Auto collision braking v. Deer! It works!

[Jtr]

Good to hear the system saved you. I guess my only concern would be the system does not know what's going on behind you or road conditions. As a driver if you do see the deer you can decide whether to slam on the brakes or maybe just moderate braking depending on the circumstances. Maybe their is an 18 wheeler barreling down behind you and slamming on the brakes will cause a much worse accident.

This is a really good point. My reaction would have probably been different if a vehicle was on my tailgate. I probably would have hit the accelerator to disengage the system and did my best to stay on the road and minimize the strike angle. This assumes that hitting the accelerator will disengage the system, but I think it would.

 

[Turin]

I was driving home tonight and I had the max distance adaptive cruise on at 60 mph and a family of deer ran out on the road about 75-100 yards in front of me. [...] the system triggered in alerting me to quickly slam the brakes hard once the auto braking triggered.

The system starting braking first and then I hit the brakes. It was that initial system brake that alerted me and then I took the control.

It's not clear to me whether braking was applied by the FCWS (forward collision warning system) or the ACC (adaptive cruise control) — either can brake automatically. Did the truck flash !BRAKE! on the instrument cluster and sound an alarm or just slow down? The former would be the FCWS, the latter ACC (which I wouldn't expect to trigger off a deer, but a family of deer might be large enough to register as a vehicle).

My FCWS is currently set to warn only; I'm still torn between the benefits of fully enabling it for situations like this vs the risk of getting rear-ended if the truck slams on the brakes due to a false positive.

 

[Apexcars]

Not a Ram but I was driving a rental car with adaptive cruise control on a mountain road and it suddenly decided I was about to hit something and hit the brakes pretty aggressively. (I think maybe it was sensing the guard rail since it was a winding road.) I'm sure the truck behind me thought I was brake checking him and my wife started yelling at me, Something like "What the hell are you doing?" She was freaked out about the whole thing and made me agree not to use the cruise control anymore. I complied until we got back on the interstate. It seems to me that ACC is probably something that should be reserved for freeways and major highways, at least for now. The rent car was a Nissan Altima.

 

[Jtr]

It's not clear to me whether braking was applied by the FCWS (forward collision warning system) or the ACC (adaptive cruise control) — either can brake automatically. Did the truck flash !BRAKE! on the instrument cluster and sound an alarm or just slow down? The former would be the FCWS, the latter ACC (which I wouldn't expect to trigger off a deer, but a family of deer might be large enough to register as a vehicle).

My FCWS is currently set to warn only; I'm still torn between the benefits of fully enabling it for situations like this vs the risk of getting rear-ended if the truck slams on the brakes due to a false positive.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure which system it was because it happened all so quick that once the braking started I just went into action myself. There could have been the alarm chime as well as the "brake" flash but I cannot recall. FWIW I had the adaptive cruise on and also have the FCWS set to full capabilities (warn and brake).

 

[J-Cooz]

Pro

Not a Ram but I was driving a rental car with adaptive cruise control on a mountain road and it suddenly decided I was about to hit something and hit the brakes pretty aggressively. (I think maybe it was sensing the guard rail since it was a winding road.) I'm sure the truck behind me thought I was brake checking him and my wife started yelling at me, Something like "What the hell are you doing?" She was freaked out about the whole thing and made me agree not to use the cruise control anymore. I complied until we got back on the interstate. It seems to me that ACC is probably something that should be reserved for freeways and major highways, at least for now. The rent car was a Nissan Altima.

Probably more related to the fact you were driving a POS Nissan Altima. Lol!