I was out with a friend tonight listening to Bob Seger's new album. As we drove along a road with sewer construction, I forgot that steel plates might accidentally activate the CMBS. Well there was one in my lane and the CMBS did it's thing. Whoever said stage 2 requires a change of undergarments was not lying. Probably the scariest thing since Hillary's run for presidency. But the car brought us to a complete stop before the steel plate, making me a believer that it would help avoid an accident. The seatbelts did not want to let go of us though. My friend who was in the car was always wondering about stage 2. Now he knows.

My question is, the car's computer has a far better reaction time than any human bringing up concerns about a resulting rear-end collision. Thankfully nobody was behind us at the time and we made off okay.

 

Your car stopped you hard and fast...the way it should be... just like the election will bring Hillary the White House....sorry if either piece of news scares you....The car behind you may be in your back seat, so will the Republicans taking a back seat to Hillary for the next 8 years!

 

Interesting stuff.

I am all for increased safety. Moreso because I can no longer pedict what the idiots on the road are going to do ('I think my car will fit there...so I must have the right of way?')

But personally, these devices that make operational changes to the vehicle without my driver's mind anticipating them, are more a distraction to me than perhaps the the purpose they serve....especially in the 'false alarm' situations.

When I test drove a CMB equipped RL, I was spending more time distracted from the road when the car did things I did not expect (again, in 'false alarm' situations). I don't want that happening when I am driving.

I realize most drivers would become accustomed, or perhaps anticipate this stuff, but for me, I get irritated when the car does stuff I did not ask for, did not want or it distracts me in trying to figure out why it did that. It reminds me of when driving, someone in the back seat gasps (my former MIL was notorious for this), this 'warning' distracted me from the road while I was trying to figure out the reason for the alarm (usually a chipped finger nail or something VERY relevant).

Again, safety is paramount, and I have read where CMB or ACC 'saved' some asses - even in this forum. But it does not work well with my Neanderthal driving brain when I feel the car's driving control has been taken away. Heck, automatic wipers distract me...and I just learned to accept auto headlights poppin on under long underpasses.

There was an interesting editorial in one of the car mags last month (C&D, M/T or R&T?) where the columnist griped about the Jag's system which slammed him into a halt on a curving mountain pass road, detecting a truck ahead of the curve as if it was to be a rear end collision event. The reaction of WHY did it do that was more dangerous than perhaps the passive safety the mechanism may provide? He also commented that should another driver be behind him he would have been rear ended.

I rarely use cruise control as I think you can rarely let your guard down on the roads anymore. My 'Miss Cleo' abilities of what stupid maneuver another driver will attempt are waning and my 'expect the unexpected' sensitivity has been heightened. Afterall, Stop signs and red lights are mere suggestions. Lines on the road are just to make it pretty and the left lane is the 'I don't have to pay attention lane - while talking on the phone, baking brownies and circumcising baby boys while driving'.

For those of you who live away from the 'civilization', and can make use of these devices, I admire you.

 

+1 Tampa agree 100%

MINUS 1 Larry!

 

Wait a minute. I apologize for my lack of familiarity with the CMBS, so please forgive me if this sounds dumb.

The car stopped dead in it's tracks when it sensed a steel plate in the road? What about the car behind you?

Here in Manhattan, there are steel plates everywhere, as well as raised manhole covers. If the car stops all of a sudden, it'd more than likely get me rear ended.

 

do i smell lawsuit coming??

 

That is a VERY interesting story. I have not had any problems with steel plates that I recall, but that may mean I have never driven over any steel plates, I just do not remember.

Were you on a slight down hill, which what the Owners Manual indicates, at least with rail road tracks?

I can say that I have not had any of the falses they warn about in the owners manual, like bridge supports, signs, poles, etc.

This incident sort of says that the aluminum foil does not have the density required by CMBS to activate as Mikey's video tried to demonstrate. So I wonder if the millimeter wave radar is sensitive to material density, not just plain old reflectivity, like the much longer wave search radars. I just don't know much about radar other than how it works descriptively.

Somewhere I recall, on this board, and perhaps on another site, that Honda demonstrated the CMBS with a truck and long pole with a steel plate hanging over the adjacent lane, with the RL approaching in that adjacent lane.

 

The road was level. The funny thing was I went back to see if it would do it again and it didn't. The plate was raised a hair higher than usual but nothing out of the ordinary.

 

At what point with the CMB radar decide all metal objects are malicious and must be eliminated? It WILL happen, I saw in on an original Star Trek episode ("Dammit Jim, I am Doctor, not an Acura Tech!")

I think I would have to have the metal plates in my skull removed. Likely the bolts and pins too. A small price to pay so I may 'Advance'.

 

I wonder if the brake lights go on when the CMBS activates? If not, you're even more likely to get rear-ended. If the brake lights go-on, at least the car behind you has a chance.

 

they go on.

 

You guys are making me SOOOOO happy I didn't get CMBS (and PAX, for that matter). I'm totally with Tampa when it comes to cars doing things all on their own, using intrinsically flawed solid state computer logic. And doing a panic stop because there's a steel plate in the road is dangerous and just plain crazy.

Unlike Tampa, I use cruise control every single time I drive, but I also hope I never have to settle for that damned so-called "intelligent" cruise control that slams on the brakes when it thinks you're too close to the car ahead. It's just the next-to-last step before cars drive themselves.

(Oh, and this isn't a political forum, but since somebody brought it up, I pray to God that Hillary doesn't make it to the White House. Socialism has been tried all over the world, it never has worked, and the people have suffered for it.)

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I agree with you Mike. I wonder if Lexus owners have had problems with the models that parallel park themselves. I wouldn't trust my car to park itself!

 

Sounds like they're trying to get back at us for losing WWII. Who knows what else is going to happen with our RLs to try to kill us. I would call Acura ASAP and tell them you are on to their plan, and everyone on Acurazine knows now. If they say they will send out a tech to check the "black box" in the car to get the error codes tell them no thanks and sell your car and move. From now on I am going to wear my anti-ray hat made from aluminum foil. I always thought that AcuraLink was sending rays from a satellite to fry my brain.

This is OT, but I heard that in big cities when gang members see your headlights swivel they think you are rich and will carjack you and kill you. So, we should all turn off our AFS in big cities at night.

P.S. Tongue firmly planted in cheek.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSpE_Sl5XHE

 

Just say NO to CMBS

I'm all for technology that ASSISTS (such as a backup camera) but CMBS just goes too far. Same with the new lane-keeping systems they have.

 

It seems that there is a lot of generalizing and extrapolating going on here from folks without CMBS in their RL's. I've haven't had the system activate when driving over steel plates or railroad tracks. I don't have the sense that it "goes too far." If anything I wish it were more active, at least in terms of warnings in certain situations. I think the ACC works fine.

 

We all see things differently, dwb, and I don't harbor any angst against folks who like CMBS. And if it merely pre-tensioned the brakes - as on some systems - I'd be okay with it. But ANY system that tries to take the decision-making process away from me and acts totally on its own just plain scares me. There are just too many considerations to take into account in driving situations, and I need to make those decisions myself.

Some things technology brings us are true aids to driving and safety ... and some are just goofy and/or plain dangerous. This new lane-keeping technology, for instance, is too much big-brotherism. There may be good reason for me to be moving out of my lane (like to avoid the rearend of a car left jutting out in my lane, or because the lane striping is incorrect, for instance), and if the doggone car refuses to move like I need it to, it could be collision city.

That lane marking issue is huge, since there is road construction all over the country and lanes are all over the place. When I drove an Infiniti M with lane departure warning, it was going off regularly, in spite of the fact I was doing nothing wrong. People with that particular little nuisance almost always end up turning it off. And that's just a *warning* system, whereas the newest ones actually steer your car back where it thinks it should be going!

I love technology ... but only when it actually works FOR me.

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I'm totally unfamiliar with the CMBS system. I'm curious, will it brake for you fully automatically with absolutely no input from the driver? The Mercedes system seems to be set up pretty well where it will preload the brakes and back off the throttle (only if your just cruising at a constant speed, as would be the most likely case when the driver wasn't paying attention). If the car is making decisions for the driver without *any* mediation on the part of the driver I would think that would open Acura up to giant liability concerns.

 

Bob Seger is GAY

 

I'm happy with the system. I have never had a false stage 2 activation that would cause an accident. I have driven over metal plates in the roadway. The Brake warning flashes and I hear the beep. I just tap the brakes: not even braking and the warning goes away.

Any system is going to have false positives and false negatives. I'm willing to live with the system as it is now, but expect the next generation to be even better.

I too am happy with ACC. It lets you use cruise control when traffic is speeding up and slowing down. I've had the regular type of cruise control on previous cars: I never found it useful in the bay area due to the amount of traffic. I especially find the ACC useful when I using my mobile phone. I feel is makes me a safer drivier when I'm distracted by the phone conversation.


I think the important thing is that we have a choice. Those who purchased the RL with ACC/CMBS can always turn it off with a switch on the dash.

 

Nothing personal Mike but have you actually driven a CMBS RL? The system just isn't that obtrusive in normal everyday driving and only seems to activate in an imminent collision type situation. You get brake warnings if a car slows in front of you and you are following closely behind. I have no problems with peoples' opinions on this type of technology in cars but a lot of it seems to be based on speculation without any actual experience with the system in question. In your case, negative experience with Infiniti's lane departure system seems to have colored your opinion of any "asistance" technology in cars. Acura seems (IMO) to have calibrated the CMBS to be less active in everyday driving and to only provide warnings when you get too close to the car in front and braking when collision seems imminent.

FWIW, for those with CMBS who want to use "regular cruise control", you can toggle between the ACC and regular cruise mode by holding the distance button on the wheel down for 3 seconds.

 

I'm sending this to my Lexus friends. This is priceless!

 

That's fair, Boston. the only CMBS RL I've driven was on a demo ride, so I'm not completely familiar with it. Admittedly, a lot of my impressions about it are drawn from owner reports.

And my impressions of "assistance tech" have indeed come mostly from my Infiniti ownership experience (with a smidge from BMW ownership, as well). BTW, the Infiniti intelligent cruise could also be turned off, but since I use cruise every day, every time I drive, that extra step was a needless pain in the ass for me.

Again, I don't harbor any hostility for those who like these things ... it's just that I don't!

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I have to agree there. I am very happy with the CMBS and ACC and have not had any of the falses.

 

+1