Pete M Posted February 11, 2022 Author Share Posted February 11, 2022 19 minutes ago, 87Warrior said: @Pete M Do you have any dealer pics to share?!?! My wife's Subaru Outback was awful. It took several button presses to turn off radar cruise. Her new Toyota is nice, you just have to hold the 'cruise on' button for 1 second to turn on regular cruise. I hate radar cruise, ugh. why would you need to turn off the radar aspect of the fancy cruise control? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 20 minutes ago, Pete M said: why would you need to turn off the radar aspect of the fancy cruise control? Because cruise control isn’t autopilot. It’s there to maintain a constant speed, not do anything else. Having it do other things just invites the driver to not pay attention to driving, to the detriment of other road users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 11, 2022 Author Share Posted February 11, 2022 20 years ago I might have agreed with you, but Georgia has been proving for 10 years now that they don't need fancy cruise control in order to stare at their phones while driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 13 hours ago, Pete M said: why would you need to turn off the radar aspect of the fancy cruise control? In my experience, the radar cruise function starts slowing you down when you are about 10 seconds behind a vehicle. The slow down is so gradual you might not even notice the radar has taken over as you are starting to plan your pass. Then you are about 4 seconds behind the slower car and notice you are not catching up to them any more. The radar cruise has slowed you down to maintain an extremely conservative following distance from the car in front of you. This is less frustrating on an empty 4 lane interstate, but is infuriating on a 2 lane highway. Here in Kansas we are taught to maintain a 2 second following distance, but the radar cruise systems I have used will stay 3-4 seconds behind on the closest setting. Turning off the radar cruise does not deactivate any collision avoidance/automatic braking systems, at least in a Subaru and Toyota, that is another button. Those systems do work. I tested the obstacle avoidance on the Subaru by having a buddy toss a large pool raft in front of the car as I was driving down the road at 30 mph. The car did lock up the brakes to avoid the obstacle on its own. I was impressed and terrified all at the same time. I have used radar cruise once with good luck in a 15 mile section of single land road construction on the interstate. Traffic was slow and traffic speed varied between 40 and 60mph. I had set cruise to the work zone 65mph limit and the radar cruise maintained that 4 second following distance from the car in front of me all the way through the work zone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 11, 2022 Author Share Posted February 11, 2022 The Tacoma's furthest setting was perfect for a 2-3 second follow on the freeway. the closer settings did the same for slower speed roads. I used it on every single road I was on and was very impressed. (the auto-braking only happened when the cruise was on and even then only until you were down to 28mph then it shut off and left you to your own devices, which was weird) we shall see what the Durango is like. there will always be a learning curve with new tech, both for the users and the manufacturers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 Add me to the HATE crowd. I love driving my wife's Subbie, but absolutely cannot stand all the nanny controls. Adaptive cruise is annoying to me, for all the reasons previously stated. It's even starting to bug her a bit too. It can be turned off, along with the lane departure warning alert, and the auto-shutoff at stoplight thing. Which I do every time I drive her car. But you have to disable/turn them off every time you stop/start the vehicle. The crash warning/automatic braking has it's place, I'll give it that. BUT, when you're on a 2 lane road with limited passing zones, and you see a zone approaching you can't speed up behind the (slowly moving) vehicle in front of you to time out entering the passing zone to swing out, pass, and get your butt back in the lane. It actually engages the brakes (and makes all kinds of scary alarm sounds). I am the farthest thing from an aggressive driver (my wife actually calls me Ms. Daisy.....), but when I drive I like to keep momentum and all my moves as fluid as possible. I am constantly judging traffic patterns and using my rear view mirror to anticipate gaps in traffic so I can move between lanes and maintain my speed. All the new safety stuff makes that pretty difficult. It doesn't fit well with my driving style, but I can see the benefits for other drivers. It all would have been a godsend for my mother when she was still alive and driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acfortier Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 I've found that I just have to anticipate it earlier than I would have, which probably makes it safer than not having it. For instance, if I see that I'm going to be coming up on someone that is going slower than I am (my Volvo will actually tell me how slow they are going, which is neat), with ACC, I have to turn my blinker on (which, in both the Jeep and Volvo, it will start to accelerate even if it may "detect" a car in front of me, because it assumes I'm passing someone, which I am) earlier than I would if I was on normal cruise control. Probably meaning that I was getting closer to the car in front of me than I should have been before changing lanes. FWIW, I keep my distance in ACC set to the lowest, unless it's $#!&ty weather. Then I add a few more seconds between myself and the car in front of me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 Interesting.....I'll have to try the blinker thing to see if that changes things. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minuit Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 I'm fine with bells and whistles, but don't make me go through any menus to get to them. I should not have to go through menus to make anything that could be remotely considered a routine adjustment. That is all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 11, 2022 Author Share Posted February 11, 2022 I think some of this irritation might be more of a manufacturer-specific issue. the Tacoma worked great and only did things if I purposely turned it on. far as I know the durango is the same, but we shall see. as with all new technologies, there's a learning curve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 Yeah, could be. I agree though, something like that should be accessible through the standard cruise… um… controls. Just like in every vehicle, traction control has an off button, because sometimes it causes more harm than good. Most of the time I’ve encountered issues with other drivers using it, it’s been in rental cars. I’m in a resort town in the middle of nowhere so they’re pretty common. I figured it was mostly down to people being unfamiliar with their vehicles, but I had no idea it was such a pain to deal with in some vehicles until ending up in my own rental. But then it’s far from the worst thing tourists in rentals do, but that’s a different rant that doesn’t need to further derail this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
89 MJ Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 I think for 90% or more of drivers, the radar cruise is probably a good thing. That other percentage is out working on and driving 30+ year old trucks. My point: of course most of us won’t like it, that’s why we stick with our old school tech. I will follow that up with a conversation we had the other day in school. One girl admitted that she has a hard time driving cars without adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. That makes me a tad worried about my generation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankTheDog Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 24 minutes ago, 89 MJ said: I think for 90% or more of drivers, the radar cruise is probably a good thing. That other percentage is out working on and driving 30+ year old trucks. My point: of course most of us won’t like it, that’s why we stick with our old school tech. I will follow that up with a conversation we had the other day in school. One girl admitted that she has a hard time driving cars without adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. That makes me a tad worried about my generation. Probably because she has one eye on her phone at all times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 8 hours ago, 89 MJ said: I think for 90% or more of drivers, the radar cruise is probably a good thing. That other percentage is out working on and driving 30+ year old trucks. My point: of course most of us won’t like it, that’s why we stick with our old school tech. I will follow that up with a conversation we had the other day in school. One girl admitted that she has a hard time driving cars without adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. That makes me a tad worried about my generation. You guys experience winter, snow covered roads, and road grit either covering or grinding the painted lines off the road, no? Gravel roads? Lane keep assist doesn't work so well when it can't see the lines... I'm sure a lot of lives have been saved by some of the modern tech, and there's no denying modern cars are much safer to be in when you do crash, but it doesn't really seem to take much to cause the systems to fail, (and most fail "safe" by shutting off at any detected malfunction) or to go from a situation that stability control can resolve to one it absolutely cannot. And when you're used to leaning on the safety systems but now you're on your own and yeah, it's concerning to know that a lot of drivers can't handle it. Even I've had close calls due to ABS not recognizing a blown brake line and that it couldn't just send all braking power to the rear and me not realizing what was happening. But also there are tons of drivers who don't drive with said systems who you'd think would be able to deal but can't anyhow, because no one is actually trained in vehicle operation. And we shouldn't even exclude ourselves from that category. In my case I just have more experience doing dumb stuff with crap cars than some people, and sometimes it's helpful, and other times maybe not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 12, 2022 Author Share Posted February 12, 2022 9 hours ago, 89 MJ said: One girl admitted that she has a hard time driving cars without adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. That makes me a tad worried about my generation. I wouldn't read too much into it. I've had friends back when I was young that couldn't reliably drive inside the lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 12, 2022 Author Share Posted February 12, 2022 something I've come to realize during my 46 year tenure on this planet is that technology moves every forward and my own personal worrying about it doesn't change anything. so I don't dwell on it. my personal ride has broken ABS and I like it better that way. but I don't give a single thought what the other hundreds of millions of drivers are doing. that's for them to figure out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted February 12, 2022 Share Posted February 12, 2022 Nail on the head Pete. Ive got a swapped in junkyard knuckle on the focus right now thats not drilled for the ABS sensor. Got the old one sitting in the shed waiting on a new wheel bearing, which ill get to before June when the sticker expires. I'm absolutely fine with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 15 hours ago, Pete M said: I wouldn't read too much into it. I've had friends back when I was young that couldn't reliably drive inside the lines. When my wife and I first test drove a Subaru with the lane departure warning system, the dealer cracked up laughing when she was driving and asked what that beeping was.... She was crossing the lines 😂 I may or may not have enjoyed poking fun of her over the next few years everytime that lane departure alert went off... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scguy Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 I've had mostly positive experiences with lane keep, radar cruise, etc. Except once while driving a newer F150, it saw SC white sand spilled out onto the road from the end of a dirt road and read it as a white line and yanked me over into the oncoming lane. Thankfully there was nobody coming, but it was right before a blind hill. My main gripe is price of repair. F150s with the radar blind spot detection in the taillights? Had a farmer crack both lenses on a 2 year old truck. Rain got in, shorted out the CAN bus, took out radio, gauges, windows, mirrors, AC, you name it. Replacement cost for 2 taillights was near $2k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 13, 2022 Author Share Posted February 13, 2022 yup, fixing will always be an issue. we intend on getting the super-long-term Mopar warranty again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrankTheDog Posted February 13, 2022 Share Posted February 13, 2022 The first vehicle my wife and I bought newer than a 2000 was a 2018 Hyundai Accent SE with a stick. The only “new” technology that car has is a back up camera and Bluetooth. We always had XJ’s and ZJ’s before that since 2001. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 got a message from the dealership that the expected arrival time is a week or so away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
87Warrior Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 3, 2022 Author Share Posted March 3, 2022 it's at the dealership. still waiting on a call from the finance guy so we can figure out if I'm dragging one parent or both or none with me to Kentucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted March 10, 2022 Author Share Posted March 10, 2022 ahh, nothing like a long drive at the peak of gas prices. lol. costs be damned, we're heading to Kentucky tomorrow to pick up the Durango. tomorrow's post should include a photo of the new beast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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