I took my car for another highway drive this week, and tried LKA again. I wasn't impressed. It ping-ponged in the lane, seemed to lose the lines pretty easily, and was just generally unreliable. I'm not sure if I should take it to the dealer for a check to make sure the cameras are all working and whatnot or if this is just a bad system.

The RDS system gave me a few warnings but I wasn't intentionally testing the system. ACC worked just fine.

What has been the experience of others? Does this sound like typical performance? Or is in need of a check-up

 

Sounds similar to my experience. LKA is all but useless, and RDM is overly sensitive for the kind of road we have where I live -- poorly marked and with lots of curves.

 

LKA doesnt inspire any confidence. Too jittery trying stay between the lines. Must keep a firm grip on the wheel. It works though and it's better than not having it.

RDM I'm still 50/50. On one hand it's a good safety feature but on the other I dont like fighting the steering wheel when I wanna change lanes.

Adaptive cruise control I'm a big fan. Highway cruising is a breeze now with my feet off the gas and the car driving for me in traffic. Can be refined further more though. Shouldnt brake/accelerate so hard.

 

This one...."LKA doesnt inspire any confidence".
And because of that, if I am just going to keep my hands on the wheel, why bother using it.

 

Mine is a lot smoother. I do keep my hands firmly on the wheel, and guide the car, but, with LKA on, it seems much easier. More like the car is following the grooves in an old asphalt road caused by prior truck traffic.

 

I was trying it with hands off or only lightly on the wheel. What's the point of LKA if you have to keep your hands firmly on the wheel and guide the car?

Anyway, it's not like steering is hard on the highway. I'll just steer the car the old fashioned way. Still, a little disappointed.

 

Completely useless gadget, doesn't work reliably at all. I get a kick out of the way its proponents rationalize its poor performance.....it is only supposed to "assist", not fully steer the car. 100% cop out.
Lots of worthless tech in vehicles these days, inflating prices by thousands and then switched off 99% of the time.

 

ITS CALLED LANE KEEP ASSIST PEOPLE, it’s not designed to drive for you, it to assist you in staying in the lane, your supposed to keep your hands on the wheel hence the warning when you take your hands off for too long. Mine easily stays in the lines, but you people need to realize it’s meant to assist, it’s not auto driving, if you want that buy a Tesla! Mine you basically keep your hand on the wheel and can half ass steer and you stay in the lane no problems, I don’t bounce around at all, you also have to be going above 45 for it to even work

 

It’s not a cop out, it’s called understanding what it’s designed for and not being totally irrational by blaming some technology’s ability of not doing something when it says very clearly in the manual what it’s designed for, if you can’t understand that then go back to school?




it very clearly says you need to keep your hand on the wheel and steer the vehicle, it’s not a substitute for steering the car...

 

On long drives, the LKA and the dynamic cruise control take a good bit of the load off. I use them virtually all the time on the highway, mostly for speed control. If it is a 55 road, and I set it at 63, I am always good. Without CC, I can find myself doing 80 in no time. Not generally having to make time anyplace I am going helps.

So, I find that LKA is a mild help, but I will take it. It is the dynamic cruise control that is the real aid, but turning on LKA is just a button, and it is better on than off, how ever minorly better it is.

 

For all the haters of the tech in this car why did you buy a car with all the tech???? If you want self driving go buy a Tesla. Seriously people if you hate the tech go buy a car without it. If you don’t like the car TRADE IT. Do your homework before buying. First world whining.

 

Ditto, I guess people don’t know how to read what the tech actually does, they think the RDX is full capable of driving itself

 

It’s not sensing your hands on the wheel it’s sensing if your putting input by steering left and right, even ever so slightly, you will notice if you barely touch the wheel, 1 finger it, as long as you give it very minimal input it will continue to assist in keeping you in the lane

 

All the tech is why I ended up here. I wanted everything this car has. Which is why I had been so ticked about the infotainment and nav issues. My infotainment seems to have settled down, and I have learned to keep it simple. I don’t mix carplay with native apps, and if I am on carplay, I stick with one nav program and don’t switch around, and stick with one music source. That works for me.

 

Same here Madd Dog. I bought exactly what I wanted after multiple test drives at 2 dealers. Despite the minor glitches I still love the car. In the end it’s just software and will eventually get patched. It’s got just the right amount of tech without being overbearing and it’s gets lots of attention and compliments.

 

My wife is thoroughly intimidated by it, even though she is technically a good driver. She uses none of the aids, and just wanted to know how to play the radio.

 

Yes but you have a backup nav system, should the RDX system fail.

 

Yea, I've only used it once and it was really ping-pongy. It basically gets to the line, has an "oh shit" moment and pulls you towards center again rather than keeping a certain distance between the lines. Last time I tried to use it, it didn't even activate tho. Just gave me hollow lines with the LKAS light on. Eh, probably already broken knowing Honda.

 

My experience with the RDX LKAS is that is works okay for a well-maintained highway with gentle curves. If the curve is anything sharper than a gentle sweeper, LKAS is not going to be able to keep it in the lane.

As for why did people buy this car with the expectation that LKAS would work better? Because it is only natural to expect that such a system should be able to handle the majority of the curves on the highway by itself. Imagine if you fail at 60% of your job at work. Do you think your manager would say "that's okay... I don't expect you to actually do anything on your own. You are only here to assist me, and I fully expect that 60% of the time, I will need to step in and take over from you, because you sh*t the bed shortly after you embark on more than half of your projects."

Having said that, LKAS is not that important to me, so it does not scuttle my overall impression of the car. I am more concerned about the hesitation after braking issue.

 

Maybe if the manager cheaped out when they did the hiring. In fact, in the current economy that tends to be the norm. Hire the cheapest worker that can build a product that people will buy. No need to over engineer whether it be on the quality or the functionality front. A complaining customer is fine as long as they don't dump the product.

The RDX is, after all, the value play in this segment. One of the ways they are able to provide that value is by judiciously cutting corners at every level including the suppliers. If a customer is happy with the car, Acura made the right choices and they are unable to perceive the result of corner cutting.

 

Let me better explain that. If I decide to use Waze, or Google Maps, or even Apple maps, that is the nav system I stick to for that drive segment.

 

"RDM I'm still 50/50. On one hand it's a good safety feature but on the other (I dont like fighting the steering wheel when I wanna change lanes)."
That's a reminder to use your blinkers when switching lanes....

 

I bought the car for the tech that I expected to work. Nav/infotainment aside, LKA is a disappointment. Further research has shown that Honda has some of the least favorable reviews of their system.
I didn't expect it to be a self-driving car, I expected it to stay in the middle of the lane.

 

Yes, this feature is retraining me to use the damn blinkers....as you are supposed to!

 

My LKAS seems to have gotten worse over time. It hardly handles even the slightest of turns in a road that has clearly marked lines. In wide lanes, my car will ping-pong between the two until breaks through one side and starts crossing lanes. I know it's not a self-driving car and I don't intend to drive hands-free but this is the worst LKAS I've ever experienced. I have no trust in it.

I'm disappointed with all the sensors on the vehicle. Blind-spot detection is horrendous, cross-traffic alerts go haywire even after I park. None of this happened when I first got it. Also, the sensors get interrupted by rain/snow too easily. Poor sensor placement? Too sensitive to obstructions? I don't know but it took a lot more than a drizzle to interrupt the sensors in my previous Hyundai. Hopefully Acura addresses this and releases some TSBs to re-program/re-calibrate the sensors.

 

About that. Shouldnt blind spot monitoring work at lower speeds?

 

i think my LKAS has gotten worse over time too. I thought I was imagining it. Good to hear someone else had a similar experience.

 

Yep. Mine works fine, but it might work better here in California as our road crews have recently started repainting lines bigger so it's easier for car cameras to pick them up.

 

The system only works for speeds between 45-90 mph. Below 45 it'll give you the hollowed lines.

In light traffic, I use LKAS and ACC to cruise on highways with just one hand on the steering wheel. For long trips it'll be hard for me to go back to driving without these features.

 

[QUOTE=Starseer;16504448]The system only works for speeds between 45-90 mph. Below 45 it'll give you the hollowed lines.

In light traffic, I use LKAS and ACC to cruise on highways with just one hand on the steering wheel. For long trips it'll be hard for me to go back to driving without these features.[/QUOTE]

Which is why I didn’t go up to the advanced with the HUD. Plus, the wheels are fugly. If it had folding mirrors, though.....

 

My experience is if you are on a highway that is straight or with gentle curves, with fairly new pavement (meaning the color is consistent without a lot of grooves and different color pavement patching), and the lane lines are crisp and not faded into the pavement, then LKAS works pretty well. Otherwise it can have a hard time figuring out the correct tracking.

 

Hmmm... My Volvo XC90 has both LKA and Pilot Assist. The LKA is a safety feature to alert drivers when drifting out of a lane and it seems to be marketed that same way on our RDX. The Pilot Assist on my Volvo (which the RDX does not have) is similar to the Tesla Auto Pilot that allows both speed control via ACC and steering control via Pilot Assist. Pilot Assist is marketed as a drivers aid rather than a safety feature like LKA. LKA is not supposed to be used for hands free steering of a car to my knowledge on any car.

 

Honda/Acura have two systems: Road Departure Mitigation, which is a safety feature that alerts the driver if s/he leaves the lane, and can steer it back in emergency, and Lane Keep Assist, which is designed to relieve driver fatigue by keeping the vehicle in the middle of the lane automatically. I don't think any systems allow for completely hands-free driving - they all want the driver to have their hands on the wheel most of the time. Some of these systems are more tolerant of drivers not holding the wheel though, like Tesla and Cadillac which has other sensors that can tell if the driver is attentive. Honda's system seems to be among the least tolerant, to the point (in my case) that it requires me to steer the car to stay in the lane.