Been playing around with the ACC cruise control, it's pretty nifty and I'm impressed. I've probably used cruise control half a dozen times or less in 30+ years of driving, it's just too much of a pain unless you are on a deserted stretch of highway. But the auto follow of ACC really works well. I tried it in NJ traffic (and when I say NJ traffic you know it's REAL traffic) and it worked pretty flawlessly, even with cars cutting ahead of me and such. Of course I had my foot hovering over the brake pedal as I don't trust anything automated, and I wouldn't normally use it like this. Still it was pretty cool slowing down to a complete stop and then accelerating again without having to touch the brake or gas. It works even more nicely when cruising on the highway, even with traffic. I'm impressed with the detection and following of the vehicle in front, it works even in fairly steep highway turns and even on on/off ramps if they aren't a hairpin. It's smart enough to switch following vehicles when you switch lanes or if someone cuts in front of you as well.

What I'm wondering is what my brake lights do and how I appear to those behind me? I feel a combination of engine braking and wheel braking when using the ACC, but it can at times function differently than I would. For example it brakes very early, where I usually brake later and a bit more firmly. It also keeps a farther distance than I normally do, which results in more frequent braking. All of these things are safer than how I drive so I'm not complaining, but to the guy behind me I must seem like an old lady who is constantly pressing her brakes. Anyone every observe (maybe with another car behind you that you know) how the brake lights function when using ACC? Do the brake lights go on every single time the vehicle is slowed down, or only if a certain threshold of braking is met? How about the full stops?

 

The brake lights come on when it's slowing. Do it at night and you can see the reflection on the back window. I drove a 3,000 mile roadtrip with 90% ACC and it was wonderful. I wish it recovered faster when people move out of the way, but other than that it reduced my driving stress considerably.

 

So ANY time it is slowing? That seems like the brake lights would go on a ton, I would hate to be that guy having his brake lights go on all the time. I hate driving behind those kind of drivers. Oh well thanks for the info.

 

The brake lights should only come on during the same situations as if you are driving without any ACC. If the brakes lights come on, it was a situation where the CMBS system needed to apply the brake pedal to slow the RDX sooner than just letting off the gas pedal. ACC works with CMBS to adjust the distance of RDX to whatever set interval you selected.

 

ACC is great and takes a load off. Almost, but not quite as much as CC did when that first came out.

 

If you feel like it’s slowing down too soon, adjust the following distance to the shortest setting.
I think the ACC works beautifully when set to the shortest following distance.

 

Agree.

But there are still situations that demand manual control. If you find CMBS activating, that would be a sign that you're pushing it.

 

Another trick I use with ACC when I'm traveling in middle or rear of a group is set the speed 5-10 mph above group average speed. If the group speed is 70 mph, I set the ACC to the lowest interval and 75-80 mph. Packs usually yo-yo their speeds and the ACC can compensate when they speed up for a short distance. A big plus is the ACC accelerates faster to maintain the interval gap so you don't get that large space for other cars to swoop in. This works out west when you have +4 hours on road before the next gas stop.

 

I have it on the shortest setting. I'm not complaining at all, if anything I'm very impressed. My only concern is that it brakes much much more than I normally would if I was driving, so was concerned that the vehicle(s) behind me would get confused or perturbed.

 

I've also wondered about my brake lights while using ACC...and had that concern as well...I guess it makes a difference based on what kind of traffic one normally drives in. I now take the approach, that if it (brake lights) bothers a following vehicle, they are (or may be) following too close. I use ACC all of the time...I will not buy anther vehicle without it.

 

The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard requires that brake lights illuminate any time the hydraulic service brakes are applied whether they are applied manually by the driver or automatically by a feature such as Adaptive Cruise Control, Collision Mitigation Braking System, or Vehicle Stability Assist. The brake lights do not illuminate when the service brakes are not applied such as when coasting or using engine braking.

Vehicles with regenerative braking such as hybrids and electric vehicles will also illuminate the brake lights when the regenerative braking system is active such as when the driver presses the brake pedal or when releasing the accelerator pedal on models with "one pedal driving" (a feature that activates regenerative braking when releasing the accelerator pedal when the feature is enabled).