Active Lane Keeping - Dangerous?

[DerekS]

So now that I finally have ALK I gotta say...it's a little bit scary.

First the good. It does seem to work as advertised, provided you're on a major highway. I tested "autopilot jail" to see what would happen...you get increasingly desperate popups and dings until the car physically starts yanking your seatbelt to wake your dumb ass up! I found this hilarious!

But here's the thing. When you're not on a major highway, or other conditions occur that make ALK stop working...it just silently stops. The green steering wheel disappears with no alert (audible or visual) letting the driver know it's no longer working.

I consider this extremely dangerous and it makes ALK difficult for me to trust.

I've used Tesla autopilot now and then for sending a quick text or whatever, but since ALK can just shut down without warning at any time...I don't think I can ever let go of the wheel.

I'm curious what others think about this feature and if there's a setting somewhere to make it noisier when it cuts out.

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[r553]

It is a "feature".....I know now not to use it on poorly marked roads.

 

[benver]

So now that I finally have ALK I gotta say...it's a little bit scary.

First the good. It does seem to work as advertised, provided you're on a major highway. I tested "autopilot jail" to see what would happen...you get increasingly desperate popups and dings until the car physically starts yanking your seatbelt to wake your dumb ass up! I found this hilarious!

But here's the thing. When you're not on a major highway, or other conditions occur that make ALK stop working...it just silently stops. The green steering wheel disappears with no alert (audible or visual) letting the driver know it's no longer working.

I consider this extremely dangerous and it makes ALK difficult for me to trust.

I've used Tesla autopilot now and then for sending a quick text or whatever, but since ALK can just shut down without warning at any time...I don't think I can ever let go of the wheel.

I'm curious what others think about this feature and if there's a setting somewhere to make it noisier when it cuts out.

I use it as an assistant, nothing more. Both my hands are almost always on the steering wheel.
It also quietly stops working when driving into the sun or in heavy rain.

It's Porsche philosophy that a Porsche is a car for an active and spirited driver, one of the reasons why there is no real one-pedal driving. It is mandatory that you actively enjoy the drive and not be distracted by your phone

 

[DerekS]

I use it as an assistant, nothing more. Both my hands are almost always on the steering wheel.
It also quietly stops working when driving into the sun or in heavy rain.

It's Porsche philosophy that a Porsche is a car for an active and spirited driver, one of the reasons why there is no real one-pedal driving. It is mandatory that you actively enjoy the drive and not be distracted by your phone

I do agree with this 100%, and it's why I bought a Porsche instead of a Tesla. I do think they should consider some more work on ALK alerts though. People (especially coming from a Tesla) will give the ALK more trust than they should.

 

[schad]

I've used Tesla autopilot now and then for sending a quick text or whatever, but since ALK can just shut down without warning at any time...I don't think I can ever let go of the wheel.

Well... you're not supposed to ever let go of the wheel, or take your attention off the road.

A Tesla may ding at you when it disengages Autopilot, but that won't matter if it doesn't disengage until it's five feet away from ramming a stopped semi.

I suppose that if you are going to text and drive no matter what, it's safer to do it with Autopilot or ALK than without. But the safest option is not to text and drive at all. At least, not until these driver assistance systems are good enough that cars are coming without steering wheels.

 

[kreshi]

I agree with schad. I think the idea of what people have of these functions/assists is tainted by our lord and saviour Elon. No car out there right now and in a foreseeable future has autopilot or drive assists that can assure you to not having to fully concentrate on the road. Mercedes and others are the exact same.

By law and common sense you have to be with your eyes on the road and fully aware of whats happening while driving.

Like other said, the feature is there to assist and relax you a little, while still being fully focused on the road.

Yes technically a sound wouldn't hurt, but the thought there must be that people will depend on that "ding" and that to me is extremely dangerous. Way more dangerous than no sound.

 

[Mysta]

Yeah I agree, should let you know with good warning that it can't continue. But I wouldn't use it on non interstates.

 

[submatrix]

@DerekS I noticed the same issue with ALK. In my single test so far, I did my usual "long distance driving hand position" of single hand on the lower part of the wheel, elbow resting on the center console. I was on a straight stretch of road, in mild traffic, so I was holding the wheel with maybe two fingers since there really wasn't any steering to be done. A few minutes in, ALK had turned itself off without any audible warning. Due to my seating position, I also missed the visual warning as I cannot see the left and right displays on my binnacle very well. Very dangerous.

I think it works similarly to Tesla in that it tries to detect torque from your hands resting on the wheel. I may have to just be very careful about my torque application in my future ALK tests.

 

[PTEastBay]

I didn't option this on the Taycan, but have it on my other two cars. I use it mostly as an assist on longer trips on the highway, with hands on the wheel. I haven't found it to be that useful, accurate, or necessary on back or country roads.

 

[sboggsisu]

Coming from a Tesla where I used autopilot all the time (on freeways) ALK seems to take some adjustment to get used to. I agree it would be nice if it let you know when it shut off - though ALK never seems to really 'shut off' - I've been on the freeway where I change lanes and it takes a bit to start back up in the new lane, but it does start back up on its own. Sometimes it stops but then starts back up again while still in the same lane. But its not like on the Tesla where you literally have to turn it back on again. Also I think if you truly lost track of watching then the other lane keeping thing takes over (can't recall the name right now - I call it the 'bumper car effect'). Did a road trip from LA to Vegas last week and ALK worked well for me - especially given it was the first time I had used it.

 

[atebit]

Who came up with “Active Lane Keeping” and “Lane Keeping Assist” anyway?

 

[Mr. 2021 Taycan]

I agree that LKA on the Taycan is unsafe.

First, I over reacts when it does work, taking the car far to the right before over reacting to the left.

Second, as noted above, LKA stops working at random even when the road markings are not becoming less clear to my eyes.

I have experience with similar LKA on both a 2017 Toyota Highlander, and a 2019 Mercedes S560, but of which work flawlessly on the same roads where the Taycan LKA fails.

Also, try using ACC when you have plenty of room between you and the vehicle in front of you, say a quarter mile. If the vehicle in front of you is stopped at a stoplight and you approach with ACC running, does ACC recognize the stopped vehicle and automatically brake the Taycan to a stop?

Not for me! Big safety issue. Highlander and S560, again, don't demonstrate this problem.

LKA and ACC are not "Porsche" level engineering and they need to be fixed.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

So now that I finally have ALK I gotta say...it's a little bit scary.

First the good. It does seem to work as advertised, provided you're on a major highway. I tested "autopilot jail" to see what would happen...you get increasingly desperate popups and dings until the car physically starts yanking your seatbelt to wake your dumb ass up! I found this hilarious!

But here's the thing. When you're not on a major highway, or other conditions occur that make ALK stop working...it just silently stops. The green steering wheel disappears with no alert (audible or visual) letting the driver know it's no longer working.

I consider this extremely dangerous and it makes ALK difficult for me to trust.

I've used Tesla autopilot now and then for sending a quick text or whatever, but since ALK can just shut down without warning at any time...I don't think I can ever let go of the wheel.

I'm curious what others think about this feature and if there's a setting somewhere to make it noisier when it cuts out.

I really can't believe that you are texting while driving and admitting to it on an open forum. I would respectfully suggest that this is far more dangerous than anything the Taycan might or might not do. Maybe it's legal in the US but it has become illegal here in the UK and carries a significant number of penalty points.

 

[Gubbjaevel]

Agree with it being dangerous, and have pointed it our to my PC.

A vibration or some kind of "highlight" that is has gone off would take away the danger.

 

[DerekS]

I really can't believe that you are texting while driving and admitting to it on an open forum. I would respectfully suggest that this is far more dangerous than anything the Taycan might or might not do. Maybe it's legal in the US but it has become illegal here in the UK and carries a significant number of penalty points.

Well to be fair I'm not doing it any more as Carplay handles this very well with text-to-speech and Siri dictation.

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