2 hours ago, RodTucker said:

As an IAM member and holder of Cardington A certificates for car and motorcycle, I have never yet needed my vehicle to tell me how, when or where to steer. When I experienced lane assist for the first time, it felt very unsettling. The road went from a wide but single lane to a three lane - left, ahead, right - in a fairly short space. I had to move slightly left to follow the lane ahead when the wheel suddenly pulled left. There could easily have been a car or two-wheeler squeezing up on my nearside for a left turn. Please, somebody tell me how this improves safety?

 

The "system" used by both IAM and DSA includes "consider a signal if it would assist other road users". It does not say "mirror, signal, manoeuvre". It encourages actual thought rather than robotic actions.

It won't as side assist interacts 

On 23/02/2020 at 22:47, Scot5 said:

 

I don't like it either ( luckily I can still turn mine off on both Octavia and Karoq ). Yes it's a pain to keep manually turning it off but scrapping the bottom of the barrel for positives, it's not annoying if you use your indicators.

 

With lane assist switched on I find myself using the indicators more which I guess is no bad thing and would imagine is difficult to argue against. I may not like it but I'd say it's more safe rather than more dangerous.

Using indicators on a bendy country lane? Interesting idea.

 

While waiting yet again for my new Kamiq, I have been loaned a very nice Scala diesel DSG. I discussed lane assist with the salesman and he said that with cruise control and lane assist, they practically drove themselves.

 

As my first trip involved a stretch of the A41 dual carriageway, how could I resist?

 

To be fair, at 70 with both set, all seemed well and we negotiated several gentle bends with no drama but suddenly there was a bright message on the dashboard to the effect that I should "take control of the steering" and "stay in the centre of my lane". Bit of a bloody cheek, being told off by a car!

 

But, an interesting insight into the mind of whatever complete idiot that thought up the lane assist thing. Whilst being centre lane is generally a good thing, especially in heavy traffic, it is not always the optimum position for the view ahead and general safety. For example, approaching an on-ramp and I can't get over a lane due to traffic, I will tend to move right a little for a better view and a fraction more room. Not a situation that calls for indicators so lane "assist" can kick in.

 

Me no like and it will be disabled on every trip.

 

BTW, the on/off for the cruise control is on top of the indicator switch, which is very sensitive and I have found myself inadvertently doing a 3 flash signal a couple of times. Not great design.

Aw c'mon now,  'Take control of steering' means you are driving along with your hands behind your head. 

It will sometimes tell you  to  'Take over steering'  which means you were  on auto pilot but forgot about it. 

I had my hands barely off the steering wheel. Honest 

On 23/08/2020 at 17:00, RodTucker said:

Using indicators on a bendy country lane? Interesting idea.

 

Lane assist should not be active on a bendy country lane, as typically there would be no white lines and a safe speed would be less than 37 mph.

 

1 hour ago, RodTucker said:

I had my hands barely off the steering wheel. Honest 

 

I tried the same thing just once as an experiment, very briefly. Worth doing just to see how it works. I took back control as soon as the warning came up.

 

The sort of B roads that I use around here generally have excellent sightlines - even in a low vehicle such as my MGF - and sufficient width to maintain or close to the UK legal limit. Most have white lines. We are quite civilised here.

The moorland road on which I had my first experience of lane assist is as straight as a die for about a mile with excellent visibility even across the bends that follow after the straight. Anything travelling less than about 50mph is expected to allow following traffic to pass.

 

I don't expect anyone who has not experienced the sudden ill founded intervention of lane assist to understand. I'm sure that if what happened to me was common and routinely happened to others then it would be more widely reported.

6 hours ago, longedge said:

The moorland road on which I had my first experience of lane assist is as straight as a die for about a mile with excellent visibility even across the bends that follow after the straight. Anything travelling less than about 50mph is expected to allow following traffic to pass.

 

I don't expect anyone who has not experienced the sudden ill founded intervention of lane assist to understand. I'm sure that if what happened to me was common and routinely happened to others then it would be more widely reported.

No personal experience of Lane Assist but I appreciate folk on here raising awareness of the dangers.  I think it is becoming increasingly obvious that this system can only cope with some very specific roads and driving situations, while they are very specific they do probably account for a very high proportion of miles covered (in UK at least) hence not a massive number of complaints. If a lot of your driving falls outwith these system limitations then expect problems. Even in good conditions these interventions sound dangerous, what would concern me even more would be an 'intervention' on an icy road.

This evening in heavy rain I was once again on the very badly-drained A41. Where the road surface has worn, it must have looked to Lane Assist like white lines as the steering pulled several times. I switched it off, not because of danger but it was just annoying.

23 hours ago, RodTucker said:

The sort of B roads that I use around here generally have excellent sightlines - even in a low vehicle such as my MGF - and sufficient width to maintain or close to the UK legal limit. Most have white lines. We are quite civilised here.

 

I like to think we are civilised here in Norfolk, but we have proper country lanes: often not wide enough for two vehicles to pass except in gateways and the like, often winding so we can't see too far ahead. I have never seen lane assist becoming active in these lanes.

 

I had lane assist on my 64 reg Octavia Scout and to be fair it worked well, just used it on motorways and it was easy to over ride when needed to, it was nothing like I am hearing about this version, I am glad I don't have it on the Karoq.