Auto Pilot on Volvo V90

Auto Pilot on Volvo V90

Author
Discussion

Unclecuddles

Original Poster:

30 posts

69 months

Friday 31st May 2019
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Anyone using Auto Pilot on the Volvo V90? I have tried it but find that it regularly disengages. I am tootling along on auto pilot when I go round a bend when it sudden decides to turn off the auto-steering so you have to grab the wheel and quickly turn to avoid a kerb or running into the next lane. Similarly, I would be following the car in front on auto pilot, then the car in front decides to change lanes, then for some reason it fails to detect the next car in front. This has happened a couple of times at red lights, and auto pilot has failed to brake (or at least I have decided not to take a risk in seeing if it does brake in time!!). To put it simply, I just don't trust it, therefore I don't see the point. In fact I think it is dangerous.


Incidentally, has anyone experienced whether the car's accident avoidance kicks in? Has it saved you from having a collision? I'd be interested to know whether this safety feature works without having to test it!

Camelot1971

2,745 posts

172 months

Saturday 1st June 2019
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It's not designed for autonomous driving and reading your post implies you have your hands off the wheel. I use it on motorways - it's not really designed for other types of roads. I find it works well but I don't really need to use it when adaptive cruise does 99% of the useful bit anyway.

I've had emergency braking kick in briefly a couple of times, mostly when a car is parked badly and it thinks you are not going to go around it! You get a brief jolt of brakes and an alarm.

T-J-C

129 posts

101 months

Saturday 1st June 2019
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It is called Pilot Assist. It is to assist your driving, not for driving itself!

anonymous-user

60 months

Saturday 1st June 2019
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It’s not autopilot, you wally.

Venturist

3,472 posts

201 months

Saturday 1st June 2019
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Driven many hundreds of miles with pilot assist, motorways especially its extremely rare to turn off, are you taking your hands off the wheel? It can detect even the tiniest amount of resistance so all you have to do is rest a hand on it. More than a few seconds without a touch it’ll get upset and then turn itself off.

MattDell

3,249 posts

161 months

Tuesday 4th June 2019
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How good is the Pilot Assist? I've been unable to find one with the other specs I want so thinking about going without it.

I'm used to having adaptive cruise on my Golf GTE so it seems barbaric going back to normal cruise control. First world problems, eh?

Unclecuddles

Original Poster:

30 posts

69 months

Friday 7th June 2019
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I appreciate the replies (I think!). I don't take my hands off the wheel, but I was obviously expecting more from this. The disengagement without warning makes the automatic steering or steering assistance kind of pointless. And probably more concerning is it losing sight of the vehicle in front, particularly when it starts to accelerate towards it and I have to slam on (because the speed is set higher than the vehicle in front, or the vehicle in front has actually stopped). I'm trying to think of scenarios when it happens, e.g coming over the brow of a hill (even slight), or going around a bend - so I am guessing in both these scenarios the vehicle in front is not necessarily in the line of sight of the sensors. But I have been in situations where the other car is level and directly in front and the pilot assist has not detected it.

Are my experiences normal, or is it faulty?

starmonkey

295 posts

195 months

Tuesday 11th June 2019
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Pilot Assist uses Mobileye hardware and software, the same as the first gen Tesla. I agree that when it disengages it should sound an audible alarm. Just having the icon go grey isn't good enough really.

When it comes to not seeing an object in front this is covered in the manual and is the same issue as all current autopilot type assistance systems. The systems basically ignore non moving objects, this is because otherwise they'd be triggering on street furniture etc. constantly. Worst case is you're behind a car on a two lane plus road and the car in front moves into another lane revealing stopped traffic in front. Your car will then accelerate to the set speed ignoring the stopped traffic (coming to a stop in traffic for the traffic jam assist it knows the object on front was moving which is why that works) There have been a couple of deaths in Teslas due to this. It's a limitation of the current systems although some of the other safety systems should kick in to stop you hitting an object but it'll probably be too late by the time they kick in.

Just checked the manual, it's in the section about "Change the target".

Edited by starmonkey on Tuesday 11th June 20:12


Edited by starmonkey on Tuesday 11th June 20:16

ilikejam

1,097 posts

122 months

Monday 24th June 2019
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Is it just mine that sounds an alarm when it's about to disengage then?! Mine bongs away when it's not convinced you're holding the wheel. I use it all the time on motorways and in stop-start traffic and have never found it accelerating towards anything stationary.

I've also had the collision system kick in a few times when it really wasn't necessary - the first time I experienced the seatbelt tightening up I nearly sh@t myself! Hopefully I never have to test it for real.

sidekickdmr

5,116 posts

212 months

Monday 24th June 2019
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ilikejam said:
Is it just mine that sounds an alarm when it's about to disengage then?! Mine bongs away when it's not convinced you're holding the wheel. I use it all the time on motorways and in stop-start traffic and have never found it accelerating towards anything stationary.

I've also had the collision system kick in a few times when it really wasn't necessary - the first time I experienced the seatbelt tightening up I nearly sh@t myself! Hopefully I never have to test it for real.
Thats different, thats bonging and beeping as it thinks you have stopped paying attention and no steering input.

What the OP is referring too, and im staggered by the same safety concern, is when the CAR decides it cant cope anymore, it just silently turns it off leaving you veering off the road with no idea why.

Perhaps the white line is faded, or the corner a bit to sharp, rain reflecting on the road etc, it turns off with no warning

FYI, I dont think its autonomous nor auto pilot and understand im in control at all times, but still a little unnerving