything other than the largest interval for this feature. I did the exact same thing again on a sharper turn in similar conditions with the largest interval and it didn't happen. Not sure if interval defaults to highest or not, but, that is the only usable setting for me, I think! Otherwise I'm driving... [emoji12] Honestly, I think this feature is really good for light highway traffic on long drives. Wonder if you can put the adaptive cruise on/off menu on your configurable screen?

 

[aggiegrad05]

This is exactly why they should give us options. You should be able to turn off the adaptive cruise control and have plain old regular Cruise like a normal vehicle. Cruise should simply increase throttle and keep you at the set speed and should let you Coast downhill and never apply the brakes.
It would be a very simple programming matter and one little switch on the dash or you getting glued it in the software for the set up with the other things on our displays in the menu today. Then you could have both types of cruise control.

Ummm...they do.

Go into the Settings Menu in the gauge cluster...scroll down to Cruise Control...select either Adaptive or Normal.

Go nuts.

 

[Deadman]

Was playing with the interval early this AM on an errand and this very thing happened with shortest interval set. Reinforced that I don't really like anything other than the largest interval for this feature. I did the exact same thing again on a sharper turn in similar conditions with the largest interval and it didn't happen. Not sure if interval defaults to highest or not, but, that is the only usable setting for me, I think! Otherwise I'm driving... [emoji12] Honestly, I think this feature is really good for light highway traffic on long drives. Wonder if you can put the adaptive cruise on/off menu on your configurable screen?

Real nice when it screws up isn't it? The problem is, OUR lives are at stake if it really messes up bad and causes some kind of accident. I'm just not volunteering to crash because of a computer. I'm far from the best driver, but I have a safe record, so I'll try to keep it that way! .

It really scares the $hit out of you when someone is left turning in front of you and the computer senses the speed difference and can't understand that the car is turning and will be gone in 1 second, so it dynamites the brakes and you eat the steering wheel and the cars behind you end up nearly in your rear bumper!

 

[duneslider]

And to think I was pretty stoked the expedition had power windows...

Anyway, I had a rental out of town the other day and it was the first time I had driven something with lane keeping and crash detection/avoidance. I didn't even realize it was activated and kept feeling my steering wheel tugged when I got to close to the lines, or felt the brakes activate if I got to close to another vehicle. It really bothered me at first. After three days it still bugged me but I didn't seem to notice it as much.

 

[shane_th_ee]

Yes, it's wasteful because it uses extra gas, but I rather like it for long stretches stop-and-go traffic. I still have to pay attention and watch for somebody cutting me off and am quick to over ride it with the gas or brake, but... it's kinda nice to just sit there and let the truck figure out when to slow down and how much, when to speed up and how much, and... I just don't have to think about if the car in front of me is rapidly accelerating to fill in a gap or if they're rapidly accelerating because traffic is clearing up. The ACC will do its thing and I might use a little more gas, but oh well.

 

[byathread]

...so it dynamites the brakes and you eat the steering wheel and the cars behind you end up nearly in your rear bumper!

Haven't had this happen...yet. I've been using it more lately around town at lower speeds and it is reinforcing my use of that larger interval. Short interval seems good for on highway congested traffic, even used it pulling the camper and it was enough for me where I'll keep it on vs disabled. I'm sure I'll just get used to it... [emoji41] first world problems! [emoji12]