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

bhorn

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How does the ACC handle curves on the highway which go in a 360 loop? If I had it at 50, will it try to make the 360 turn while going 50, will it know to apply some brakes and slow down to say 25-30 to make the turn smoothly or will I have to manually brake and guide the wheel so I don't end up with an abrupt auto-brake somewhere in the middle of the loop?
ACC only follows the car in front of you. And even then, it needs a direct line of sight. Would you use regular cruise control on a road like this?
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dick w

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How does the ACC handle curves on the highway which go in a 360 loop? If I had it at 50, will it try to make the 360 turn while going 50, will it know to apply some brakes and slow down to say 25-30 to make the turn smoothly or will I have to manually brake and guide the wheel so I don't end up with an abrupt auto-brake somewhere in the middle of the loop?
If you have the cruise speed set to 60, come to a 30 mph curve and nobody is in front of you, ACC will be no different than regular cruise control and will try to hold 60. Then RDM will kick in as you careen off the road…
 

Rook3300

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How does the ACC handle curves on the highway which go in a 360 loop? If I had it at 50, will it try to make the 360 turn while going 50, will it know to apply some brakes and slow down to say 25-30 to make the turn smoothly or will I have to manually brake and guide the wheel so I don't end up with an abrupt auto-brake somewhere in the middle of the loop?
And people think we don't really need autonomous cars...
 

tacthecat

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With the adaptive cruise, does the set mph correspond with the actual mph? When I set mine - the speedometer is always 1 mph less than the setting. Only when I'm going downhill do they match.
On our '12 Si (just standard CC) it depends on where you "catch" the speed when you activate the CC - remember the speedometer is showing the nearest mph/kmph, 65 could be 64.51 or 65.49.
Unless you encounter fairly steep uphill or downhill, it'll hold that number but you might show 64 or 66 depending on where you set it within the 1/2 mph/kmph range.
We "play the game" when we're travelling to try and get it to hold the "set speed" - it usually is just right but if not you have to deactivate and set CC again to try and get it "perfect".
Yes, sometimes I get bored when travelling.
 
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dick w

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Another reason a digital speedo display is stupid.
 


Volsfan

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I have a client who is a field technical rep for another car brand. He told me in MPG test he has been a part of no one driving manually can beat the adaptive cruise. I've been using it when I can and noticing my average MPG's increasing.
 

16extsense

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He told me in MPG test he has been a part of no one driving manually can beat the adaptive cruise.
I need the details of the test to buy this. In a traffic jam, ACC is not smooth I feel like I waste gas and brake.
 

ResortCasual

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After a month of ownership I finally got a chance to try out ACC this weekend on a drive from San Jose to Monterey on 101 South.

Overall I was very impressed as it delivered as advertised. For those expecting a Knight Rider experience you will be sorely disappointed but for those who are looking for a smarter version of cruise control then you will be delighted as it works about as well as it can without being KITT.

Being that it was my first time using it, I found I was initially hovering over the brake a lot as I wasn't expecting it to work as well as it did. After using conventional cruise control in other cars, it took a few miles to rewire my brain. But after those initial few miles and seeing how it worked and how well it worked I relaxed a little bit and trusted the car to do the right thing.

I did get cut off once and found that it reacted well. And I found that it did about as well as could be expected around the slight turns of 101 as you got south of Gilroy. But as I got closer to 156 I disabled it due to the tighter turns and increased traffic.

One question I did have after this weekend. I had ACC set for 75 (sorry officers) for most of the trip. If the ACC detects that a gradual slowdown is necessary (say from 75 to 73), does it coast to achieve that 2MPH slowdown or is it not smart enough to know that and it always has to apply the brakes regardless? In the scenarios I encountered this weekend where a minor slowdown was needed it was hard to tell exactly how the car was achieving this. When I got cut off it was more obvious that the brakes were applied. Like others have mentioned, if it is brakes 100% of the time I could see drivers behind me getting pissed off for what appears to be unnecessary braking in open space on my part.

RC
 

Farcry1010

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After a month of ownership I finally got a chance to try out ACC this weekend on a drive from San Jose to Monterey on 101 South.

Overall I was very impressed as it delivered as advertised. For those expecting a Knight Rider experience you will be sorely disappointed but for those who are looking for a smarter version of cruise control then you will be delighted as it works about as well as it can without being KITT.

Being that it was my first time using it, I found I was initially hovering over the brake a lot as I wasn't expecting it to work as well as it did. After using conventional cruise control in other cars, it took a few miles to rewire my brain. But after those initial few miles and seeing how it worked and how well it worked I relaxed a little bit and trusted the car to do the right thing.

I did get cut off once and found that it reacted well. And I found that it did about as well as could be expected around the slight turns of 101 as you got south of Gilroy. But as I got closer to 156 I disabled it due to the tighter turns and increased traffic.

One question I did have after this weekend. I had ACC set for 75 (sorry officers) for most of the trip. If the ACC detects that a gradual slowdown is necessary (say from 75 to 73), does it coast to achieve that 2MPH slowdown or is it not smart enough to know that and it always has to apply the brakes regardless? In the scenarios I encountered this weekend where a minor slowdown was needed it was hard to tell exactly how the car was achieving this. When I got cut off it was more obvious that the brakes were applied. Like others have mentioned, if it is brakes 100% of the time I could see drivers behind me getting pissed off for what appears to be unnecessary braking in open space on my part.

RC
The thing that I noticed. It takes into account your current speed as well as the speed of the car in front of you using the technology. If the 'preset' gap that you have set for the cushion between you and vehicle in front. If you get cut off and he has to hit brakes so the difference in speed is too great to maintain that cushion it will apply the brakes. But if it sees that the car is going 74 mph and you were going 75. It will coast as long as it maintains that cushion. It reads ahead of that cushion as well I noticed. So if that car in front was way ahead of my cushion but he was only doing 60 and I'm set at 75. I noticed that the car will coast and then apply brakes if your speed is too great to maintain that cushion. I usually have mine set at 3 bars. Maybe 4 bars for anything over 55. It is very good. But for those instances where people are swerving in and out of traffic. I usually leave it off.
I love the ACC
 

internalaudit

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I'm new here and thinking about getting a used 2016 EX-T or Touring CVT because I prefer a vehicle with ACC, the LSF is just a bonus.

In Car & Driver's update, they mentioned about issues with the ACC. Does Honda release software/firmware upgrades to the Honda Sensing suite? From the poll, it seems most are finding it useful.
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2016-honda-civic-sedan-long-term-update-review

We have it in our 16 RAV4 and so far it's been going great so I was just taken aback by C/D's comments on it being useless.

Thank you.


Edit:
One comment on Page 5.
This ACC system is not unique to Civic, but is shared across the Honda lineup. (Not sure about Acura, having not driven one with adaptive cruise). Its pretty irksome in all applications. The engagement of braking and acceleration is not smooth--often the brakes will engage suddenly and hard, while acceleration can mean a sudden flooring. When moving into the passing lane, it can take a good while before ACC realizes there is no longer anyone in front of you. Faster cars behind you must slow down and wait for ACC to decide acceleration is okay, meaning you don't want to change lanes if there is anyone who can even be seen in the rear view mirror. Other systems I've used don't exhibit these characteristics, and it's really the only blemish on some otherwise well-designed vehicles.
 
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ResortCasual

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Does Honda release software/firmware upgrades to the Honda Sensing suite?
As far as I know...no.

I have had my 2016 Touring since July 2016; had my car in for service a few times; and am not aware that Honda has ever updated anything regarding Honda Sensing.

Is there even a checkable version number for Honda Sensing? Have not thought to look for one but have not seen one whole poking around.
 

bembol

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I love it and if Honda really fine tuned the lane assist, I scan focus more on other activities. LOL

After owning my CivicX for almost a year this feature made me wish I got the Platinum trim on my Murano. I got the SL, one lower but the difference is $5k CAN.
 

enishi

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I switched lane pretty fast but honda sensing still detects the car in front of me so it brakes while I'm turning. I think I scared the guy in the park car in the lane I was switching to.
 

Alejoviejo

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After almost a year of owning my 17 Civic Touring, I love the whole Honda Sensing package. The longer the trip, the better it gets. In my experience it works best with 2/4 units on the following distance scale the car shows. 3-4 are to jerky. I drive a lot and this system is my favorite feature
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