RL06tech

We took a long thanksgiving drive (5hrs) through a variety of traffic conditions from open highway to bumper to bumper. Here are my impressions:
Both systems work very well on long open stretches of highway, in those instances they do make the drive less of a chore. The only issue is that the LKAS can annoy with its frequent "keep your hands on the wheel" reminders, not only do you have to keep your hands on the wheel, it takes the smallest nudge for it to know they are in fact there. In addition sometimes you are surprised when it resists your input since it wants you exactly in the middle of the lane, of course, don't forget your blinker before starting a lane change or it gets "quite upset"
CMBS also works well on the open highway as long as the speed differential is not very big, once you start to get to 20 mph difference with traffic, the strong braking action is a little disconcerting, the same is true in city driving. The biggest issue, of course, is when people cut in front of you or you want to pass yourself since the system wants to maintain its assigned "buffer" distance. To pass is quite easy since the system "suspends' while accelerating, once you release the accelerator its resets itself to the previous state. Don't let go of the accelerator while passing or the system will wake up while your trying to pass (oops). In heavy traffic CMBS is great for maintaining your place in line without losing your temper Just keep it at the shortest following distance to keep nitwits from squeezing in ahead of you and causing the system to slam the brake unnecessarily. Again the trick of good CMBS etiquette is to keep the speed differential with the rest of the traffic at no more than 15mph.
In summary the systems work as advertised but a little practice is necessary to use them effectively. If you are a speed limit abiding citizen you can probably use them on a continuous basis, just set the posted speed and go. For the more leaden foot (like me) its good for the open highway and instances of boring, heavy traffic where you just want to maintain your place in the slow moving queue.

A note of caution: YOU STILL HAVE TO DRIVE

unr1

Really enjoy to read these cutting edge car tech reviews. I was actually thinking about LKAS while driving this Thanksgiving break (my car didn't have it).

I'm pretty sure you're referring to ACC when you're talking about CMBS. The CMBS is an emergent response in case the vehicle senses that you may not be able to break in time and intervenes (up to 70%? percent of braking power or so). And of course you also get an audible and visual notification to brake.

It's really good to hear that LKAS helps. Although, this is the second or third time I've heard that you need to nudge the steering wheel a bit to let the LKAS know you're in control once you hit the 10 second "look mah no hands" limit. But for a new (relatively) system it's a great start.

Thanks for sharing your experience

RL06tech

Correct my bad, alphabet soup overdose

BTW the nudge to the steering is microscopic no one but the driver would ever notice. I asked my wife, as a passenger, if she could feel the steering inputs of LKAS while driving, she didn't. As the driver you just have to get used to the "robot" steering for you, its a little odd at first.

unr1

yea, the acronyms are such a pain to remember.
And that's another thing I've heard... it feels a bit strange to have the system steering for you. I'm really looking forward to trying this system for myself.

It put a smile to Brian Cooley's face in this vid, the LKAS segment starts at 6:25


edit: not sure why the vid is double posting, sorry!

encryption

I made a similar post here highlighting my praises (and gripes) about ACC and LKAS.

rustic23

I have a 2016 MDX. They have changed the audible warning when LKA suspends! It is so low you can not hear it with the radio on, or if there is conversation in the car. You must be looking in at the display to no that the system has suspended! I checked with Acura and the confirmed that it changed from the 2015 to 2016 year model. We just completed a 5,000 mile trip from TX. to WA. and back. Several times the LKA suspended and I was not aware until the car crossed the lane markers. Most of the time I am looking outside the car, and down the road. On two lane roads, you must include an inside dash check to insure it is still working.

While I really like the MDX, I consider this a huge safety shortfall!

2016_MDX

I have a 2016 Acura MDX and its having issues with the LKAS. After reading posts here, I hope that there is a fix to this. The LKAS system shows an error on the the dashboard than my steering wheel locks where it doesn't let me steer. This has happened on the highway and also on regular streets. This is not normal right? Seems pretty dangerous that I can barely steer the car off the highway to turn on the car and turn it back on for the LKAS system to reset. Any ideas??

Master Apex

I have driven new Toyota Camry and I feel their system is very intrusive and does provide the driver with more reliance to the system (so the driver can be more distracted and doing other things).
I always treat this system as a "passive assistance" ,not some intelligent that takes over my driving so I turned off all audio alerts.
I think this kind of technology has side effect of making drivers trying to do other things beside driving ,