Front Assist - opinions

[matchboy]

ive had it brake a few times, mostly when cars in front are turning right. if you hold down the traction control button and put it in 'sport' mode, it says front assist disabled, does this mean its turned off?

My car is always in 'Sport' - I have no idea how you'd disable it though!

[GrahamFR]

oh i dont want to, unless i was on a track for instance, but you can all test it for me  just hold your traction control button down and see what happens (needs about 5 secs of holding)

[R20TNR]

Good to hear other people's experiences with it.

The 1st time it kicked in I got the the audible beeps and red icon displayed on the mfd. However the 2nd time around I only got the red icon as the car done an emergency stop.

I've decided to disable it for now as I don't want to run the risk of a car going into the back of me.

[Black oil]

oh i dont want to, unless i was on a track for instance, but you can all test it for me  just hold your traction control button down and see what happens (needs about 5 secs of holding)

Regarding this button holding it would be good if there was a 'cheat' list of all of the 'hidden' functions and disablements.

Anybody...or is it a case of trawling through the manual?

[monkeyhanger]

I’ve had front assist belt the brakes on for me twice now – both times someone drove across my path (someone from the opposite direction turning their right across my path to a side street on my left) and both times they would’ve finished crossing my path before there was ever a real danger of collision. The car thought otherwise and banged on the brakes. A way around this is when the situation arises again, cover the brakes and give them the tiniest squeeze – it lets the car know you’re aware of the situation in front of you and are prepared for it. It won’t intervene again unless the point at which the car thinks avoidance of collision is impossible without intervention is reached. I’ve had plenty of other alerts, mainly a bus or car slightly ahead of me in the inside lane and I’m in the outside lane. The other vehicle starts around a bend and it will look to the car as if it is crossing my path. Pressing the ok button on the steering wheel lets the car know you’re aware.

On some days I seem to be able to get very close to the car in front without initiating the visual signage at the bottom of the MFD that lets you know you’re closer than the car would recommend.

[GrahamFR]

I’ve had front assist belt the brakes on for me twice now – both times someone drove across my path (someone from the opposite direction turning their right across my path to a side street on my left) and both times they would’ve finished crossing my path before there was ever a real danger of collision. The car thought otherwise and banged on the brakes. A way around this is when the situation arises again, cover the brakes and give them the tiniest squeeze – it lets the car know you’re aware of the situation in front of you and are prepared for it. It won’t intervene again unless the point at which the car thinks avoidance of collision is impossible without intervention is reached. I’ve had plenty of other alerts, mainly a bus or car slightly ahead of me in the inside lane and I’m in the outside lane. The other vehicle starts around a bend and it will look to the car as if it is crossing my path. Pressing the ok button on the steering wheel lets the car know you’re aware.

On some days I seem to be able to get very close to the car in front without initiating the visual signage at the bottom of the MFD that lets you know you’re closer than the car would recommend.

I think the visual thing only comes on for me on the motorway so i am assuming it only comes on at a certain speed, or the car works out that if the car in front stops you aint gonna

[CR4ZYHOR5E]

I must be looking at something else...have never had a red mfd warning or audible signal...I get a white icon showing two cars with a warning sign...seems to be indicating that I'm closer than the recommended distance to the car ahead. I guess this is separate from front assist?

My question is when I get this icon on the mfd is the car applying light braking because I almost never need to brake when closing up on the car ahead when this icon is displayed..so either it's doing something or the drag characteristics of the car off throttle are significant to slow the car down such that you never coast up to the car ahead despite high closing speeds. In every other car I have owned I would have needed to brake, so is the car doing something or is it super draggy?

[Jimble]

I must be looking at something else...have never had a red mfd warning or audible signal...I get a white icon showing two cars with a warning sign...seems to be indicating that I'm closer than the recommended distance to the car ahead. I guess this is separate from front assist?

My question is when I get this icon on the mfd is the car applying light braking because I almost never need to brake when closing up on the car ahead when this icon is displayed..so either it's doing something or the drag characteristics of the car off throttle are significant to slow the car down such that you never coast up to the car ahead despite high closing speeds. In every other car I have owned I would have needed to brake, so is the car doing something or is it super draggy?

The symbol your talking about (two cars with an exclamation mark between) is just to say your a little closer than recommended, the image that comes on the display as a warning with a beep can be seen at 36 secs in this video:


http://youtu.be/OjKhdX_fdrs


If you don't take action after that and the car thinks an impact is imminent it'll "stab" the brakes to tell you your gonna hit something!!

[dippy_x]

So in the last two days I have had the warning symbol, audible beep and the car brake.  It's definately working, kind of:

- yesterday a guy in front of me slammed on his brakes without warning and the GTD responded.  I was quite impressed.

- today - not so impressed - driving home on a road with no car in front or behind me.  I saw a packet of crisps blowing about in the wind before me and then all of a sudden red warning , audible noise and the GTD slammed on the anchors.  The crisp packet then made impact on my bonnet with a limp noise.  I was unable to confirm the flavour of said packet of crisps.

Really saved me there...