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Over-Sensitive Driver Aids - 2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited Long-Term Road Test
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Over-Sensitive Driver Aids - 2014 Jeep Cherokee Limited Long-Term Road Test
Many new cars have safety systems that will intervene. Our long-term 2014 Jeep Cherokee has one that intervenes a bit too much.
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These driver-assist technologies would aggravate me to no end.
In my experience with the Jeep collision warning, you have 2 settings via the Uconnect system: near and far. But reading the manual would be difficult for you guys, right?
I really think all of the manufacturers should work together (maybe work with a 3rd party vendor) and come up with a consistent, well proven sensor based system. People will either pay for the technology or they won't - they won't say "oh, well, the Acura has a better system so let's buy an Acura instead".
We're not going to get to that magical "2020" date for self driving cars if we can't get simpler alerts and assistant technologies working.
Consistency and one size fits all systems may have their benefits, but they are also rarely the best system, they are never the best system for everybody. Having to get all the manufacturers to agree would prevent, if not completely halt, any further improvements or innovations. What would happen is the same thing that happens with everything else like this, one person has a problem, a "solution" will be forced onto everyone, dragging the product down for those who didn't have that problem. Yet actual upgrades will be all but impossible to implement.
A few weeks ago I rented a GMC that had those electronic nannies. Fortunately there was a sensitivity setting: High, Medium, Low, and Off. In High and Medium modes the system was alarming constantly as I drove in thick traffic on major highway. After 15 minutes of distracting false alarms I switched it to "OFF" for safety.
Everyone must be forgetting that these features are probably oversensitive to protect them from lawsuits. Although we know that no technology is fool proof, there are many ambulance chasing lawyers ready to pounce if a system "failed" to prevent a collision. Combine that with idiot drivers who are overconfident because they have these systems and you know why they are programmed to be overprotective nannies.
So there is no OFF option? No sale at my house if that is the case. I guess I'd have to forgo some other features to get a Cherokee without that option.
agentorange
There is a button to shut FCW off, it remembers the last state so if you shut it off, it will remain off the next time you start your car.
The manual does mention that the default FAR (NHTSA Recommended) setting may set the system off frequently.
I have a 2014 Dodge Durango with FCW. It doesn't have the lane departure warning, so I can't say if it's related to the Cherokee's system. As spikey2 says, mine also has two sensitivity settings (three if you count "off") and I have left it on the default "Far" setting. It has never exhibited the behavior described for the Cherokee.
After 7800 miles, the system has gone off exactly three times, two of them false alarms but one of them was helpful. In both cases, the false alarms occurred when vehicles were making 45 degree right turns in front of me. The vehicles were about 90% out of the lane, still moving at a good pace, and I had swung slightly left in anticipation of them clearing the way. Had they stopped suddenly I would have had no problems moving slightly further left and avoiding them. But, both the adaptive cruise and the FCW will continue to read the vehicle ahead as being in the lane even if they are only a little bit in it. In neither case did the car self-brake, it just chimed and put up a big "BRAKE NOW" warning on the display.
However, in the third case it was good to have. I was driving in somewhat heavy urban traffic at around 35 mph. I had just looked away momentarily when simultaneously the car in front of me decided they needed a candy bar or something and spiked their brakes to make a right turn into a convenience store. No turn signal had been given. I was not following too closely and the FCW alert gave me a chance to brake hard, but not so hard I was rear ended. I probably would have been okay without it, but I'm sure I would have had to do a full-on ABS stop and possibly swerve to avoid him. It was just randomness that he braked hard just as I looked away.
I have been driving for 38 years and have driven well over a half-million miles without rear ending anyone. But, there's always a first time and I personally have found the FCW to be worthwhile. Kind of like an airbag; you probably won't ever need it, but I still like having it there.
Adjustable sensitivity is all well and good, and I know some of you like to harp about manual-reading or the alleged lack thereof. But such a system should NEVER alert (and especially intervene) for cars in adjacent lanes when the road curves, to the slope of the concrete ramp in our underground parking garage. It's oversensitive to the point that it's way out of line for a most-sensitive setting. We're getting it checked out.
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