Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop & Go is "The BOMB"!

[Zzzoom3]

I've seen some old posts talking about ACC with Stop & Go but nothing recent. Since I just got my car and was able to use it for the 1st time, I had to start a new thread to let people know how incredibly awesome this feature is. Good lord my CA probably was thinking I was a nut case because when we did our delivery drive checkout, I was totally floored at the function of the dang thing. I couldn't stop hooting about it the whole drive!

The i3 flawlessly followed a car going down a long twisty hill at 45 mph. When he slowed in front, the i3 slowed. When he accelerated, the i3 accelerated. At the bottom of the hill, there was a stop sign. The driver in front maintained his speed until just prior to the stop. The i3 followed and then went into regen initially but quickly reacted applying the friction brakes firmly and stopped (I had my foot hovering over the brake just in case!). Then when he turned, there was a slight delay and then the i3 accelerated to follow. Just spot on awesome really. Words can't describe how cool this was. On the freeway with speed set to 70 mph, the car maintained perfect position following the vehicle in front which was traveling at 65 mph.

I discovered 1 limitation, however. If you are traveling directly into a low sun, the vehicle camera is "blinded" and it will not allow you to engage the Stop & Go feature which is a very good thing! In this case, you have to use the traditional "cruise control" function based on speed alone. I know .. how sad right :lol:

There are also 2 buttons you can use to increase and decrease the following distance. I had thought previously the following distance was fixed based on the speed but you are able to adjust this. Bottom line, tremendously useful feature which is probably worth paying for the "Technology Package" on its own.

 

[Tummy]

My Infiniti FX45 had active cruise control 10 years ago in 2004. Back then it was more expensive and based on lasers, but did not work in traffic below 20mph. Second gen Infiniti system in 2008 went down to 0.

I find the BMW system in my i3 to be easily fooled by bright lights and sometimes disengage unexpectedly. More sophisticated systems use lasers or radar, but cost usually around $2,000 for the feature alone. I thought it was a bargain for $2500 bundled with the professional nav.

 

[Abearman]

Agree 100% - stop and go is amazing. I was really excited about trying this feature, just took delivery on Aug 22 (2 days ago) and was blown away by how cool it is. The car drove itself in stop and go traffic for miles. It did switch off once when I went through a tunnel but coming from a manual GTI, it felt like I had transported 20 years into the future. So cool and well worth it.

 

[nostatic]

We decided to get the tech package for my wife's car and I think she'll like it from all the reports. My CA lobbied for it, and commuting in LA can be horrific at times. I remember a few years back it took me 2+ hours to go 8 miles on surface streets due to a few accidents at the wrong place at the wrong time. I was driving a stick and I thought my left foot was going to fall off.

 

[Zzzoom3]

We decided to get the tech package for my wife's car and I think she'll like it from all the reports. My CA lobbied for it, and commuting in LA can be horrific at times. I remember a few years back it took me 2+ hours to go 8 miles on surface streets due to a few accidents at the wrong place at the wrong time. I was driving a stick and I thought my left foot was going to fall off.

She is going to really appreciate it in traffic.

It greatly reduces stress and fatigue when driving in traffic for long periods. I have also found that you can override the system without disengaging it. If you simply apply some throttle while the Active Control is engaged it will reduce some of the harsh braking that occurs otherwise. This comes in handy when drivers cut you off. If you do nothing the system reacts strongly to minimize the following distance (which is good), however, in heavy traffic this creates big gaps because the system takes extra time to "catch back up". Applying a little throttle sounds counter-intuitive but you actually help reduce some of the braking effect so it isn't as strong and your following distance will be maintained smoothly. You can also use this technique when lane changing which will help maintain speed rather than slowing then accelerating. Taking your foot back off the throttle, returns the car to normal active control.

The driver display indicates when you are "overriding" the throttle and when it is in "full control". I'm sure this sounds weird but when you get to use it, you'll see what I'm referring too.

 

[Surge]

In Europe this feature also includes active steering assist, whereby the car stays in its lane even if the road is not straight.

Too bad US authorities think we cannot handle this feature (although other car brands offer it).
They also don't think we can handle turning the REx on and off manually.

 

[mindmachine]

In Europe this feature also includes active steering assist, whereby the car stays in its lane even if the road is not straight.

Too bad US authorities think we cannot handle this feature (although other car brands offer it).
They also don't think we can handle turning the REx on and off manually.

I don't think the Rex manual mode issue is because of BMW thinking we can't handle it as much as it is the messed up political situation here in the the USA especially California.

What we need to do is work on BMW to change the software in Canada and the 35 or so non CARB states.
Send BMW a note with your feelings about why we need it and why they should accommodate those who live where the CARB laws don't apply. If BMW wants the CARB credits bad enough to cripple the REx in California, Vermont, New York....fine, just don't reduce the safety and functionality in places like Indiana, Ohio, Montana, Canada......!

Send them a message, maybe if they hear enough from a lot of customers that have issues with the REx speak out, we can get them to act. There is no reason why they couldn't fix it for us in those areas.

[email protected]

I already have!

 

[noakey]

We decided to get the tech package for my wife's car and I think she'll like it from all the reports. My CA lobbied for it, and commuting in LA can be horrific at times. I remember a few years back it took me 2+ hours to go 8 miles on surface streets due to a few accidents at the wrong place at the wrong time. I was driving a stick and I thought my left foot was going to fall off.

She is going to really appreciate it in traffic.

It greatly reduces stress and fatigue when driving in traffic for long periods. I have also found that you can override the system without disengaging it. If you simply apply some throttle while the Active Control is engaged it will reduce some of the harsh braking that occurs otherwise. This comes in handy when drivers cut you off. If you do nothing the system reacts strongly to minimize the following distance (which is good), however, in heavy traffic this creates big gaps because the system takes extra time to "catch back up". Applying a little throttle sounds counter-intuitive but you actually help reduce some of the braking effect so it isn't as strong and your following distance will be maintained smoothly. You can also use this technique when lane changing which will help maintain speed rather than slowing then accelerating. Taking your foot back off the throttle, returns the car to normal active control.

The driver display indicates when you are "overriding" the throttle and when it is in "full control". I'm sure this sounds weird but when you get to use it, you'll see what I'm referring too.

I do the same. Particularly when changing lanes on the motorway. A little manual intervention smooths the ride.

 

[Chrisn]

I think the Euro steering assist only works at slow speed.

My wife's 2014 MDX has ACC + Stop & Go AND steers itself at highway speeds. You just have to touch the steering wheel at least every 15 seconds or it disengages. Pretty neat (although my wife doesn't trust it).

I think the aggressive regen on the i3 allows the ACC to feel more refined. In other systems, if the car ahead slows, the car goes off throttle (with does slow as fast as the i3 does) and if you are still closing the distance too fast, it hits the friction brakes more abruptly that a human driver would. The i3 seems to be less harsh in this regard.

So ACC is the bomb, but it would be better if the car also had lane departure warning, blind spot detection and auto-steer, which is what other "fully loaded" tech packages have. Good thing we have auto-parallel-park for our own "wow" demo.