this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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I know someone with adaptive cruise control who technically turns it on, but only when there's no car in front of them...
I suspect these are also people who don't like to use turn signals. They don't like the car fighting their ill-advised lane change.
I've never experienced actual automatic braking, though I did have a car that had a fairly high false positive rate on the collision alert that could have inspired someone to turn it off, and could easily imagine it if the car actually did brake. There's also people that are afraid it might have a false positive and turn it off pre-emptively.
I'm shocked that number is so low. I have so little interest in what my car's voice assistant can do for me. In a family car I gave it a spin because it purported to be "fancier" but I didn't like it and it was also pretty useless. I don't see this as a big "meant to save their lives" thing, it's just a gimmick.
I know someone in this boat, they don't like their view being obstructed, and the car model they wanted had this as base equipment. I would also say this is more gimmick than life saving. A glance to a speedometer or nav screen isn't going to be a super risk thing so long as those displays are appropriately located, they don't need to be right on the windshield.
Ok, really off the topic of the headline now. I have sat in a "massaging seat" in a car and am not surprised. It vaguely vibrates a bit, hardly worth anything.
But they said AR HUD was rejected only by 17.1 percent of drivers? Guess the question would be what the definition of 'used' is if they have it on but somehow don't "use" it?
In many cases, this is of pretty limited utility. If it's a keyfob-only capability, you have to be close enough to the car that, by that point, well you might as well get in and start it instead of digging out your keyfob. If it's got a gas engine, then it's not something you probably want to do out of sight. I will say for an electric car with internet controllable remote 'start', it's nice to get it going while you are getting ready to leave at the end of a workday or when you are paying the check at a restaurant.
I actually saw someone this week who spent years ignoring his backup camera finally decide that his back up camera was handy. He's also the worst at parking I know, so here's hoping he starts backing up with his camera and gets better...
So what do the rest do when their window fogs up otherwise? This seems... hard to believe.
No. By people who adapt their lane position to the situation, like cooperatively riding shoulder lines to not be mirror to mirror with a truck in the middle of a desert. By people driving vehicles that can't consistently pick a lane position. By people who have experienced the camera wrongly identifying a tight dashed line as a solid line and reacted aggressively. By people who have tried to fight lane assist politely, had the vehicle fail to allow it, exerted extra pressure on the wheel than should have been exerted at highway speeds, then had the system suddenly detect the input and relinquish control, jerking the whole car into the line or further. By people who've driven a system that picked a lane position based on the lines, came up to an exit lane cutout, had the vehicle glide into the new larger "center" and point off the road, then had the vehicle realize it lost the lines and relinquish control as you suddenly got pointed at the crash barrier, all in under a second (aka the Tesla method, disengage prior to crash, deny responsibility).
I have an older car (not a tesla, either) that has a system that stays disabled when I turn it off and isn't even a persistent lane assist, but more of an emergency drift correction system. I set it to vibrate the wheel without actually steering.
And I use my turn signals religiously.
100℅ this. Lane departure seems far more dangerous on than off.
I'm one, but not because of "ill-adviced lane changes". In my case it's because I prefer to drive in the middle or little to the right of the lane. Note, I almost only drive on roads with a single lane in each direction.
I've had lane keep assist attempt to assassinate me, by jerking left in the lane, right as I was approaching a truck with a super wide load, with ΔV around 140km/h. After that I don't care how "safe" it makes me, I prefer to stay alive.
The "Lane keep" in my car only seems to see road lines whenever construction is going on and I'm diverted to an odd pattern... Then proceeds to scream at me that I'm leaving my lane as I avoid the giant orange cones to the front of the car.
My "Adaptive Cruise" is set to the farthest back follow distance it can be but brakes very late and always slams on the brakes when a car is fully in a left or right designated turn lane.
I have learned to adapt to the car's 'personality' and keep my thumb on the cruise button so I can click it off when needed or apply throttle before the car can hit the brakes.
There's another thing, when you press the throttle, you override the "automatic" braking. That means homie saw the big sign and floored it on through.