Testing pre-collision system?

I'm not so hot about personally testing a pre-collision system that is primarily intended to reduced the severity of a collision, not avoid it all together.

 

I know it comes up with a warning - BRIGHT RED - telling you it's been activated. One was when the bunched up traffic the other side of the intersection moved on a little and I accelerated across quickly to fit myself behind the last car - it thought I was heading to something it didn't want to be involved in and warned me, but I had just released the accelerator and started braking, so it didn't intervene further.

The other time was in slow traffic and a car edged into the tiny gap in front of me. Again it doubted my judgment, but didn't intervene as the car in front increased her gap.

DRCC seems to work great, hasn't let me run into the back of anyone yet.

 

It's also supposed to apply the brakes if a pedestrian walks out in front of the car. But only works at speeds of less than 19 mph?

A YouTube video showed journalists testing the system. It failed to detect the "wooden person" a couple times as it moved across the road.

 

Here you go:

DON'T try this at home (at 2:49) !!!!

 

I "tested" it once on its first road trip, just a few days into ownership. I was using DRCC when I probably shouldn't have been using it. It was heavy freeway traffic through a construction zone during rush hour. A dump truck in front of me locked up its brakes trying to avoid some other idiot. DRCC slowed but not fast enough. By the time my foot reached the brake pedal, the system was already beeping with a big red "BRAKE!" message. I don't know if it or I was responsible for actually applying the brake, but that wasn't my concern at the time. The result was no accident, but I learned the limits of DRCC that day.

The experience you're trying to set up will involve beeps, the display message, more aggressive brakes, and *maybe* automatic activation. If it were a situation where it was needed then, first, you were probably not paying enough attention or over-relying on technology like I was; and second, you might not notice it with all of your attention drawn to an imminent collision. Me, I wouldn't risk damaging my car in an ad-hoc test scenario or, worse, accidentally activating an air bag if the test didn't work.

For low-speed avoidance, that's what the ICS sonar-based feature is for (if equipped). PCS operates at speed, not when parking. Unless you pull into your garage like it was a NASCAR pit stop, that is.

 

Great video Alan, thank you. I like all those airbags. (As long as they don't kill me.)

 

Thanks for the vid. I do know personally that when the PCS works, it applies brake pretty substantially because all my crap flew off the passenger seat lol


iPhone ?

 

One solution to your garage is a tennis ball. I had a really tight garage where you couldn't close the garage door unless you were about an inch from the front wall - so hung a tennis ball in front of the driver which we could edge up to - when it touched the windscreen, STOP.

Alternatively, a pair of bricks in front of the front wheels as place markers.

 

I asked my wife to stand in the street and to test the PCS/w PD, I'll drive towards her. She didn't go for it!

 

Some things in life just shouldn't be tested.

The Youtubes are full of Darwin Award aspirants that test all manner of things like bulletproof vests, shark cages, the sufferance of a kind and loving Deity etc.
I was going to include a link or two, but we're trying to keep this family friendly, and I'm probably still on double secret probation from the last time that I offered insensitive advice to somebody that wanted to tinker with a somewhat expensive and fragile car.

I'd try something like the tin-foil cardboard box if I juuuust had to, in a large area (parking lot) that you have permission to play in.
Bring a Go-Pro and leave the adult libations at the house until the screening of the results.

Just remember that if your car isn't broken in yet, that you may not want to do an excessive number of panic stops on brand new brakes and tires.
People always imagine that the engine is the part that you have to break in, and they follow all kinds of different formulas and strategies for doing so like not driving at a certain RPM (in a car that has no tachometer) and changing the oil out early to get rid of non-existent metal particles from the manufacturing process (in a car that DOES have an oil filter.)

They never seem to worry about the brakes.
BTW....'break-in' is always covered in the manual when (or if) it's necessary.
Normally I'm not a "by the book" kinda guy, which explains the double-secret probation BUT....I'm thinking that I would go with the guys and gals who designed and built the car on this one.



Anyway.....if you catch something good with the camera, post results!!!

Good Luck!

 

+1 and you won the Internet for the day, good sir!

 

Testing with a large foldable piece of cardboard......why not?

I like your idea...let us know.

 

Instead of a cardboard box why not try a neighbor no one likes? Unless you're that neighbor, in which case you could probably try it on anyone.

 

Cardboard would have minimal reflective quality and thus wouldn't be a suitable item to test RADAR with, though the camera sensor might have some reaction.

RADAR wouldn't have been designed for a piece of cardboard - even if it did work, it would give a different result than it would a solid, reflective, fleshy or maybe electrically conductive item - they would reflect the radio and microwave waves by design.

A bit like some items items in the microwave oven will heat better than other (fat, water), whereas metallic objects will reflect the microwaves and, without sufficient food to absorb the microwaves will cause significant sparking and possible damage to the likes of gold coatings on crockery which reflect rather than transmit the waves.

 

Yeah, I thought about this, but I started to wonder just how hazardous it might be to be in a car when the brakes are suddenly applied just as hard as they can be.

On our last trip, I did once see the screen turn red and say "BRAKE" because I was pulling into a parking space and it sensed a bush that had grown big enough to project slightly over the curb. I braked myself before it did, though.

 

These cars are built to provide very substantial (though not perfect) occupant protection for the cases where the brakes should have been applied full force beforehand, but were not.

Compared to those situations (normally called 'crashes'), the inherent occupant hazards of sudden full force braking are negligible. Maximum occupant g-loading will be approximately 1 g, which is small. Just make sure you don't create additional hazards from unsecured cargo.

 

I have tried them out a couple of time and not on purpose. I moved my rubbish bins on the drive, and forgot I had put the small recycling box in the middle of the drive. Reversing back looking at the bins, I did not see the recycling box, the car did! Only at about 2-3 mile and hour but it felt like I had hit a brick wall. I got out to check what the damage was, nothing it had stopped about 6 inch from the box. I did similar in an open car park, driving into the parking space near some shrubbery. The car stopped so abruptly I though it must have been a hidden wall, it threw me tight on the seat belt. Got out to check, and it was a piece of bramble waving in front of the bumper (fender). Those brakes do work, I can see why the insurance is so much cheaper.
In another scenario I was pulling out into a busy road, car on my side approaching, gap on other side when it had passed. As the car was almost passed my front, I put my foot down. Car shot forward then emergency braked, me jabbing the throttle swearing. Traffic was closing fast from the other direction. Car eventually (microseconds) let me accelerate, I thought " Bigger gap next time". That could have been nasty, it saves you from one danger and then put you in another. New technology new ways to understand it's benefits and shortcomings.

 

I have the Business Edition, which model do you have Phil?