itiongo

I thought the factory settings was 15secs?

rccoleman

It could very well be - I didn't check before coding it. I couldn't find any definitive description of the three options anyway, so that's why I timed "late" myself. I was hoping for 30s.

smacky

I think the difference between Audi and BMW's assist is the Audi uses a tech that just senses for the driver's touch on the steering wheel to avoid the alert, whereas other cars require some sort of movement of the wheel to assure the driver still has hands on the wheel.

I think I read this in a recent issue of some car magazines, so I'll try and find it. But it shouldn't require minute movements to keep it activated; just sensing touch should be enough.

Are you wearing gloves? I have the steering wheel heating on so maybe that tricks the system for now in the cold weather and is something to watch out for when it starts to get warmer outside?

superswiss

Nope, it doesn't sense touch at all. It senses movement in the steering wheel. Just resting your hands on the steering wheel w/o causing any movement or resistance will bring up the warning. It's a bigger issue with traffic jam assist, because creeping along at 20mph doesn't really need any steering movement from the driver, so I personally just kinda rest my hand on the bottom of the wheel and that's when it yells every 10 seconds or so. I literally have to slightly wiggle the steering wheel for no good reason every 10 seconds. It makes the automated steering part of traffic jam assist kinda pointless IMHO.

Greg in JaxFl

RickObe

Correct. The technical term for what is being sensed is "counter torque".

As to the coding, here is what I've done:

I did a bit of timing before and after and with "Late", it did seem to increase the time somewhat. That said, I have come to believe that the time-to-warning is not a fixed number. I think (subjectively) that there are some real time variables involved, and that's why we get reports of different numbers and can't get any solid hard timeouts measured. Just a guess based on observation though; no inside knowledge on this.

timshuwy

I have found that even if you have your hands on the wheel, and if you have very passive touch, allowing the Audi to steer, you will get the warning, You almost have to show the system that you are there by steering in a direction that the car would not already go... in other words, if the car wants to go down the middle of the lane, you need to slightly fight it so that it knows you are still there. But if you perfectly match what it wants to do, it assumes you have let go.

smacky

That's odd. I don't use traffic jam assist because I'm not in too many traffic jams but for the lane assist, I always drive with my elbow resting on the window and just have a hand around the 10/11 o'clock position and have it resting there. I don't actively move the wheel, especially on cruise control on the highway with lane assist and I don't get the warning. I mess around sometimes and just take my hand off the wheel completely, then I get the warning after 7-10 seconds but no matter where I rest my hand, so long as it senses my hand there, the alarm doesn't go off. Thats' why I assumed it was touch based.

superswiss

As @RickObe correctly stated, it senses counter torque. So resting your hand at the 10/11 o'clock position with elbow resting on the window puts counter torque on the steering simply due to gravity pulling your hand down. I on the other hand tend to rest my hand at the bottom of the steering wheel during casual highway driving, so that doesn't put a counter torque on the steering wheel as it pulls straight down at the 180 degree position.

hayde_bre