My old friend used to say he'd never buy a car that was cleverer than him, I.e. putting the lights on when it got dark or putting the wipers on if it rained. He always said if you need the car to do this stuff for you then you shouldn't be driving.

Still surprising to see folk driving in pitch black without their lights on, or conversely driving what looks like a stage light show when its dusk.

I put it down to the lack of bobbies on patrol.

It's a driving aid, if you think it doesn't help you, turn it off or ignore it.

These systems are clearly being put in to test viability in the real world, and for now will err strongly on the side of caution where they can, so of course it isn't going to keep telling you something when it has had no recent inputs

My car is pretty low end, but it still attempts to second guess me all the time..

1. When I worked in North Wales I lodged at a place 2 miles up a forestry track. I had no need of seeing out of the back window for about 10 minutes, plenty of time for the rear screen heater to clear the ice. The (cold) morning ritual was therefore chuck a bucket of warm water over the windscreen, jump in and drive away. If I made the mistake of using reverse, the computer decided to put on the rear wipers, and shred the rubber blades
2. If I tried to use the heater to keep ice off the windscreen, setting the heater controls to direct the hot air to the screen turns on the air conditioning, thus directing colder air than otherwise
3. Park in the supermarket, take out the keys (reflex action) and walk away, the car locks itself, trapping handicapped son inside. No you can't open the doors from inside
4. Locking the doors turns the alarm on. Then the dog moves and sets it off. Yes I can go through a routine to turn it off, but do I ever remember?

I'm going to sort the last one by taking the fuse out. If this doesn't result in a blizzard of warning lights, I'll connect a wire with the fuse and a switch so I can turn the alarm on if I want it on. Come on Mr car manufacturer, if I'm not clever enough to work out when to turn on the rear wipers, the air con, the car alarm etc, I shouldn't really be driving

My Honda Jazz has a similar speed limit recognition system to Keith's Merc but has a display of the limit recognised by the camera. When I bought the car I thought it might be useful to have a reminder of what the limit was always on display in this day and age when limits change seemingly on a whim many times on most stretches of apparently similar road. However the display turns off after a minute or so of the car recognising a speed sign so there is no lasting reminder.

Even worse, the system can be set so that if the car recognises a speed limit sign it will not accelerate to a speed faster than that limit, which would be sensible if the car's camera and computer always correctly recognised the signs which is a long way from being the case.

The whole system has been turned off (after a lengthy trawl through a maze of menus).

Jim

Edited By Jim Nic on 26/04/2019 10:41:38

1 – count yourself lucky, mine did this with enough force to break the wiper arm!

2 – the aircon actually dries the air (which is why bit drops water on you drive and you think you have a leak) making demisting more effective (true!)

3 – that's not good…

Neil

You've not owned a Mercedes before then? Welcome to the wonderful world of MB!

This is just the start: welcome to the brave new world of motoring, it all begins in 2022.

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New EU regs.

Edited By V8Eng on 26/04/2019 11:20:24

Edited By V8Eng on 26/04/2019 11:20:41

I put that down to the way dashboards are permanently illuminated now. If they couldn't see the dials then they would turn their lights on, hopefully.

Or remotely by someone in an office so you cannot do unsafe things. Our office in Reading has the heating controlled by someone in Huddersfield so we don't waste fuel by fiddling with the thermostat.
Looks like Duncan was suffering from lamentable failure to do a User Trial of the product. It really annoys me when products are released with obvious defects that would be found in the first week of use. Like my satnav that when it goes into a speed limit zone obliterates the map with a warning and repeats it every few seconds if cancelled.

One of the problems with instruction manuals now is that even in the UK, for UK products they are written by cheaper people for whom English is a second or third language.

I don't care how dry the air is, cold air doesn't melt ice on the outside. If I want the aircon on, it's not exactly onerous to press a button.

Edited By duncan webster on 26/04/2019 15:19:14

When the engine is nice and warm, using aircon with heat fully up gives air which is not as warm as it would have been, but still warm, and as Neil says it is great for shifting condensation on the inside. On a cold morning in the Welsh mountains, I've had my breath freezing on the inside of the windows, you want the air as hot as possible then. If you turn the air control to just before the 'all on screen' setting, it doesn't trigger the aircon, but it's something else to remember, and not intuitive

It's comforting to know that LR is still maintaining it's core of traditional faults even after a change of owner. Thirty years on and still supplying earth faults to the masses.