[bloozemanAZ]

The drive out to San Diego from Phoenix yesterday is about a 5 and a half hour drive over mostly boring I-10 to I-8 freeway driving with one small stretch on I-8 in the mountains on the approach to San Diego. Thus, I literally had full Driving Assistance mode in effect the entire way along with Adaptive mode in play as it will handle adjusting the steering/suspension based on the road conditions.

I tested just having a knee pressed against the lower part of the wheel and it worked like a champ. However, for the most part I kept my left hand thumb on the wheel (right next to the left hand side steering wheel buttons) as that way I could adjust the ACC speed accordingly) as well as use my index finger to trigger lane changes with the turn signal. When changing lanes I'd let the wheel rotate accordingly with it slipping over the light pressure of my thumb which worked flawlessly every time. There were a couple of lane changes at 85 MPH in which the car did them a bit too abruptly to the point my wife asked jokingly if I was having trouble controlling "the beast" (her nickname for the car). I of course joked back "no that is the beast driving itself".

The Full Driving Assistance mode worked so well I let it handle everything on the approach to one of the CA border patrol stops. It kept the car moving during the small stops as we approached our turn at the station. I finally disengaged it when the car in front was at the station as otherwise when it moved the car would have just kept on going vs the obligatory stop prior to being waved through.

I did test keeping no pressure on the wheel whatsoever and per prior experience the yellow animation with hands grabbing the wheel lit up. I let that run the course up until the the car started beeping and a big red wheel animation lit up in the digital cockpit (right under the Driver's Attention camera). I didn't want to take the chance any further to see if somehow the Driver's Attention camera would override as if it didn't I am not sure what the outcome would be, i.e., just disengagement of full Driving Assistance or if the car would start braking, etc.

During the I-8 mountain stretch I disengaged Full Driving assistance and just kept ACC in play, put the car in Sport and had fun (along with a Dodge Charger SRT) passing everyone at 85 MPH on the inclines. It was child's play with the only indication that the inclines were in play was via the MPG dropping to 8-11 MPG. To that point with the majority of the drive in adaptive and a speed of 85 and 87 MPH (minus a couple of CA stretches that dropped it to 79) the 381 mile trip clocked in at 25.1 MPG. Not bad for a fire breathing twin turbo V8 and up until the mountain stretch fun run it was registering in the 26.4 range.

[Resjudicata]

Originally Posted by bloozemanAZ

The drive out to San Diego from Phoenix yesterday is about a 5 and a half hour drive over mostly boring I-10 to I-8 freeway driving with one small stretch on I-8 in the mountains on the approach to San Diego. Thus, I literally had full Driving Assistance mode in effect the entire way along with Adaptive mode in play as it will handle adjusting the steering/suspension based on the road conditions.

I tested just having a knee pressed against the lower part of the wheel and it worked like a champ. However, for the most part I kept my left hand thumb on the wheel (right next to the left hand side steering wheel buttons) as that way I could adjust the ACC speed accordingly) as well as use my index finger to trigger lane changes with the turn signal. When changing lanes I'd let the wheel rotate accordingly with it slipping over the light pressure of my thumb which worked flawlessly every time. There were a couple of lane changes at 85 MPH in which the car did them a bit too abruptly to the point my wife asked jokingly if I was having trouble controlling "the beast" (her nickname for the car). I of course joked back "no that is the beast driving itself".

The Full Driving Assistance mode worked so well I let it handle everything on the approach to one of the CA border patrol stops. It kept the car moving during the small stops as we approached our turn at the station. I finally disengaged it when the car in front was at the station as otherwise when it moved the car would have just kept on going vs the obligatory stop prior to being waved through.

I did test keeping no pressure on the wheel whatsoever and per prior experience the yellow animation with hands grabbing the wheel lit up. I let that run the course up until the the car started beeping and a big red wheel animation lit up in the digital cockpit (right under the Driver's Attention camera). I didn't want to take the chance any further to see if somehow the Driver's Attention camera would override as if it didn't I am not sure what the outcome would be, i.e., just disengagement of full Driving Assistance or if the car would start braking, etc.

During the I-8 mountain stretch I disengaged Full Driving assistance and just kept ACC in play, put the car in Sport and had fun (along with a Dodge Charger SRT) passing everyone at 85 MPH on the inclines. It was child's play with the only indication that the inclines were in play was via the MPG dropping to 8-11 MPG. To that point with the majority of the drive in adaptive and a speed of 85 and 87 MPH (minus a couple of CA stretches that dropped it to 79) the 381 mile trip clocked in at 25.1 MPG. Not bad for a fire breathing twin turbo V8 and up until the mountain stretch fun run it was registering in the 26.4 range.

I've tested and the only thing that happens is it goes red and disengages.

With the rg33 coding, now it's not a problem. I can have it fully engaged and take my hands off completely and look away with no problems on any road at any speed.
I've tested the coding and it works flawlessly too.
It's a big upgrade for just code.

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by Resjudicata

I've tested and the only thing that happens is it goes red and disengages.

With the rg33 coding, now it's not a problem. I can have it fully engaged and take my hands off completely and look away with no problems on any road at any speed.
I've tested the coding and it works flawlessly too.
It's a big upgrade for just code.

Thanks for the info and now I have another item added to my coding list when I get around to doing so. Interestingly enough the Drivers Attention camera did do its job on the drive back from SD today. I was in Full Driving Assistance mode and the wife asked if there was any Kleenex in the car. Which made me laugh as the only use for the back seats is to hold a box of Kleenex and my recently purchased sun visor.

However, with her beach bag and other things in the back seat the Kleenex box was buried. So I kept my left hand on the wheel as I turned around to rummage through the back seat to locate the Kleenex box. As I did so I heard the car "gong" and when I turned around there was a big yellow steering wheel image under the Driver's Assistance camera but no animation regarding placing your hands on the wheel. Hence, it caught me looking away and if I likely continued to do so it would have went to red and then disengaged.

[Resjudicata]

Originally Posted by bloozemanAZ

Thanks for the info and now I have another item added to my coding list when I get around to doing so. Interestingly enough the Drivers Attention camera did do its job on the drive back from SD today. I was in Full Driving Assistance mode and the wife asked if there was any Kleenex in the car. Which made me laugh as the only use for the back seats is to hold a box of Kleenex and my recently purchased sun visor.

However, with her beach bag and other things in the back seat the Kleenex box was buried. So I kept my left hand on the wheel as I turned around to rummage through the back seat to locate the Kleenex box. As I did so I heard the car "gong" and when I turned around there was a big yellow steering wheel image under the Driver's Assistance camera but no animation regarding placing your hands on the wheel. Hence, it caught me looking away and if I likely continued to do so it would have went to red and then disengaged.

Yep. Cool beans.

[hkleyman]

Originally Posted by Resjudicata

I've tested and the only thing that happens is it goes red and disengages.

With the rg33 coding, now it's not a problem. I can have it fully engaged and take my hands off completely and look away with no problems on any road at any speed.
I've tested the coding and it works flawlessly too.
It's a big upgrade for just code.

I wish I had that ability but honestly I don't think the system is good enough to be trusted totally. I definitely use the knee trick, but there have been plenty of times where it loses the lane markings. We have a lot of weird curves and left merges in Minnesota on highways that the system doesn't like. I've also found that it really doesn't appreciate carpool lanes that have double dashed lines versus just double solid.

[Resjudicata]

Originally Posted by hkleyman

I wish I had that ability but honestly I don't think the system is good enough to be trusted totally. I definitely use the knee trick, but there have been plenty of times where it loses the lane markings. We have a lot of weird curves and left merges in Minnesota on highways that the system doesn't like. I've also found that it really doesn't appreciate carpool lanes that have double dashed lines versus just double solid.

It works flawlessly for me in DC. I can text and video chat in the car completely hands free. And even looking in the back seat and not have to look at the road. I trust it 1000% in Suburban streets around me.

[bloozemanAZ]

Originally Posted by hkleyman

I wish I had that ability but honestly I don't think the system is good enough to be trusted totally. I definitely use the knee trick, but there have been plenty of times where it loses the lane markings. We have a lot of weird curves and left merges in Minnesota on highways that the system doesn't like. I've also found that it really doesn't appreciate carpool lanes that have double dashed lines versus just double solid.

I too don't completely trust it either but it is a godsend on a long monotonousness stretch of freeway like my trip to San Diego. I could see using now if I'm stuck in traffic on a local freeway as it performed flawlessly in that regard with the Border Patrol checkpoint scenario on the road trip.

In regards to car pool lanes I can't get the car's switch lane's function to work with on period. I've never paid attention to dashed vs solid lines but pay attention to that detail on the next drive. Normally I just manually steer the car into the carpool lane and then let it take back over.