How does lane assist work?

[Jim2015]

When I drive past unlined roads, the visual display dims. When there are white lines it brightens and can distinguish between solid and dotted lines. It can't be radar or an acoustic signal, so is there a camera? If so, why doesn't it show a live image? It's very precise, so even if I move slightly over the centre line, I'm prompted to steer back in line.

[Rwo09]

The camera is behind the mirror, together with the light and rain sensor (RLFS in german Regen Licht Feucte Sonne -rain, light, moisture, sun). There might be an infrared sensor in there too, for night driving, not so sure about that. It's not exactly a conventional camera, it works using a different principle so it can't show a live image.

[SoupDragon]

I'm sure it's a camera. On motor ways and dual carriage ways it works well where the lanes are clearly defined, until you come to a row of cones that make you steer to the right. On backroads it becomes annoying when you steer to the middle to avoid broken road edges, cyclists etc. I once drove along a road where a truck had spilt a trail of white paint in patches in the middle of the lane. The steering command gave up and told me to take control. I certainly would not trust my life to it but maybe on a motor way it may be a useful as a back up warning.

[MCG1975]

I think the glib answer to the thread title is - badly! 

 

I have the issue that on rural roads it just can't work out where I am and gets really upset over worn or wet strips on the road and generally any surface that's not a nice even blacktop.  Aside from trying to steer me into the middle of the road the loud beep is off-putting to say the least.

 

Must be some form of camera as it can determine between different types of white line on main roads, and if there's no white line shows a 'rough' edge to the road otherwise which I'm sure radar couldn't do.  Probably why it gets confused over other line-like markings on the road.

 

I'd also note (sorry if this is obvious) that the display will dim if you go below 30mph as it turns off below that speed.

[DaveFromSydney]

1 minute ago, MCG1975 said:

the display will dim if you go below 30mph as it turns off below that speed.

We are lucky it is a bit more lenient here. It is 60km/h.

 

[GreenlineIIEstate]

1 hour ago, MCG1975 said:

 

 

  Aside from trying to steer me into the middle of the road the loud beep is off-putting to say the least.

 

 

Mine doesn't beep it just tries to fight with me.

As a Police trained driver I only indicate if there is someone there to benefit from it. This isn't good with lane keep assist.

I leave the stop start on as it doesn't bother me at all but the lane keep gets turned off every time.

[KenONeill]

17 minutes ago, GreenlineIIEstate said:

As a Police trained driver I only indicate if there is someone there to benefit from it. This isn't good with lane keep assist.

Totally agreed, not least because it means looking to see if there's someone there to see your signal.

[MCG1975]

50 minutes ago, GreenlineIIEstate said:

Mine doesn't beep it just tries to fight with me.

 

Mine fights for a bit then decides to scream at me and turn half my dash red, like an angry child who's being ignored!!  Ever so slightly distracting...hence it's usually turned off.  Slightly annoyed I added it as an extra, hey ho!

[SurreyJohn]

My understanding is it is a camera, but doesn’t monitor the whole visible (to the eye) spectrum, and takes in some infra red.  The data is then interpreted by a computer in the car.

 

It therefore works well if the white lines are properly painted, but gets confused where lines are faded, incomplete, have been poorly erased, smothered with blank gunk etc.   Any lengthways mixed surface (rather than joins across the road) can also cause problems because the reflectiveness is different thus creating a false line.

 

So basically it seems to be a great idea in theory, let down by shoddy British infrastructure.

 

 

 

Edited 7 July, 2021 by SurreyJohn