jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

A few years ago, a warning like this on a car dashboard would have been science fiction. These warnings appeared on my son's Honda Fit while he was driving home from work in a snow storm. Wet snow was blocking the radar, so a crash was possible.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

Wet snow was blocking what radar that would have prevented what crash?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I have wondered why the manufacturers don't just apply some heat to the cover of the sensors to keep the snow from building up.

pmorin Loc: Huntington Beach, Palm Springs

Most cars now are either equipped from the manufacturer or the dealership with auto braking systems. They use radar technology for that function. They put blind spot detection in the cars now too. That also uses radar. It is even used as an auto follow function when I put my car in cruise control. It is used by the lane control system to keep my vehicle from drifting and by the parking detection system to keep me from banging into stuff that I can’t see. The world has moved on.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And the steering wheel will jiggle a bit if you start to drift out of your lane.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Maybe that will become an aftermarket accessory.

Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.

I think I heard that by 2020 all cars will be equipped..
I have a Subaru with Eyesight. I found out that my windowshield in front of the cameras has to be relatively clean or the system will show that it’s off.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Perhaps I'm of a minority, but I turned most of those auto driving warnings off! The one I left activated is the blind spot warning. I really like that feature. We put a great deal of miles on our car - 16000+ since purchasing our 2018 Honda in April 18'. My wife & I like to be in control when we are behind the wheel. I did not like it when the car swerved, braked, slowed down, ... I'm certainly not a candidate for a Tesla!!

I love to drive. For me, auto driving features eliminate the joy.

Mark

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I never cared to have my car nag me about something. So I turned a lot of those things off.
But I'm older now (wiser, maybe not so much). When I got a new car with all those gadgets I started to use them.
The lane containment feature I leave off unless I'm taking a trip of an hour or more. I use it only on highways.
I tried the automatic parking once. I can do that sort off thing myself.
Some of the features can't be turned off. If I back the car into a shrub I sometimes find the brakes applied hard. In the old days I would just consider that the shrub was a nuisance and driven over it. With the truck I could drive over small trees.

The one really nice feature is the cruise control. If I set it, I don't have to reset things when I come up to a slow car. The sensor keeps me a safe distance. It will slow the car down to 1 mph, then resume when the traffic starts up again. If it stops, I have to tap the gas pedal to get it to resume. The advantage is that I can move my leg around to avoid leg cramps on long trips. I try to move my leg in a way that minimizes the time to move my foot onto the brake. The only drawback is that it slows me down slowly, and sometimes I don't notice my speed has dropped significantly because it doesn't tell me it's slowing down.

I like to drive and I'm not looking forward to autonomous cars, but by the time they're a reality I may find them useful. I'll be old enough to need someone else (or something else) to drive me around. Of course I'm hoping I won't need them but I am hoping I get old enough.

About 35000 miles since Feb 2017.

(PS: I actually bought 2 new cars in February 2017. I was driving along at night on a rainy night and someone fell asleep and hit me head on. 30mph section of road. Totaled the first new car after 3 days. I think every airbag went off except the passenger one (no passenger). The car called the crash center and asked me if I needed any help. Not even a scratch. Only a pain in the wallet. Insurance paid for 99% but there were some minor paperwork costs involved. My insurance company recognized that it wasn't my fault, but it took a lot of phone calls to lead them to that conclusion.)

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Ah the Achilles Heel of self-driving or partially self-driving cars. This happens all the time on my CR-V. So much so that I have turned off all the automatic functions. I still let it warn me visually, but disabled the wheel shake on the lane keeping and the automatic application of the brakes.

Halftrack

That is a good suggestion. Additionally, since I spent much of my professional career on radar systems of various sorts, I can say that wet, heavy snow and serious rain storms will render a radar system unusable because the return signal come from all of the particles of snow and rain. It looks like a wall of reflections.

That is why the "Radar Obstructed" warning is displayed.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

yep! And now the price of replacing a windshield is well over $1400.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I drove through some snow covered areas with my new car and got that message. It was not snowing, but there was some buildup of snow on the car due to snow on the road. I got out and kicked off the snow and the system worked for a while until the snow built up again. Heat would have helped.

Another problem with snow in my Prius. When it snowed the windshield would get snow on it. The defroster at full blast would keep the windshield moderately clear but snow would build up on the wipers, which would only clear the windshield in streaks while the clumps of snow held most of the wiper off the windshield. In all my old vehicles the engine heat would come out from the hood and help keep the wipers clear. The Prius just doesn't develop enough engine heat or maybe it just isn't directed toward the windshield. This happened on my 2005 prius and also the 2017 prius.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

True, but mine cracked and was expertly replaced for a $50 deductible, covered by Liberty Mutual Auto Ins.
Mark

G Brown Loc: Sunny Bognor Regis West Sussex UK

We have an annual MOT to ensure our cars are roadworthy. It has been decided that 'Management lights' have to work correctly.....The more you have fitted...the quicker it will be scrapped.
My Skoda has the oil light,engine management, seatbelt and the water temp light built into the speed and tach gauge AS WELL AS a stupid LED screen that insists on bleeping. The LED is broken...it flashes constantly and when damp beeps at will. It is redundant as the dash lights still work and I do not need to know my distance in Miles/kilometers, journey distance or current MPG.. fortunately the MOT station accepts this....I cannot remove the LED as it is part of the whole dashboard.Probably couldn't sell it though!