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Any way to adjust the lane assist bias toward left or right of the lane? I like to have lane assist always on and I think of it mostly as a safety feature in case I'm distracted, drowsy etc.. I have it set on "Late" so that I'm not fighting it all the time, but still - maybe it's just the way I drive - I find it's biased toward the right. I think I'm right in the middle of the lane, and it's always wanting to push me to the right and I'm fighting to push it more to the left. Would be great if this were adjustable.
Nope. For some reason every car manufacturer with lane assist has its own way of programming it where it will favor the left or right of the lane. I think Tesla is one of the few ones which does it right with the middle of the lane, depending on software version.
If you put the ALA on late, you look like a drunk - the car just drifts from one side marker to the other one. On that setting it really is only there to alert you to accidental drifting. It seems better on early intervention if you want to have it do more of the steering for you, but it is very annoying in urban situations IMO.
I have mine set to Early and it's also biased towards the right. I think this is due to the crown of the road since my car pulls to the right slightly during normal driving anyway. If you set it to Late, it helps you stay in lane. If you set it to Early, it tries to keep you at the center of the lane. It never works that well in real world. Since this is a camera based system it really depends on if the car can identify the lane marking clearly. Sometimes on flat road I find it works exceptionally well, even around curves. But if the road is slightly sloped it tends to veer towards the sloped side.
I haven't really figured out the utility of this option. It often loses track of the lane markings for a variety of reasons so then, without any warning other then the lines in the display becoming grayed out, it veers out of the lane. So, if I have to continuously monitor its lane-keeping efforts, I might as well steer myself? I reckon I do it better anyway.
This is a contrast to cruise control, which I find very useful.
I use it on early and love it. It does most of the driving on the highway for me. I just keep my hand on the wheel as a weight to stop it from hunting side to side in wider lanes.
I actually don't think it's biased to the right of the lane at all, it just feels that way because the drivers position is on the left side of the car. Wouldn't be the first time people's senses we're deceiving them.
I find it picks up lane markings very quickly and never loses them, if the lane markings disappear I already know that's going to happen and take over steering. Might be nice if they found a way to non-invasively tell you it was deactivating soon (camera must be able to see the lines going away sometimes)
I haven't really figured out the utility of this option. It often loses track of the lane markings for a variety of reasons so then, without any warning other then the lines in the display becoming grayed out, it veers out of the lane. So, if I have to continuously monitor its lane-keeping efforts, I might as well steer myself? I reckon I do it better anyway.
This is a contrast to cruise control, which I find very useful.
I mostly agree. But I keep it on "late" anyway and forget it. "Late" is least intrusive, and if you think of it purely as a last-ditch safety net - just in case you doze off or get distracted - then even if it's working 60% of the time, that's 60% chance it saves you; better than zero.
If instead you're always relying on it to "steer for you", then yes, you're forced to constantly watch those lines to see if they're green or gray. It shouldn't be used this way.
I just came back from a 3k miles trip. After 1k on the road I got a safety warning system and Lane Assist was not operating anymore, and you know what? I missed it dearly! So I went to the closest Audi dealership, which fix the problems, (and that’s another conversation). But the point I want to make is that I really missed not having lane assist working on a long highway trips. It’s a tool that along ACC if used properly can rilieve the driver from lot’s of pression. I found it to be spot as long as it is used simply as an aid, then it’s fantastic. But it cannot replace you because soon as those lines are not visible you are on you own. As far as the slight pressure toward right, I take this way: it forces me to keep your my hands on the wheel so to give that slight resistance the system needs from the driver in order to be active. In this stage of things it makes sense to me.
I just find that steering the car feels like a natural part of driving and it's essentially effortless. Moreover, I think it helps me maintain concentration. OTOH, maintaining a set speed and not creeping over is more demanding and requires monitoring of an instrument as opposed to the road. So, I like ACC, but I'm ambivalent about lane keeping.
I think I'll revert to "late" and use it as suggested by parichino as an extra safety measure that might or might not be useful sometime - that is if I switch it on at all.
I'm just not comfortable with the idea of getting used to the car steering for me, when suddenly at any time it might decide not to because it can't see the lane properly.
I'm not suggesting there is a universal right or wrong here - IMO, it's just a process of learning which of the car's features work for each of us and how best to use them.
08-12-2018, 01:46 PM
Lane assist
