alim08

I've had my prestige for about two months now - just started using traffic jam assist. For the most part it works really well, but I think there's something to be said about how small lanes are here in LA and how they're not marked that well either and so that affects TJA a bit. I take the 101 every morning and it kind of struggles to stay centered sometimes. The braking and accelerating is working perfectly though.

HUD, 360 camera, and active lane assist are also some features that make prestige worth it in my opinion. Oh and you can change the color of the interior lights :P

NorthwestB9

Technically, you're supposed to be steering the car. It'll use the lane guidance functionality to help you stay in your lane and will, but it's not supposed to do the steering. The A4's version will likely have your car going from the far left side of the lane to the far right and vice versa quite a bit because it's not supposed to respond until it detects you are swerving into the lane marker. Only the A8's level 3 autonomous driving system is supposed to self steer and that isn't legal in any country yet. You can tighten the lane assist feature to improve that, but the system isn't really meant for self-steering, otherwise it wouldn't keep alerting you to take the wheel if it doesn't detect any steering wheel movement for 15 seconds. Granted there are workarounds as people have found stuffing a nearly full water bottle in the bottom right or left of the steering wheel can fool the car into thinking your hands are on the wheel as the sloshing water causes small movements in the steering wheel.

The feature is very much worth it. I love the HUD that comes with Prestige, which I can still see with my prescription sunglasses on, though it's somewhat dimmed. With it, you rarely have to glance down at the instrument cluster. I haven't used the 360 degree camera much, but it definitely has its uses, especially when trying to protect your tires from curb scrapes. Because of all of these features, I didn't even consider the two lesser trims.

hasht2

Lane assist doesn't kick in until 40mph anyway.

BFN949

I suppose you are technically correct, but unlike the Active Lane Assist (which only intervenes when approaching the lane markings), TJA forcefully takes control of the steering wheel, making it heavy to turn in any direction. I'll have to check to make sure, but my impression is that TJA cancels itself if you force the steering in a different direction than what the car wants to go. Is your experience different?

DirkM

Traffic Jam Assist (below 37mph) looks for two more more cars in front of you (not active with zero or one car to follow) while Lane Assist (above 40mph) looks for lane markers (doesn't care about other cars)

rsilvers129

ALA doesn't only intervene when you approach the lane markings. It will steer you in the center without any notice of going off coarse.

NorthwestB9

Not in my experience, and I've just gone on a long road trip. using it pretty much the entire 400 miles. It does nothing until you start nearing a lane marker. Take your hand off the steering wheel, and it'll go straight until the road starts to bend. Then it'll head towards a lane marker, and just as it reaches it, the steering will start correcting. Since it uses lane keeping assist, perhaps you have yours tuned pretty tightly. I experimented on it a lot keeping my hands hovering right over the wheel to see just how long it'll allow me to drift and it invariably drifts to one side or the other. A level 2 autonomous system was never intended to self-steer. You need level 3 for that, and that's not yet legal.

BFN949

I agree. On the other hand, traffic jam assist aggressively takes control of the steering wheel as soon as it kicks in, steering the vehicle (almost?) all the time.

rsilvers129

Sounds like you guys have it set for late steering intervention. That is for people who don’t want it to steer until they are about to cross over a line.

Versprechen

Exactly. Late will not react until t gets near a line; I use this for local commutes since I tend to hug the center line unlike the rest of the shoulder huggers on the road. Early will keep you steady and center on the highway.

Level 3 does this completely hands free while level 2 requires steering wheel input (or tug) every 3 seconds or so.

Use the MMI to make adjustments.