Adaptive Cruise (ACC) - How well does it REALLY work?

Adaptive Cruise (ACC) Overall

  • Very Useful on a Day to Day basis

    Votes: 41 41.0%
  • Pretty Useful

    Votes: 41 41.0%
  • Kinda of Useful, but annoying most of the time

    Votes: 15 15.0%
  • More of a Gimmick than anything

    Votes: 3 3.0%

  • Total voters
    100

CivicNut

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Neat. I wouldn't expect it to be a fully self driving thing or even a complete highway driving, but it'd be nice to relax a bit.

So, does the system deactivate when you come to a complete stop in traffic? Is it useful there or just when traffic moves?
It's goes into kinda "Stand-By" mode and driver intervention is needed... here's what the manual says...

Honda Civic 10th gen Adaptive Cruise (ACC) - How well does it REALLY work? upload_2016-3-2_11-5-8
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djasonw

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Before I purchased my Touring I vowed to get a car with at least ACC. It works very well but there is room for improvement. It's awesome if you are in stop and go traffic on a highway. It also works very well on a suburban road with lights every 3/4-1 mile or so. If the system loses sight of a car it is following you need to remember to stop for the traffic light! It would be nice if it stopped for red lights. I'm sure it will in the future. The lane assist is really nice too. Definitely reduces fatigue on long trips. Even the lane departure warning system is nice. If the road has a slight curve the LKA will actually track the car properly. It's pretty neat!!
 
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kirkhilles

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I DO find it surprising and a bit disappointing that at least at our local sizable Honda dealer here in Chattanooga, Sensing doesn't seem to be an interest of buyers. Right now, they have 92 Civics in stock (!), but only 5 of them having Sensing with 3 of those being Touring models. The rest are mostly LX and EX models. I was thinking of (eventually) getting an EX w/ Sensing. I'm surprised especially since its just a $1,000 option and the auto-braking (CMBS) system alone would pay for that if it keeps you from even a single fender bender in your car's lifetime. Would think that Insurance will eventually drop presuming it has a track record of helping to reduce accidents.
 

PS3

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Hmm, too bad, that's very disappointing to hear. I guess its more of a "dumb" sensor as opposed to being aware of what lane you are in versus others. This would probably be great on our trips from North Georgia down to Florida with straight sections, but would probably be useless on my commute where I have curves going around the mountain.
It will work great on I-75 south to Florida (mostly straight and level). And, it will automatically stop-and-go in Atlanta traffic. Go for it!
 

timothyjay

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I tried ACC the other day on I-95 here in Florida just to test it out, and I'm pretty impressed by it. I was in the middle lane set to 70 with the longest distance possible set, and when the vehicle in front of me would slow down, my car would slow down also. And when someone would get in my lane, it would slow down enough as well to make room for the new vehicle.

The only thing that made me a little weary that day is is that since I had it set at the longest gap between me and the vehicle in front of me, my car would slow down when I wouldn't normally slow down myself, and the vehicles behind me is probably thinking why am I slowing down when I have plenty of gap between me and the vehicle in front of me. I haven't tried setting the distance shorter yet, wanted to get used to all these techs before braving myself.
 


dick w

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I DO find it surprising and a bit disappointing that at least at our local sizable Honda dealer here in Chattanooga, Sensing doesn't seem to be an interest of buyers.
It's still a Civic, an economy car that is intended, primarily, to appeal to economy car buyers. Sensing is a $1K add-on. If you just need a car and aren't awash in money, it has to look like $1K that can pretty easily stay in your pocket.
 
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kirkhilles

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The entire sensing package is the main reason why I traded my 2012 Camry for the Civic Touring.
Are you happy with your purchase? Was it everything you expected and wanted?
 

PS3

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Are you happy with your purchase? Was it everything you expected and wanted?
It is what I expected and wanted. That is (one) reason I chose the Civic over an Accord. I also like the way it looks... The Collision Mitigation has already saved me from rear-ending someone twice... The Lane Departure is ok, but I don't drive enough long distances to notice. The ACC is really nice.
 

Rook3300

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I haven't tried setting the distance shorter yet, wanted to get used to all these techs before braving myself.
That's funny, I've tried to use ACC in my normal morning commute and even the shortest distance leaves too much space which means people dart right in there. On the short following distance, the car still reacts well but gets a bit jumpy on the brakes when traffic slows down to stop-and-go speeds. I've tended to just go with the old-fashioned meat hoof on the go-pedal in the morning commute. In the afternoon though, I try to let the car do the work.
 
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hondamitch51

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That's funny, I've tried to use ACC in my normal morning commute and even the shortest distance leaves too much space which means people dart right in there. On the short following distance, the car still reacts well but gets a bit jumpy on the brakes when traffic slows down to stop-and-go speeds. I've tended to just go with the old-fashioned meat hoof on the go-pedal in the morning commute. In the afternoon though, I try to let the car to the work.
I find the ACC amazing and an excellent sensing capability! It works great for me as well as the other sensing tools and makes for a very relaxing trip. I haven't had any issues so far.
 

tacthecat

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That's funny, I've tried to use ACC in my normal morning commute and even the shortest distance leaves too much space which means people dart right in there. On the short following distance, the car still reacts well but gets a bit jumpy on the brakes when traffic slows down to stop-and-go speeds. I've tended to just go with the old-fashioned meat hoof on the go-pedal in the morning commute. In the afternoon though, I try to let the car do the work.
Come on - you live in CA. My memory of the 101 - San Jose to Sunnyvale - was anything over a car length and a half would be taken, even at 65 - 70 mph in rush hour! Anything other than a brain, good brakes, and quick reactions was useless.
 

Rook3300

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Come on - you live in CA. My memory of the 101 - San Jose to Sunnyvale - was anything over a car length and a half would be taken, even at 65 - 70 mph in rush hour! Anything other than a brain, good brakes, and quick reactions was useless.
LOL, yep that's exactly right. I live in the Greater L.A. area, northwest of the city itself (Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Ventura area) and have to use the 101 daily to commute North to Santa Barbara. It's 65-75 up until we hit "the crunch" (as I've named it) where traffic slows down to a crawl. I could literally get out and slowly jog more quickly than the traffic moves at that point. It's one of the few situations where having a good offense makes the best defensive driving. ACC is mostly useless during the heavy commute in the morning.
 
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kirkhilles

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LOL, yep that's exactly right. I live in the Greater L.A. area, northwest of the city itself (Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Ventura area) and have to use the 101 daily to commute North to Santa Barbara. It's 65-75 up until we hit "the crunch" (as I've named it) where traffic slows down to a crawl. I could literally get out and slowly jog more quickly than the traffic moves at that point. It's one of the few situations where having a good offense makes the best defensive driving. ACC is mostly useless during the heavy commute in the morning.
It is ashame, though that ACC can't navigate slow bumper-to-bumper traffic as that would be a huge benefit for those who have to sit in traffic for long periods of time. I wonder why they deactivate the system when you stop. Is it because of use at redlights?
 

Rook3300

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It is ashame, though that ACC can't navigate slow bumper-to-bumper traffic as that would be a huge benefit for those who have to sit in traffic for long periods of time. I wonder why they deactivate the system when you stop. Is it because of use at redlights?
Oh no, don't misinterpret what I'm saying, the ACC works wonderfully in all the types of traffic I encounter during my commute. It will take the car from 65mph down to 0 if traffic stops. Then when traffic gets going again, just give it a tap on the accelerator to notify the car you want to continue and it will follow the car in front of you no matter what speed they are going (up to the max cruise speed you set earlier).
I just can't use it in my morning commute because the 1.5 - 2 car length gap that the ACC leaves to the car in front is basically just a delicious open invitation for other drivers to jump in there and push us all back one more car. However, I do plan to use it all the time when taking road trips anywhere else other than to work.
Also, another FYI, I've found that ACC will significantly change the following space based on traffic speed. At freeway speeds, it leaves about 4-5 car lengths at the closest distance and at stop-and-go speeds that gap shrinks down to about 2 car lengths. This Honda Sensing system with ACC and LSF is no dummy and seems to follow the guidelines for safe following distances.
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