Smart / Adaptive Cruise Control Pointers

[bluegenesisfl]

In an attempt to help others with the learning curve for the SCC/ACC I will list some bits of information about what I have learned in using the SCC/ACC on my 2015 Genesis. The beginning initial comments are basic, but bear with me, the later comments will get more interesting -

Overall this SCC/ACC is really great, but it does have some important limitations.

-I use all 4 bars for spacing, I would be cautious using fewer bars until you are fully knowledgeable in the characteristics of the system.

-Straight ahead driving at most legal speeds the car will station keep its' distance very well. Provided there is a moving car in range in front of you.

-When you engage the SCC/ACC a car symbol will appear on the dash indicator with dashes in front of it. As you are learning, notice as you approach a car ahead of you, when the car symbol on the CC indicator on the dash, comes on. This distance will vary, depending on your speed.

-PLEASE NOTE - If you are approaching a stopped car that is ahead of you (as at a traffic light) as opposed to following a moving car, you lose a fraction of a second until the system spots the stopped car. This makes for some very interesting moments! The Genesis will stop, but it is very sudden and very hard.

-The SCC/ACC seems to be mostly on very good behavior when cars cut in front of you. This depends on the cutting in car's speed. If it is accelerating away the CC barely changes pace. If close to matching your speed the CC will back down to maintain distance and match speed. HOWEVER- if the cutting car is slower the CC will sense that and will hit the brakes, sometimes hard, depending on the closing rate.

-BEWARE OF CURVES - If the road curves rapidly, the CC may "lose sight" of the car in front of you, as it goes into the curve. I have noticed that if you can put a slight turning input to the steering wheel as the leading car moves "out of sight" the CC sensors tends to pick it back up. Then as you are fully in the turn the sensor usually is detecting the car ahead. Constantly curving roads can make it challenging for the CC sensors.

I have more comments I will add later about cars exiting from in front of you and intersections and interchanges.

Hopefully, this will be helpful to someone!

 

[Pahaska]

Good set of facts. I use the smart CC just about all of the time, but there are some situations when I have to be ready to take over.

If the car directly ahead slows suddenly to make a right turn, it is best to temporarily cancel the smart CC or touch the brakes since it will unnecessarily put the stoppers on hard, even if the car ahead would have safely cleared by the time you get there. Could get you rear-ended.

If you are moving into an empty center lane for a left turn or a into an empty right deceleration lane for a right turn and the traffic ahead on the main lanes has not been as fast as the CC setting, your car will accelerate suddenly when it loses focus on the car that was ahead of you. This can be a bit scary. I touch the cancel as I swing into the center or right lane to keep this from happening.

A bicycle on the paved shoulder can cause your car to put on the brakes hard if the CC senses it. This happens mainly on curves and I am pretty close to the bike when the CC detects it which makes my car brake hard. I usually cancel the CC when I see a bicycle on the shoulder ahead unless I can swing fairly far left. Could get you rear-ended.

 

[Genesis5.0]

I've notice a couple situations where it has braked fairly hard. I do wonder if the brake lights actually come on when it does that. This would help to keep from getting rear-ended.
Does anyone know for sure if the brake light come on when the CC slows down/puts the brakes on?

 

[markpoisson]

Yes, I had my wife drive my car ahead of me (in her car) with the SCC on to see if the brake lights come on. Sure enough, they do (as you would expect).

 

[bluegenesisfl]

Genesis5.0 - It appears that when you are using SCC/ACC that the brake lights do come on anytime the car automatically slows.

Pahaska - I'm glad you mentioned exit lanes, or moving to another lane. That's part of my next section.

To continue -

- In my area there is a slightly curving main road that has a side road that T's into it on the outside of the curve. In the middle of the curve is where the traffic light is located. The main road has an exit lane to the side road. Cars move over into the exit lane moving at a pretty good clip. I was on CC following a car that exited quickly, and while there was stationary traffic ahead of me, at the light, it was "out of sight " to my CC. As the exiting car dropped off the sensor the Genesis sped up to my cruise speed setting. I had to quickly cancel CC to avoid rear ending the cars at the light.

-Which brings up another point. Common sense says that a Genesis driver needs to adjust his set CC speed up or down to the general flow of traffic. It doesn't have to be exact, but by judicious toggling of the speed you can make the SCC/ACC much more effective.

-The Genesis CC makes travel on congested roads much easier, but there are times when there are just too many cars jumping lanes and it's better to be the master of the situation. Don't use the CC.

-When you are following a car on CC and you come to a halt automatically, if the stop is more than a few seconds you hear a ding sound, the instrument panel will say to use the resume switch. The car will sit there until you resume, or touch the accelerator. Don't do either until the car in front actually starts moving, or it may cancel CC all together.

-Interestingly, if you have been using a CC speed setting and even if you have to brake to a halt manually, once you hit 20 mph accelerating and hit resume it will resume at the original speed setting. Nice.

 

[bluegenesisfl]

I would be interested to hear from Genesis owners who live in hilly or mountainous areas. Here in Central Florida there aren't that many hills or dales. I imagine that hilly roads create similar sensor "line of sight" issues.

- I do think, as I mentioned in an earlier comment, that the front sensor has some vectoring capability built in. I suspect that it has a cone of coverage wider than we suspect. That the effective sub-sector in the cone of coverage moves in relation to the steering input. I doubt that this is a mechanical function, but rather the result of an algorithmic computation done by the SCC/ACC system of the data sensed and the steering position provided by the electric steering.

As I learn more, I post it.

 

[Midnightsun]

The smart CC is rather complex and actually works in conjunction with the steering wheel position just to mention one of god knows how many. Biggest form of misinterpretation is leaving it on 4 bars or longest distance. 1 bar will give you much less hard braking and less errors overall. In fact, I have not had a single moment when I needed to take over yet.

A bicycle was mentioned in a curve ahead. If you are on 4 bars the distance is so far that the steering wheel has not yet been turned to accommodate the upcoming curve however it sees the bicycle as a moving object in your lane and takes action by braking hard. 1 bar would not have done this. 4 bars is just like a chicken $hit driver who is always on the brakes and afraid of everything who drives way to cautiously causing more harm than good. I tried it only a few times on gen1 and 2 and no way is this ever going to be used again, way too aggressive on the brakes all the time. I will say the Gen 2 is more aggressive than the Gen1 in both braking and acceleration and actually preferred the Gen 1 way of doing things.

Normal procedure is I hit the cruise and then the distance button 3 times and we are good to go.

 

[ckon]

The smart CC is rather complex and actually works in conjunction with the steering wheel position just to mention one of god knows how many. Biggest form of misinterpretation is leaving it on 4 bars or longest distance. 1 bar will give you much less hard braking and less errors overall. In fact, I have not had a single moment when I needed to take over yet.

A bicycle was mentioned in a curve ahead. If you are on 4 bars the distance is so far that the steering wheel has not yet been turned to accommodate the upcoming curve however it sees the bicycle as a moving object in your lane and takes action by braking hard. 1 bar would not have done this. 4 bars is just like a chicken $hit driver who is always on the brakes and afraid of everything who drives way to cautiously causing more harm than good. I tried it only a few times on gen1 and 2 and no way is this ever going to be used again, way too aggressive on the brakes all the time. I will say the Gen 2 is more aggressive than the Gen1 in both braking and acceleration and actually preferred the Gen 1 way of doing things.

Normal procedure is I hit the cruise and then the distance button 3 times and we are good to go.

Good point about how the system utilizes the shortest distance.

 

[bluegenesisfl]

I haven't experimented yet with fewer than 4 bars, but I see your point. I'll try it out soon.

 

[amartz]

I would be interested to hear from Genesis owners who live in hilly or mountainous areas.

That does bring to mind one of the things I don't like about the SCC. On my 2012, driving thru West Virginia on I-77 south of Charlston, the cruise is virtually worthless, I have to turn it off and drive manually. The problem is the curves. That section of interstate doesn't have a straight stretch in it. The SCC is overly sensitive to the car leaning in a corner. The speed limit thru this section is 65mph, and the car is *gonna* lean! With the cruise on, cruising along at about 70 in the left lane, the SCC suddenly panics and abruptly slows to about 55-60mph. Needless to say, the big truck following close behind is *pissed* that I'm suddenly slamming on the brakes in front of him! So, SCC stays off until the road straightens out a bit, another 40 miles or so down the road.

______________________________

Help support this site so it can continue supporting you!

 

[bluegenesisfl]

I don't know what the ACC/SCC choices are in older Genesis', but on the 2015 it is very easy to switch to conventional CC.

The conventional CC, or course, could care less about curves and hills.

Press cruise, press cancel, press and hold spacing button for 2 seconds and the dash will indicate regular CC.

You can cycle back to ACC/SCC with the same sequence.

 

[Alwaysforward]

Normal procedure is I hit the cruise and then the distance button 3 times and we are good to go.

Ditto...

 

[ckon]

Press cruise, press cancel, press and hold spacing button for 2 seconds and the dash will indicate regular CC.

The above is not quite accurate - it's not necessary to hit cancel. The rest of the procedure is correct and repeating the same steps will restore ACC.

 

[EXBMWGUY]

I don't know what the ACC/SCC choices are in older Genesis', but on the 2015 it is very easy to switch to conventional CC.

With the gen 1 cars, there is NO option to switch to conventional CC.

Clearly, Hyundai listened for gen 2.