VW Crash detection help (video added)

Bl4ckGryph0n

As I said before, take it back in. It shouldn’t do that at all. Out of interest does your ACC still work? I would have thought it isn’t since it looks like it can’t read the road.

I hope yours is still within warranty as an alignment isn’t cheap.

GrumpyOldGamer

Well the car is just over three years old but VW extended the warranty until July 31st this year, I’m going to take a drive down the VW this morning and speak to somebody.

Naaktgeboren

We had similar when we first purchased our Honda, the 'collision mitigation braking system' was meant to be the dogs nuts according to the dealer and I appreciated the benefits of such a system although only 2 weeks later when we were on our way to the zoo, we were travelling along a quiet stretch with no other cars travelling in either direction, was just going through a tunnel when the system kicked in hard!  Slammed the brakes on from 40mph, absolute chaos in the cabin as I thought for a split second I'd somehow hit the bridge!

Got the car back to Honda who investigated, it turned out the vehicle's camera system hadn't been calibrated properly and assumed the tunnel was a car approaching on the wrong side!

Been fine since, 3 years without any more mishaps, very scary though and I dread to think what could have happened had the roads been busy!

GrumpyOldGamer

Cars going in VW on the 25th for initial investigation although they don’t have a calibration machine the neighbouring branch does.

Foster

good job nobody was tailgating you!

gibbsy

I've had the warning flash up once, no braking. I think it detected someone parked up that opened their door, I was only do about 15 mph in the town centre at the time.

noiseboy72

The system is doing what it should do. It cannot detect or react correctly to every possible road situation. The system uses a zoned radar system located in the front badge, comparing the returns to the angle of the steering wheel.

From first look at the video, you were quite early into the turn, so you were on a collision course for a few seconds until you started to turn into the bend proper. As there's only 1 sensor and no sensor fusion, it can only react to the hazards identified at a point in time and from a single viewpoint.  They can check the calibration to be sure, but unless you get repeated faults, I don't think there's a problem. Bear in mind there's a good 1-2 seconds of delay between detection and reaction with this system as well.

A touch on the brakes, clutch or in some cases throttle will disconnect the autonomous braking and will return full control to you.

I loved my Passat for these safety features and could count on the fingers of one hand the number of false positives I had in 60K of driving. Like you, some bends do catch it out occasionally. You know if it thinks there's an imminent collision, as it tightens the seat belts. I had that once, when I left braking a little late coming up to a queue at a roundabout!

Trollslayer

There is a rush to put this kind of thing in to get the selling price up but they often just aren't up to the job.
I don't expect a good self driving car for the next 12-15 years frankly.

noiseboy72

AEB - Autonomous Emergency Braking is becoming an EU requirement from what I understand. Technology is advancing at a very rapid pace and I think 3-5 years is more like it for autonomous driving - at least in certain conditions. 5G will allow better communication between vehicles and this will lead to better systems. I've been down at the XLR8 exhibition in London these past couple of days and the technology is being sold into manufacturers now, so based on vehicle build cycles, 3-5 years is a good estimate.

Trollslayer

I am talking about level 5, full automation.
Also the systems available are more machine learning rather than artificial intelligence so there will be a lot of situations (not frequent but enough) that can cause fatal accidents.
Then add poor testing, rush to get things out.
Oh, and cutting back on expensive sensors - this was a major factor in a fatal accident in Arizona recently when some was in plain sight on the road.