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Comment by dogweather | Hacker News Reader

I didn't know that new Subaru's can come with driver assist. How does it work? What's your experience with it?

I've got a 2013, and am thinking about trading in.

2017 Legacy with "Eye Sight." I have had one or two situations where the car emergency braked on my behalf. It happens when the car in front of me turns off the road and is nearly clear. I don't brake because I know that the car will clear the roadway before I get there but the system doesn't see it that way and brakes. I anticipate that now and avoid anything close enough to cause braking so I don't wind up the front end of a rear end collision.

The other thing this system does is to provide adaptive cruise control. If I'm behind a vehicle that results in slowing down and then switch lanes (to where there is another vehicle in front of me) the car seems to think it can resume speed and slip between the two vehicles. I've come to expect that too and disengage the speed control before switching lanes.

It also provides a warning when approaching the lane markings (unless I have indicated a lane change.) Occasionally it triggers on seams in the pavement. It also provides steering input if the land deviation increases. I've only experienced when I tested it in purpose. I'm not sure it would reliably keep the vehicle in the lane.

Overall the system seems to be pretty good and though not perfect, is a net asset.

That sounds awful. Driving is hard enough when you have to second-guess what other drivers and pedestrians are going to do. Why add to that by having to second-guess what your own car is going to do?

I've got to side with the people who want no auto-driving until we have always-better-than-human auto-driving. When cars only have back seats, and no driver controls beyond a way to state your destination, auto-driving will be acceptable.

I love our 2017 Outback w/ EyeSight. Luckily, we haven't had to test the auto braking system at high speeds but the lane assist and assisted cruise control are wonderful.

Mine's kept me from hitting something while parking. It's awesome.

Not a suburu but my passat engaged emergency breaking once. It's was kinda spooky to go for the break and realize its already depressed. Definitely prevented an accident. I was paying attention too, but someone jumped into my lane and slammed their breaks on for who knows why, there wasn't anything in the road...

In some areas that maneuver is a strategy to collect an insurance payout. If the car had many passengers (who would all get soft tissue injuries) this might have been a "swoop and squat."

> someone jumped into my lane and slammed their breaks on for who knows why

Insurance fraud, possibly. Depending on jurisdiction if you rear-end someone you could automatically be 100% at fault (assuming the fraud is not discovered/proven)

Huh didn't even consider that. Makes sense now.

*brake

Absolutely love my Outback + Eyesight. That said, the lane assist and automatic cruise control are not very sophisticated.

The automatic cruise control is great for freeway and some street driving, but don't expect it to brake very smoothly / like a human. I consider it outsourcing part of my concentration.

Lane assist is nice, but it won't auto-center -- if you were take your hands off the wheel on a straightaway it would "ping-pong" back and forth. I mostly like it on long drives, reduces the amount of effort on bends.

> "ping-pong" back and forth.

like travelling down a virtual tube

The EyeSight system uses a pair of cameras — black and white, I think — mounted on the interior roof. With it, you get front collision avoidance.

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