So here's the story....I was able to convince a good friend to purchase an RLX. At the dealership over the weekend, I was able to assist in the negotiation with the sales rep between a '15 Advance and a '16 Advance. Despite all the improvements in the '16s, the discount for a '15 was too good to pass up. My buddy ended up driving home in a black/black RLX P-AWS Advance for just over $49,000.

On the way home, while driving on the interstate, I was fortunate that my buddy allowed me to drive for a couple of hours. While doing so, I made several attempts to initiate the Adaptive Cruise Control. Alas, I couldn't get it properly set. The cruise control works fine. But, each time I attempt to set a speed and have it "adapt" to the car ahead, it wouldn't initiate. I kept having to hit the brakes when I came upon the car ahead. What am I doing or NOT doing wrong?

Once I set the cruise, I hit the ACC button on the lower, right hand inset of the steering wheel, but nothing happens. Turning to the Owner's Manual, it shows photos of the speed which is set in the middle display when properly activated. For me, no "speed numbers" appear on the middle screen between the speedo and tach.....just the word CRUISE appears just underneath the green ACC on the right and green LKAS on the left.

Any ideas?
Thank you in advance.

 

there is a "Main" button on right side of steering wheel where you set speed
It toggles ACC and LKAS on/off
You should see green ACC in display if it is on

 

At the 3 o'clock position on steering wheel you will see two a toggle with two buttons above and below it. The button above says MAIN=use it to toggle ACC on. As stated above ACC and LKAS will show in green.

Once you have set the cruise speed then use the LSF "pad"/button that is at the 4 o'clock position (top one). I also enable LKAS with or without LSF/ACC because it reminds me if I am drifting out of the lane.

Pages 381, 384, 390, and 404 of the manual.

Enjoy

 

Great Deal!!!

 

^^ and more importantly....GREAT CAR!

 

Congrats to your buddy. $49k for an Advance is still a great deal, and he improvements on the '16 are not strong enough to overcome that discount on the '15. Good advice on the ACC above already given.

 

Was the OP finally able to get the ACC working...?

 

I sure hope a year from now I can get that kind of a deal on a '16 Advance.

 

I don't know why you keep talking about it. You've evidently married your ZDX.

:-)

 

the zdx was expensive

 

For now yes. A year from now...who knows, we might be getting a divorce.

 

Too damn expensive and dealers weren't willing to budge much on price at all. There were no $10k discounts like some are getting on a new RLX now even though the ZDX was also a slow seller. I fell in love with the unique exterior styling, rareness of the ZDX and acted on impulse.

When I was in the market for a car 2 years ago, the RLX had just went on sale and I felt the exterior was too bland and it was overpriced. Who would've known 2 years later I would be interested in buying one.

But back on topic...OP did you ever figure out how to use the ACC?

 

My buddy called last night and said he "THOUGHT" he got it working. I said, "What do you mean you THINK you got it working? Did it slow down when you approached the car ahead, and then speed back up when you moved to pass him?" His reply, "I'm not sure."
Well, I told him I'd see him this weekend and give it a try myself. As you can tell, he's no TECHIE, so I'll have to let you all know. Thanks for all the replies.

 

should be pretty obvious that it is working unless you aren't in much traffic
The car icon in the center fills white when it is locked on car ahead. If just outline of car then car should be at your set cruise speed and you are far enough away from car ahead that it does not require "adaptive".
You can adjust the lock in distance by the other button at 4 o clock position. The one with the horizontal bars coming out at a perspective. It should default to max distance as I recall. Will retain setting if you adjust closer.

The cool thing about it is that at slow speed city traffic it engages as a low speed follow and will bring car to a complete stop in stopped traffic

 

He also has a 2013 model, which was a unique, heavily optioned vehicle.

It had a lot of stuff on it for the money, compared to previous years.

 

I know exactly what you and your buddy's problem is. The car is in Cruise mode as opposed to ACC mode. The Advance model with ACC can be set to work like normal Cruise Control with no ACC functionality. When this mode is set, the MID shows Cruise instead of ACC and there is no cruise speed digits when you activate cruise (just like in normal cruise control cars).

All you do to toggle between the two modes is when you have the Main switch on, just HOLD the distance to follow button (at around 4 o'clock location) for about a sec. The car will switch to ACC on the MID. Then you are in ACC mode with all of the Active Cruise functionality. If it says Cruise like you described, it is in normal cruise mode with no ACC.

Hope this helps...

 

^ I did not realize you could turn OFF ACC if the Main switch is ON.

Wondering about the reverse - can you set normal Cruise with Main switch OFF?

Mine always shows ACC with Main Switch ON

 

No... you cannot set normal cruise with Main switch off. Basically the main switch activates Cruise control functionality. Whether that functionality is ACC or normal Cruise is selectable by holding the distance follow button. Whichever mode you set it to (ACC or Cruise), that is the mode that it stays in until you specifically change it again (even after you shut off and restart the car).

Hope this makes sense...

 

^I see. So holding distance button toggles ACC on/off
Interesting, but I don't really see any reason to turn ACC Off

 

How far ahead does a car have to be before you start slowing down on it? 2 car lengths?

 

you can adjust it - much further than 2 car lengths

 

It depends on TIME related to SPEED.

It comes and goes, depending on how fast you're moving.

However...I do not trust my reaction times enough to set it to one hash mark, as someone on here said that he does.

Two or three is where I usually set it.

You will find that three and four will annoy people because the average American driver does not look far enough ahead to realize why you're not on the bumper of the car ahead.

At three and four, people will definitely cut in front of you.



At least you're safe...and relaxed, compared to them.

The specific answer to your question, too, is that it depends.

The car will wait occasionally to be sure that it understands what the car ahead of you is doing. If the car ahead of you brakes, it's possible that it will wait to be sure that it is a permanent situation, not a temporary one.

Unfortunately, this can alarm your passengers if they do not understand how the system works.

The car will wait to be sure it understands what is going on, and if it has chosen unwisely to wait, then it will brake more heavily to bring you to the right speed and following distance. In the long run, this is more energy efficient than it would be to match every small incremental change, but it is also why I do not like setting to the closest optional following distance.

And, please, remember, the ACC is a stress reliever. It is not a responsibility reliever. You still can't take your eyes off what's going on because the responsibility remains the driver's.

 

2 years later and just now learning about this function. Mine has always been set to ACC by default.

Thanks for the insight!

 

George, in Cleveland traffic, setting the ACC to one hash mark is enough. I find that at one hash mark, at freeway speed, you are three seconds behind the car in front of you. That's plenty of space (or at least for me it is). Setting it more than that in urban freeway traffic is asking for someone to honk at you if you're in the fast lane.

Works for me, anyway.

Thanks for the tip on toggling ACC and regular cruise. I don't know why I'd ever want normal cruise after experiencing ACC, though. I was not fatigued at all at the end of driving my 700 mile round trip this week because of ACC and LKAS.

 

It happened to me once.
It was 5 in the morning in Los Angeles, CA.
I was driving in a heavy fog, so I believe that that disabled ACC.
No matter what I did, it kept selecting reguler Curuise Control somehow...

 

I set it to 2 hash marks on the freeway with 2 lanes of traffic. More lanes of traffic needs probably 1. Anyone wants to know how to use the ACC I figured all that stuff out now.

 

I wonder why there'd be such a big difference between our systems.

One hash mark for me is nowhere near three seconds.

 

^One man's 1-2-3 is different from another man's 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi. I'm a three to four Mississippi gap to the car ahead kind of guy.

 

Sounds like a video is in order for an objective study. Stay tuned....

LOL at hondamore! I'm a 3-Mississippi person BTW. It takes me just over a second (just timed it ) to say x-Mississippi.

 

^^I've used "1 Mississippi 2 Mississippi...", "1- one thousand, 2- one thousand...", 1 steamboat, 2 steamboat...

Back as a kid playing touch football, you always had to count out loud to 5 before you could rush the quarterback, so many a Mississippi etc were counted aloud.

 

I had to be on 66 and 81 a couple of times today, so I tried the one hash mark setting.

For me, it's just too close at 75-80 mph.