Does anyone here with a VW group car have predictive adaptive cruise (yet)?
I'm always interested in new toys, and considering it for my next car, but there's a couple of questions in my mind about how it works which I can't find the answers to by googling.
If you haven't seen it, it acts like adaptive cruise, but with the addition of changing your speed automatically not only as you go past speed signs, but also in anticipation of bends, turns and roundabouts, whether or not you have a route planned in the satnav.
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Not a Vee Dub, Crankcase.
Until recently, I had a 2016 Golf GTD which had the (non-predictive) adaptive cruise control, which I liked and got on well with.
Punitive BIK tax has prompted a move to a Ford Kuga PHEV, which gives the choice (buried in the menu system) of:
1. Bog standard cruise control
2. Adaptive CC
3. Predictive adaptive CC (or whatever fancy name Ford chooses to give it)
I’ve tried 3 and didn’t get along with it, so I’m sticking with 2, which is akin to what I enjoyed on the Golf.
Main issue with 3, was that although it was predictive and changed the speed to whatever road signs it ‘saw’, it didn’t do it in a very subtle manner. If you were cursing along at 60 mph and approached a village with a 30 mph limit, it felt like the vehicle braked heavily to reduce the sped and then at the end of the village, it’d accelerate harder than I wanted to get back to 60 mph. Just felt like it was lacking sophistication.
I’m sticking with 2 and then when I’m 1/4 mile outside a village where I know I’ll need to drop to 30mph, I can cancel cruise control and on a trailing throttle, I can coast down to 30mph; the added benefit being that I get some regenerative braking charge back into the HV battery too. I’m also in control of how quickly I want to accelerate at the end of the village. In ‘Eco’ mode, I tend to just press ‘Resume’ on the CC and it accelerates at what I consider to be a sensible rate.
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Thanks Mr Moo - that's exactly the sort of behaviour I imagined it might do, which would be useless an annoying.
As it apparently also uses the nav to predict, for example, roundabouts, and navs in cars are always out of date, I can imagine it braking on a perfectly clear piece of road for a now built over roundabout. I can't imagine they make it talk to google maps or anything to overcome that, either.
Surely not?
But the only video I can find of the VW system so far is a Passat, where the twonk insists on not holding onto the wheel for no apparent reason other than he can, for a few seconds at a time.
That annoyed me so much I lost interest in it. It's here, and at twelve minutes 49 seconds, it's twelve minutes too long to make the point.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7HCI33KVHA
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It sounds hideous. Probably OK for people who can't regulate their own speed.
Depending how fast I'm going, I can lift off completely anything from c. 300m. upwards for a roundabout, arriving at a speed that only necessitates a minor speed adjustment if it's clear.
If it can do that, then maybe it's OK. And if everybody has one then I won't have simpletons who can't see or anticipate something 300 metres ahead overtaking me and slamming their brakes on.
Last edited by: Manatee on Fri 23 Jul 21 at 14:00
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>>And if everybody has one
It now LOOKS to me (having delved into some spec sheets) as if it's standard across all or most new Skodas from this year, so probably the same on VW, Audi and Seat stuff too.
It also looks to me as if you can indeed turn off the predictive bit and have old fashioned plain adaptive if you want.
So my original question - should I spec it? - is in fact redundant if I buy any of these cars next year. I'll get it anyway.
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They are just trying out new tech that WILL be needed in a driverless vehicle.
The more elements they get working correctly before full driverless, the less is likely to go wrong.
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Not a VW Group car, though I assume the tech is Bosch or someone’s anyway, but the Merc has predictive adaptive cruise. I didn’t realise that’s what it was called though. It works pretty well I think; when the car was new and a novelty I used it once on a late night journey to Gatwick, with the target of not having to intervene at all. Childish I know. But it worked well. It takes large roundabouts too slowly, though does have good lane discipline, and takes a surprisingly sporty approach to sweeping bends on A/B/unclassified roads. Tighter bends it takes a little slower than I would, but when slowing down it does a good job of anticipating corners well in advance and using engine/regenerative braking to slow the car. Does the same on reducing speed limits too, which does sound slightly different to the VAG implementation. As a test bed for tech needed for driverless cars the kit in the Merc is surprisingly good. Still wouldn’t want it to drive all the time, but as a driver assistance aid it makes for remarkably relaxed long distance journeys.
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The Volvo has a sort of predictive cruise. It can be set to adaptive and additionally in another setting to "read" speed signs and programmes itself not to exceed that limit. It works well.
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Question on cruise controls in general but maybe more relevant to adaptive.
Do they apply brakes and consequently brake lights?
On one of the parts of this holiday I was following a March that seemed to be randomly applying brakes when there was no obvious need, albeit we were in a moving line of traffic.
Does adaptive apply the brakes when too close to car in front as opposed to just cutting back on the throttle?
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In adaptive mine will use the brakes to slow down if engine/regenerative braking is not sufficient, and when it does obviously the brake lights come on. Since you can also set the distance that the car maintains from the one in front I keep the distance and the max, and then in a steady stream of traffic it’ll seldom need the brakes. If the distance is set to the shortest then I’m sure it’d use them more often.
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Predictive Adaptive Cruise - Mr Moo
