Collision Avoidance, Backup Assist, etc

[DistortedEdge]

I was on the highway yesterday approaching an off-ramp, going about 15 mph and a couple of car lengths behind the car in front of me when all of a sudden the collision avoidance warnings go off (audible alarm and the red LED bar under the windshield). I was in no way at risk of hitting the car in front of me, and the system's never gone off in similar situations in the past.

 

However, I did glance in my rear-view mirror and noticed that the guy behind me was going awfully fast and was awfully close. It really seems like this was what set off the collision alert, but I thought the system only scanned forward while in Drive. It does appear to scan backwards and sideways while backing up, so the sensors are there.

 

My "safety" concern with the scenario I had is that if the system does what the documentation says (pre-charge the brakes) this is the opposite of what it should be doing if someone's going to rear-end me. As a driver, I usually speed up a little if someone's about to rear-end me to give a little more buffer. Bigger concern, though, is that my first instinct when the alarms went off was to hit the brake, which would not have been a good idea.

 

Has anyone else seen behavior like this?

 

I have to admit, that despite reading some docs on the system, I'm still not 100% sure about what sets if off; I've tried to create some scenarios that do, but it's really difficult, and yet other times, it goes off when I feel there's no risk.

[oakville_edge]

I've had mine go off a fewmes as I don't slow down when someone is turning right into a drive tiway - unless I notice oncoming traffic. That tends to upset the Collision avoidance system, and it flashes angrily at me.

[tonyabionda]

I had mine go off and the car in front of me was about three car lengths ahead of me on the freeway and they were not braking. It didn't occur to me until my passenger pointed out that it was probably the plastic grocery bag that flew up behind that car and was floating towards me that set it off.

 

I've had it go off when a car is turning in front of me because I brake and then let off the brakes once I'm going slow enough to not hit the car in front of me. It thinks that because I'm not hitting the brakes, I'm going to hit the car when in reality it will turn before I reach it. I've kind of altered how I drive and leave my foot lightly on the brake and it doesn't send up the panic lights. It's actually probably better that I do this so that the car in back of me sees the brake lights the whole time.