I don’t like it in heavy traffic, but in light traffic it’s nice. Also when I was drafting behind a dually because I was on the edge of having enough gas to get home, I just set it a few MPH faster than the dually and settled in behind and the car followed at a safe distance, but close enough to get some benefit from drafting. 150 miles later I had plenty of gas to get the rest of the way home.
I think I started drafting the guy maybe 250 miles from home and my car said I had 220 miles to empty. 150 miles later I was 100 miles from home and 130 miles to empty. Or something like that… I don’t remember exactly. But Mini Me was asleep in the back and I really didn’t want to stop until we were home and I didn’t have to.
No, I was just speaking about adaptive cruise control. I drive an ICE… no regenerative braking. I did look at a hybrid, but it was more expensive, had fewer features, barely better MPGs (worse for highway), and half the cargo space. So I didn’t get it.
I am asking about the brake lights.
To your credit, though how can a driver know about their brake lights during adaptive cruise control? You’re never back there and no one you know is likely to be behind you when the car is automatically slowed down by some engineer who knows better than the driver.
Hmm, I’ll have my kids tail behind me and report back. I use mid regen. Other alternatives are one-pedal driving, which I find too aggressive on the regen, and regular, which is more throttle responsive and light regen.
Do you adjust the idle speed on your ICE? Because there isn’t much else you can do to alter your ability to coast. Maybe put it in neutral in a stick, but your rolling resistance is outside your control, it is a function of engineering. I adjust the speed of my vehicle the same way in my EV as in my ICE vehicles. I press the accelerator when I want to go faster. I let off the accelerator, and if “drag” isn’t enough, I apply the brake. Whether the drag comes from elevation change, air resistance, tires/surface, transmission and engine in an ICE, or regen in an EV, it is pretty much the same. You adjust.
Why would brake lights turn on when an ICE vehicle is not braking? That would be a severe malfunction. I have no reason to think that my car is broken in this manner.
OK, so an engineer has decided that your car needs slowing down – essentially “braking” – when in Adaptive Cruise Control, and then doesn’t bother to have the car notify the car behind it?
No, the engineer should NOT assume that all cars have A.C.C. on!
Sometimes an “I don’t know” is an acceptable answer, or, “Go look it up yourself!” is alright.
So, I did:
I couldn’t read that without signing in (or at least I didn’t figure out how and I’ll admit that I haven’t had my coffee yet).
But to clarify:
When ACC actually utilizes the brakes (which of course it will do if it needs to slow down a lot) then the brake lights come on. When ACC eases off the gas but does not utilize the brakes, the brake lights do not come on. Exactly the same as if a person was operating the gas and brake pedals. This is how it should be and I have no reason to think that my car doesn’t work that way.
Teslas have a display in the car where the brake lights on the display turn on when being applied, so you can see it.
But not all slowing down will trigger brake lights. I believe Teslas have an accelerometer in them and they trigger only once a certain deceleration threshold is hit, just like taking your foot off the gas in a normal car does not trigger brake lights.
Quick question for those that use ACC, if you were not using ACC and a car, going faster than you, changed lanes in front you but closer than the gap you have specified for ACC, would you 1) hit your brakes to immediately achieve the gap, 2) ease up on the accelerator to more slowly achieve the gap, or 3) not change speeds recognizing the speed difference between cars?
If you would do anything other than 1, what impact do you think your car choosing 1 when ACC is activated has on traffic? Particularly when you are using it at highway speeds in relatively heavy traffic?
I’ve wondered this same thing. I think the brake lights do turn on when you let off the accelerator. In the dash there is a version of your car that is showing you everything around it. And I think the brake lights do turn on when you let off the accelerator all the way, because it does start braking for you to some extent. And while it makes sense to let the car behind you know you are slowing down, I wish it only did this for the actual brake pedal. Because…
BRAKING CAUSES TRAFFIC!!!
So I try to avoid the brake pedal unless absolutely necessary.
Probably very little impact on traffic, if any. A bigger impact on MPGs. I think the adaptive cruise control in traffic is definitely less fuel efficient than I am.
If there are enough cars on a highway, any minor disruptions to the flow of traffic can cause a self-reinforcing chain reaction: one car brakes slightly, and the ones behind it brake just a bit more to avoid hitting it, with the braking eventually amplifying until it produces a wave of stopped or slowed traffic.
Interesting question. It’s rare that I would apply the brakes if someone cut in front of me but was going faster. Perhaps if they cut in at less than a car length but I would release very quickly once they got a couple of car lengths ahead.
Our ACC has 5 settings. The lowest setting follows very closely - too close for me to get comfortable. However, I still have the old mindset that takes into account my reaction time. That might be roughly half a second if I’m paying attention but could be more than a second if I’m distracted. Theoretically, ACC will react in a few thousandths of a second (enough time to measure the slowdown) so could follow a lot closer.
One of the purported advantages of a future where all the cars were “smart cars” (where the cars communicate with other cars on upcoming hazards) was the ability to travel quickly very close together but be able to brake in time for hazards. I imagine it could double or even triple the capacity of the roads. Probably quite a few years away from that being ubiquitous.