RLX-Sport Hybrid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK9b...ature=youtu.be

A cold sunny January afternoon at 4:05pm, just driving to pick up one of my kids, the other one in the back seat, and I almost had a head on collision today. I was traveling around 40 mph, and I would estimate the other cars coming at me were likely doing the same. Then some lady in a blue Toyota took the turn wide ahead of me, got into the snow, started to fishtail left, then fishtailed right into my lane and I narrowly avoided a head on collision with her. I moved over as close to the guide rail as I could without hitting it as it was under my side view mirror at the closest, but did not scrape the whole side of the car. The other driver passed so close on my left that our mirrors almost touched. Her car had all four tires over the yellow line into my lane as close as a car length in front of me, and still managed to miss me by the closest of margins. She just kept on going and never stopped. I had no damage, but it made the heart skip a beat. The lesson: keep both hands on the wheel at all times, stay very aware, and be prepared at all times to take evasive action. I have watched the video over and over, and can't make out the license plate of the other car. Also the time stamp is wrong so I have to fix that on the camera. In addition for some reason the video is at a much higher resolution on my computer but online it looks a little grainy. I don't know why. Drive carefully everyone.

getakey

With all your luck, I do 't know whether you should buy lotto tickets or throw them away

hondamore

Woooooooah, that was a close one!! Good job moving over just enough to miss the idiot AND the guardrail. Glad everyone is ok.

Malibu Flyer

Glad you and the family are ok (and the Blackbied too). You have very quick reactions and great driving skills. You didn't have time to think but just instinctively responded to an emergency situation. You had both skill and a little luck on your side.

A lession for all of us on how quick a disaster can pop up. Fortunately this turned out to be nothing more than a good video to post here.

psheu

Glad you and family are okay my friend. some people should not be allow to drive without proper skill like that toyota driver. I've seen the same kind of car tried to keep up with my older RL taking the curve, loose control and run straight into the concrete rail... and that's here in South FL ( no snow, all dry )....

George Knighton

"Holy cow!"

I'd have said a little worse.

That was a narrow escape.

pgeorg

WOW RLX-Sport Hybrid! Excellent driving skills and reaction! I am really happy that you and your child are OK!

You my friend should be extremely careful.......especially with that luck of yours!

fsmith

"Holy Cow" is right, RLX-Sport Hybrid. Great reaction time by you. Incredibly bad reaction by the Toyota. I am really glad the car is okay. (Just kidding, of course, I am even more glad that you and your kid are okay.) Totally scary and totally close to disaster. With your luck, perhaps you should be driving an M1 tank.

thoiboi

You live an exciting life my friend..

hondamore

Is there a TSB for changing your underwear after such an incident?? Is it covered under warranty??

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Thanks everyone. Now this was weird this morning. I'm in a local Dunkin Donuts waiting to order, and a friend of mine whose kid is in the same class as my oldest was in line behind me, so we struck up a conversation. I mentioned what happened yesterday and he said that he was in the car behind me and saw the whole thing. He did not realize it was me otherwise he would have called to congratulate me on getting through it by the skin of my teeth unscathed. I asked if he had a camera on his dash and he said he didn't but he is going to buy the one I have today. When I showed him the video on my phone that I down loaded from my computer, he said that it looked even closer of a pass-by than I thought. He said that he saw it developing only after I hit my brakes, but by then she was already into my lane so far that from his angle he could barely see her in front of my car, then he said it was as if she just appeared in front of him. He almost hit her too. He was completely shocked that there was no collision, and that I did not hit the guide rail. He thought I did from his angle. We walked out of the D&D together and then he walked around my car to see for himself that I did not hit anything. He was in total disbelief. I told him I was too. I shared with him all of the things that have happened to me over the years and he echoed the same sentiment that your folks did. He said there was nothing I could have done to prevent that near miss yesterday, but he did say that I absolutely threaded the needle. I drove past the same spot today and her skid marks are still there. So this is where it gets really weird, he asked to see the video again, and he thought that the driver might be a cleaning lady who comes to several home owners in his neighborhood as he thinks he has seen that car parked out in front of those houses for a long time when she comes to do her work. He said he would see if he can find out if his hunch is right by asking around.

I truly think it was a loss of concentration on her part as I do not think she was speeding. Actually is was a nice piece of driving on her part to if I am being completely fair.

neuronbob

Are your underpants and your seat clean after that near miss? Whoa.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I didn't sleep well, but yes pants are all clean. My youngest had bad dreams last night as it reminded him of our bad accident in the old MDX. He was the one in the car that day too.

sooththetruth

I watched the video, and.... I didn't like it, because it reminded me how our own, or someone else's mistake can mean so much. I felt some extra chest thumps just watching. Then, I remember how you were injured in the MDX accident, and that you have had more than your share of weird episodes. Glad this was just a close call. Hopefully you have paid your dues to fate for the next 60 years.

If only it really worked that way.

neuronbob

I watched the video again. Man, does the Blackbird look clean! You make me jealous, since my CBP is salt-encrusted currently.

(A little levity in a potentially serious situation)

RLX-Sport Hybrid

You got that right! My mother thinks I must have walked under a ladder or something. I wish all of the strange things over the last 2 years were just a bunch of stupid antics, but alas they are not. The funny thing is I'm not a big risk taker by default. I still say the funniest thing is the bat colony that flew past me and I basically flew into the path of them. Really gross! I have seen that kind of thing many times, just have not driven into the path of them.

The accident that messed up my neck and the surgery that followed was a challenging time for me and my family. Considering we were stopped at the time in traffic, who could prepare for an idiot who fell asleep at the wheel on a beautiful sunny afternoon in the summertime? That was just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This experience was too, but a little luck was there to protect me and my son. A little driving skill ok, but the odds of getting by unscathed is really small. The other experience was the truck driving on the highway where trucks are not allowed who had the oil spill and mechanical failure right in front of me. That would have been a video for the ages if I had the dash cam then. It looked more like a NASCAR wreck at Daytona more than anything else, and I squeaked through that too with only oil getting on the car. What are the chances? I should play the lottery. Maybe the gods are telling me something.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Actually it is filthy and the hood and roof are the cleanest parts now. The rest of the car is white. I'm seriously considering washing the car with warm water right now even though it is snowing.
Good point though. I'm falling down on the job!

Texas325

Wow! Glad you and your family are okay. I showed this to my co-workers and they were shocked. Got to love Dash Cams.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

Just got the call from my friend! That other driver is the cleaning lady for many of his neighbors. Apparently she (the other driver) was in tears when she arrived at her destination (close by) and she told her employer what happened. The employer (owner of the house) is a Yoga buddy with my friend's wife so she told the story from the other side, not knowing that I showed him the video from my point of view. She was/is very upset and wants to call me to apologize but is afraid I will call the INS on her as she is here on a green card. I won't do that, but what a small world. Apparently she is afraid to drive now and she made her husband come pick her up. She admitted to the home owner that she glanced down for a text that arrived and she lost her concentration for a second, which caused her to loose control.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

And yes in the longer version of the video I was cursing a little as one might expect. Later on in the video my son said "everyone fuck snaps once in a while, so don't worry about it." Funny comment coming from a 10 year old. Got to laugh about that.

Terdbath

Thread the needle is right! Made my heart skip a beat as well.

I know we are only 21 replies into this thread but it is refreshing to read a post like this and not have one member completely bash the driver that made the mistake. If and when she gets the courage to drive herself again I would hope she learned her lesson on driving and reading texts.

Malibu Flyer

In California, probably like most states it is illegal to text while driving but the CA legislature enacted a new rule which became effective Jan 1st that basically says its illegal to do anything with a cell phone while driving that requires you to take your hands off the steering wheel ...... like making a phone call on the cell's speaker phone.

holografique

Uh....what the!? Holy cow is right! Eeeesh man, so glad that didn't turn out worse. We got some talkin to do!

JM2010 SH-AWD

Nice driving and glad you and your family (and the car) are all safe and sound. But we really need to do something about this stupid texting/driving epidemic.

RLX-Sport Hybrid

It occurred to me that the collision warning never warned me of a collision at the time, but yet it false alarms from time to time out of the blue. Any ideas?

getakey

I was going to aks you why collision avoidance did not come on

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I can only guess it was because I was already engaging the brakes as to why it did not light up and push back on the brakes further. Does that thesis make any sense?

hondamore

Technically, there was never an object in front of you that you would have to brake to avoid since you moved over enough to keep the idiot to the side of the Blackbird. This, along with the fact that you were already steering away from the object AND applying the brakes may explain why collision avoidance didn't engage. Just a wild guess?????

In at least some instances where a possible collision is coming from the side, getting on the accelerator can be the best course of action to avoid contact, so I wonder if the collision avoidance is calibrated to engage in a more "head-on" scenario for just that reason. Just thinking aloud.

TampaRLX-SH

Per the manual....

■ Detection limitations
• A vehicle or pedestrian suddenly crosses in front of you.
• The distance between your vehicle and the vehicle or pedestrian ahead of you is
too short.
• A vehicle cuts in front of you at a slow speed, and it brakes suddenly.
• When you accelerate rapidly and approach the vehicle or pedestrian ahead of you
at high speed.
• The vehicle ahead of you is a motorcycle, bicycle, mobility scooter or other small
vehicle.
• When there are animals in front of your vehicle.
• When you drive on a curved, winding or undulating road that makes it difficult for
the sensor to properly detect a vehicle in front of you.
• The speed difference between your vehicle and a vehicle or pedestrian in front of
you is significantly large.
• An oncoming vehicle suddenly comes in front of you.
• Another vehicle suddenly comes in front of you at an intersection, etc.
• Your vehicle abruptly crosses over in front of an oncoming vehicle.
• When driving through a narrow iron bridge.
• When the lead vehicle suddenly slows down.

getakey

thats a significant number of limitations that I would expect it to handle at least to some degree

RLX-Sport Hybrid

I think it is useless. The emergency braking features available in many cars today is the most useful thing yet.

TampaRLX-SH

Honda is very careful and conservative as to what it claims CMBS will do. When it was introduced on the 2004 RL they even advertised it 'seeing through fog' to prevent a collision. Now, rain & fog are the caveats to it's operation. Acura was hit with a class action lawsuit disputing the initial claims of the features (included in the lawsuit was an AZ member from the RL forum). It is ultimately the driver's responsibility to operate the vehicle. These are promoted as aides, not alternatives and Honda now makes very conservative claims.

That said, it is not untrue that it can stop the car completely. I have tested this myself and my SH did reach complete stop (heading for a fixed position object). But there is no claim it will do that or always engage.

holografique

^ Curious, how did you test that with the most amount of possible accuracy, yet the least amount of risk should it not have worked? I would have been very timid to try, especially with a 16' SH-AWD.

I remember CMBS not going off when I got in my accident with my 14 PAWS. Which was essentially the first limitation noted on the list you posted.

TampaRLX-SH

A local sheriff's department was running a driver training / experience tests for their local highschools. Along with the typical cone laid course, there were reactive tests as well, such as a pedestrian or cyclist darting into the path of the test driver. These were Styrofoam to prevent damage to the test cars (as nearly every kid I witnessed failed to avoid - in the NON distracted tests (no cellphone or stereo operation). They also had a foam 'car' (rear facade) to test emergency braking judgement (which again, nearly all failed). That is what we used to test the CMBS of my SH RLX. As I stated in the previous post, the SH did come to a complete stop and all stages of the CMBS engaged as described. However, the CMBS did not alert on the pedestrian (child) darting into my path and became roadkill. The cyclist DID alert through Stage 2 but also became an asphalt pancake.

What I summized from this experiment was CMBS fares better when an object is detected and 'tracked' by the cameras and radar - which is how the ACC works bringing the car to a stop. Several 'pings' of the target can be assessed by the software permitting the feature to perform as described. However the 'darting into path' situations where inconsistent with the alerts and neither stopped the car. My theory is that these 'unexpected' obstacles occur too quickly for the car's software to ping, assess and react to a level of consistency.

I regret I did not video the test as it was very informative to a feature most all drivers are not willing to execute. Remember the first time you used ACC and had your foot hovering over the brake pedal as you distrusted the feature. But tests like this are online - performed by CR and some auto reviewers. What I did learn (aside that most teenage drivers are more likely to kill me than ISIS) is that these features are NOT alternatives to the driver's responsibility of controlling the car. And if the driver is not attentive they MIGHT smack you upside the head in time for you to save your skin (and that of another). An example I present are these high performance vehicles being developed as street cars. Just because you have 'launch control' does not mean you stomp it and expect to be first to the finish line. Even with such features and those more traditional (VSA, stability control, etc) you can marvel at the ever increasing number of YouTube videos where small minded Bozos wreck Mustangs and high powered exotics (but mostly Mustangs) departing a suburban shopping center parking lot after attending a 'coffee & cars' event.

With these Bozos eager to trust early deployed auto pilot systems or autonomous driving - I fear the near future of our roads. And I will likely venture onto those roadways less and less until the 'deflector shield' feature is developed.

getakey

cool that you could test with styrofoam. Would really like to experience that.
I guess I am a Bozo though. I'd trust those autonomous machines way more than those teenagers. I think this technology will decrease deaths and will be prevalent in the not too distant future.
I want every car around me to be autonomous while I drive normal

TampaRLX-SH

Good Luck with that!

Just to clarify - the teens were not testing autonomy features....just their driving skills.

getakey

I get that they were testing their own skills and exactly my point

holografique

Thanks for sharing Tampa. Sounds like it was a great opportunity to test out CMBS in a manner that gave you the most flexibility to test the varying use cases with the confidence of getting accurate results AND avoiding damage to the car (or a pedestrian) at the same time. Very cool.

And I totally remember using ACC for the first time and hovering very close to the brake pedals . Interestingly my ILX has the entire suite of AcuraWatch technologies that my RLX Advanded trim had, with the addition of RDM and Cross Traffic Monitor, and ACC seems to still be very "brake heavy" when it comes to adjusting it's follow speed.

My guess is, either the system running the code doesn't have the CPU horsepower to get better tracking resolution to make the speed adjustments more natural and fluid, or the code isn't written well to provide the resolution needed. I saw a really good video review of the 2016 ILX and the driver mentioned other brands ACC reacting much smoother and more natural compared to Acura's ACC when it came to adjusting speed. Will be interesting to see how this develops along with some of the tech they previewed in the Precision Cockpit Concept.