Hacker News Reader

Comment by rogerb | Hacker News Reader

Slightly off topic: I am the owner of a Tesla, and until recently a 2021 model 5 series BMW. The 5 series had 'keep your lane' and 'follow' functionality, and I've been absolutely flabbergasted that this functionality made it on production vehicles. It would give up in the middle of basic turns in the road in such a way that it tried to turn you straight into the divider. It was comically bad, except that it wasn't funny.

The Tesla (not a fanboy btw) is miles ahead in this regard.

View on HN

Suggestion: the planet is dying. While I applaud your move to an EV, understand that your want for a new vehicle every couple years has an absolutely massive carbon footprint.

To anyone reading this comment: please buy used and understand that most problems with cars can be fixed economically by someone with a bit of knowledge.

> understand that your want for a new vehicle every couple years

you're making a lot of assumptions here. In general I'd agree with you.

> The 5 series had 'keep your lane' and 'follow' functionality, and I've been absolutely flabbergasted that this functionality made it on production vehicles. It would give up in the middle of basic turns in the road in such a way that it tried to turn you straight into the divider. It was comically bad, except that it wasn't funny.

Could that be deliberate to keep the driver attentive? I have a Honda with similar functionality, and it will just completely disengage if the driver hasn't adjusted the steering in 15-20 seconds. It also has automatic emergency breaking that deliberately will not prevent a collision, it will only slow you down. The effect of their decisions is that long distance driving is easier, but it's impossible to even try to let the car drive itself.

AFAICT it was totally random. I would keep my hands on the wheel at all time but even then it felt very surprising. After a couple of times I never engaged it again, except for couple of times to show others how ridiculously bad it all was.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com