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Automatic braking concern

MF2020

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After 1 year of using these systems, my observation is...they are very much speed dependent. If the system interprets your imminent approach towards a stationary/slower moving target is too fast...brakes darn near lock up. I actually went out and made multiple approaches at various speeds towards a traffic cone in a vacant lot at work. if i reversed towards the cone too quickly, I got the neck cracking brake application. If I backed slow enough, with the appropriate amount of brake pressure, I could bump the cone with my trailer hitch. This was a very useful exercise for me because I back my truck into a tight garage and did not want to be slammed into my seat every time. By managing my speed, I use my sensors all the time...with the exceptions of trailering my boat or leaving the tailgate down. Those situations require me to over-ride the system via the toggle. The front system works similarly. If your using Adaptive Cruise, the truck will intervene sooner (at a greater distance from) a slower moving target in front of you. If the target in front of you is moving at a similar rate as you, the system will allow you to get much closer to it before intervening. I find that the entire system works pretty well as long as i drive the way it was designed to interpret targets. Just took a little time to figure out.
Bingo! These are my observations as well.
 

TreeGuy67

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OK, I'm new, here, and can't find the exact topic I'm looking for, so I'll post here in the hope that the moderator will move this post to the right thread.

My problem is that my front crash avoidance braking is not working, at all. The rear system works fine. I've had this truck, a 2020 1500 Diesel Laramie, for one week. Today, a car pulled in front of me, from a side street, missing my truck by a foot, or so. ZERO report and/or action from the system. It's turned on, and I've set the distance from far to near without any actions taken, whatsoever, when I come up on a barrier, be it a vehicle or wall. Tomorrow, I'll set up a paper barrier spanning my open entrance gate. The gf will record the tests. This is not rocket science, as I see it. The logic of the system is simple, I believe: With the braking features turned on, the warning system relays a message to the brakes, and they slow you down, or stop you, depending on how close you are to a given hazard, which, beforehand, is sensed to a greater extent by the sensors, the closer you get.

Just as someone else posted, somewhere in here: I took the truck to the dealer. It was hooked up by a tech who told me everything is AOK. NO, that's incorrect. Get it to work, even once, in conditions that mimic a low speed crash, and I'll trust the system. As it stands, I will be taking the truck back to the dealer for a module swap out, on Monday. If they can then show me it works, great. If not, I'm going to pursue what I need to either get another truck that works, or get my money back.
 

HeliPilot

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FYI, When it does work, braking is NOT progressive. It darn near locks them up. That being said, it should work, set distance to far and see the if it reacts.
 

TreeGuy67

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FYI, When it does work, braking is NOT progressive. It darn near locks them up. That being said, it should work, set distance to far and see the if it reacts.

According to the User Manual, but definitely at variance from what most have written, here, the system should gently apply the brake to alert you, and then apply more pressure if you don't take over the braking, yourself.

As it stands, I want what I paid my hard-earned money for. If the dealer starts tap dancing around this issue, I'll go ahead and pursue a Texas Lemon Law refund, and then buy the same truck without the avoidance braking system. The audible signals, on forward and reverse are fine with me, as long as I have the surround cameras active.
 

HeliPilot

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According to the User Manual, but definitely at variance from what most have written, here, the system should gently apply the brake to alert you, and then apply more pressure if you don't take over the braking, yourself.

As it stands, I want what I paid my hard-earned money for. If the dealer starts tap dancing around this issue, I'll go ahead and pursue a Texas Lemon Law refund, and then buy the same truck without the avoidance braking system. The audible signals, on forward and reverse are fine with me, as long as I have the surround cameras active.
Regardless of what the manual says, mine has slammed on the brakes hard a couple of times here in california as I was passing slow moving big rigs that were in the slow moving truck lane going up steep grades. There is nothing gradual about it. I finally deactivated forward braking, alerts work just fine for me.
 

Hemogoblin

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Can someone offer info on where exactly in the settings I can turn OFF the rear braking but keep the sensors active? I have the 12" screen, if that matters.
Thank you.
 

TreeGuy67

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My final outcome, at the Dealer: A tech printed out part of the user manual that mentions how the automatic front braking system works. He highlighted all of the parts that seemed to indicate it was not a hard braking system. Hilariously, he did not highlight the parts that indicate, explicitly, that the system will, for a fact, hard stop your vehicle if you ignore its prompts.

The Ram Customer Helpline was a bigger joke: Even with my VIN, they couldn't determine exactly what systems I have on my new truck, and even questioned if the VIN I gave them was for my truck. Never mind the window sticker, with the VIN, has on it: "Made specially for (my full name)". After listening to my "Case Manager" spew total misinformation, in (very) broken English, I told her she didn't know what she was talking about, and hung up. That was on my fourth call to her, in one day.

My final takeaway, here: You are, pretty much, on your own in this ever more involved situation of technical advances on new vehicles that interface with complicated onboard computer systems. No tech in a service bay is going to be able to keep up with the computer programming needed to get everything fully functional, with some rare exceptions. Eventually, each dealership will have a geek squad that does nothing except work on bugs in the computer/device interface system. Until then, and even after that time, given everyone's experiences with their own laptops/desktops/tablets, you are on your own.
 

Wakesnowb

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My final outcome, at the Dealer: A tech printed out part of the user manual that mentions how the automatic front braking system works. He highlighted all of the parts that seemed to indicate it was not a hard braking system. Hilariously, he did not highlight the parts that indicate, explicitly, that the system will, for a fact, hard stop your vehicle if you ignore its prompts.

The Ram Customer Helpline was a bigger joke: Even with my VIN, they couldn't determine exactly what systems I have on my new truck, and even questioned if the VIN I gave them was for my truck. Never mind the window sticker, with the VIN, has on it: "Made specially for (my full name)". After listening to my "Case Manager" spew total misinformation, in (very) broken English, I told her she didn't know what she was talking about, and hung up. That was on my fourth call to her, in one day.

My final takeaway, here: You are, pretty much, on your own in this ever more involved situation of technical advances on new vehicles that interface with complicated onboard computer systems. No tech in a service bay is going to be able to keep up with the computer programming needed to get everything fully functional, with some rare exceptions. Eventually, each dealership will have a geek squad that does nothing except work on bugs in the computer/device interface system. Until then, and even after that time, given everyone's experiences with their own laptops/desktops/tablets, you are on your own.
Unfortunately this rat hole is exactly what I would expect in terms of support (not a good thing).
 

TruckDriver

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Tomorrow, I'll set up a paper barrier spanning my open entrance gate. The gf will record the tests.

REALLY interested in seeing this video when you do the test - it'll hopefully put the pics-or-it-didnt-happen conversation to rest for the dealer as well.

Good luck!
 

Gemlin

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I turned the option off in the radio. Now no more slamming on the brakes automatically when I back my boat up, or back into a parking spot.
 

fflis

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I’ve experienced the same with the forward braking. I don’t think mine works. I turned off the braking after reading the story on here where his truck came to a screeching halt to a dead stop on the freeway and he got rear ended by a semi.

I’ve had the alert set to far and it’s gone off twice in the month I’ve had the truck. Once I think was somewhat legit, I mean I was alert and not going to hit anything, but I understood what it was concerned about, someone slowly turning into Starbucks I was gonna swerve around.

The second time was yesterday on the highway a garbage truck with a large dumpster in tow changed lanes and merged in front of me at a very safe distance, maybe 10 yards or so.

In either case, the loud alarm will make you automatically panic brake, no need to trust the truck further.

I disabled the rear braking as well. Got tired of snapping my neck and ****ting my pants every time I want to back over a curb or something.

Anyone had any experience with the forward collision stepping in in a real life scenario that saved them?


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fflis

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Its funny that I stumbled across this topic. This happened to me for the first time and while very concerning it was also embarrasing. I was backing up in the grocery store parking lot when I saw a guy a few cars down approaching so I stop to let him go, he waves for me to go ahead and back out. So I wave thanks and proceed to leave and thats when for no reason it auto brakes and scares the crap out of me. The guy is naturally now looking at me like im crazy. I start backing up again and it auto slams on the brakes again. I can only imagine what the guy was thinking watching this madness unfold. Me and the wife were laughing but I was concerned to say the least. I wiped off the sensors as a precaution and it has not happened again as of yet.

The best part is that once you do it twice and continue to backup the truck disables the braking and HONKS TWICE to let you know. Why the **** does it honk? You can’t just beep at me or something. It’s as if it’s like:

“Hey everyone! Moron trying to back out of a parking spot over here! Everyone have a look!”


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Smerberj

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I went into my touch screen and turned the auto-braking off. Most annoying thing I've ever had on any of my vehicles.
 

TreeGuy67

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REALLY interested in seeing this video when you do the test - it'll hopefully put the pics-or-it-didnt-happen conversation to rest for the dealer as well.

Good luck!
The truck applied the brakes, hard, on reverse, went right on through, on forward, although it gave me the audible and visual warnings on the dash, for both. I will try the reverse test, again, without the paper, since a leading engineer at Car And Driver wrote me that the truck may have been seeing my gate posts and not the paper, on reverse. I'll update, soon.
 

HeliPilot

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The truck applied the brakes, hard, on reverse, went right on through, on forward, although it gave me the audible and visual warnings on the dash, for both. I will try the reverse test, again, without the paper, since a leading engineer at Car And Driver wrote me that the truck may have been seeing my gate posts and not the paper, on reverse. I'll update, soon.
If I remember correctly, the front target is detected when that target is moving. I do not believe it triggers on a stationary target, but your parking sensors will. I know I read that sometime last year on this forum. Mine will alert and brake if the person turning ahead of me is making a u-turn from a stop light after they initially accelerate and then slow down again to turn. But it will not do anything if just coming to a stop behind a car in front of me. Pretty positive, for this reason, that it is a system limitation by design. Don't need the truck to slam on the brakes every time I come up on someone at a stop light.
 

TreeGuy67

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If I remember correctly, the front target is detected when that target is moving. I do not believe it triggers on a stationary target, but your parking sensors will. I know I read that sometime last year on this forum. Mine will alert and brake if the person turning ahead of me is making a u-turn from a stop light after they initially accelerate and then slow down again to turn. But it will not do anything if just coming to a stop behind a car in front of me. Pretty positive, for this reason, that it is a system limitation by design. Don't need the truck to slam on the brakes every time I come up on someone at a stop light.
Not according to testing done by Car and Driver. They routinely got the system to deploy, at least with other vehicles, when they drove up to a stationary material and flexible tent pole frame VW half-body, from behind. I'm going to try those tests with a dome tent laying on its side, with aluminum foil taped across the exposed side. Again, I'll update, when I do the testing. Been too busy at work, lately. Sorry.
 

COSPILOT

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Having rented 2 Longhorns for months at a time on island and now spent a whopping 2 days with the one I shipped from the mainland that purchased, they all do this random stop in reverse, even while backing up super slow. It’s odd and annoying and I figured out how to disable this with the second rental.
Then I purchased a Limited and it did it as well yesterday and today. Super annoying so I disabled it. Then driving today in West Maui the forward collision decided to lock up the brakes and scare the crap out of me, and I’m sure the tourist behind me wondered why I locked up the brakes for no reason, so I disabled that feature as well afterwards.
My wife’s Subaru uses similar technology and has done that to us as well. Super annoying.
 

Vasa1

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So do all 5th gens do this? I’m considering getting a 19 bighorn. I hear u can’t even drive slowly in reverse with the door open without it slamming into park. Ie backing up a trailer or seeing if ur between the lines
 

Kidder

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So do all 5th gens do this? I’m considering getting a 19 bighorn. I hear u can’t even drive slowly in reverse with the door open without it slamming into park. Ie backing up a trailer or seeing if ur between the lines
You can turn it off permanently. I only get audible warnings.
 

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