markcincinnati

Maybe all S4's with DAP now have the additional parameters available in the MMI enabled, but if your S4's ACC is like mine when first turned on, it defaults to a following distance of "3" -- of the 5 distance parameters. In Cincinnati, if you leave your ACC set to a following distance of 3, the gap between you and the car in front of you is so great that it seems to almost dare other drivers to squeeze in front of you, even at the legal speed limit. What I assume most of us do is to immediately reset the following distance parameter to either 2 or 1 -- I always set it to 1, and even then there are some drivers who have what I call a "stupid attack" and still try to squeeze in front of me, usually with cars that have nowhere near the braking and handling characteristics of an S4. However, following distance 1 does dissuade most drivers from such actions.

It seemed, to me, that there must be a "legal" way to change the following distance default parameter. My approach? Get out the owner's manual and start reading up on the ACC. What I came across was something that said you can ask the dealer to set the default to anything you want. When I took my S4 in for the 10K service, yesterday, I asked that the ACC parameter default to be reset to 1, PERMANENTLY. When I picked the car up, I started up the car, put it in gear and turned on the ACC. It did indeed default to following distance 1. I then pulled up the MMI "driver assistance" menu and toggled to the ACC, what I saw was a new (to me) screen that allowed ME to change the default or set the ACC to "remember" the last used following distance parameter. If you set the parm to "remember" the most recent following distance, the default following distance selection is grayed out. I set the parm to "default to 1."

I didn't want to press my luck since this change was effected at no-charge, but it certainly did make me wonder how many menus and screens the MMI has that are disabled. It seems there ought to be a selection within the menu hierarchy of the MMI called "advanced" -- much like there is in Windows 10. For example, I'd like the ability to select perhaps 5 fields to display on the heads-up screen. The speedometer is good, but I'd like to add turn signal indication, perhaps RPM, high beam indicator, cruise control set-speed, ambient temperature, and so on. There is plenty of real estate on the damn screen -- and if the screen's purpose is to keep the driver's eyes on the road and not looking down to the dash screen, why not? When the navigation is enabled, the turn-by-turn instructions are projected onto the windshield, so it would seem that there is plenty of real-estate to increase the number of data-points that are shown. Why not give the driver the control of this in the MMI? It's probably available -- indeed there is probably so much that we're kept from accessing it would be eye-opening.

In any case, if you have ACC and have found the default following distance of 3 annoying, know that it can be changed and that the change will add greater control for you in the MMI.

It's the little things, sometimes . . .

aj6

For everyone else interested, you can change the persistent default following distance with OBDeleven, probably with the Ross tools as well.

jayhawkmd

This option has been available in my MMI since delivery.

markcincinnati

Must be a running change. Good to know.

Quags

Same here!

jayhawkmd

Quags

What's weird is my top view camera stays on for a few days then it goes back to the graphic...then I put it back on the camera and repeat...

jayhawkmd

Quags

An update would be great...love the camera over the graphic.