Unneeded Automatic Emergency Braking - Again

Can't remember.

 

This really just sounds like you have a higher tolerance for close driving than the car does. I had similar braking instances when I first got the car and modified my driving behaviour.

 

Fast, loud, high-pitched beeping. Much more attention getting than the other warning sounds (like lane-keeping assist). Also some red warning on the dash (I forget what that says though).

 

Yes, undoubtedly, and like I said, I may have adapted (capitulated) to the car. Hasn't happened for a long time.

 

Sounds like the collision avoidance warning(s). The sound escalates in the split second before the emergency braking is applied.

 

The way I read this it says that if the FCA system is malfunctioning it will not operate at all - and you should get a warning light that is malfunctioning. It doesn't suggest that it can imagine imminent collisions and react to them. I'm not saying it's impossible but I am saying that it appears that there are multiple fail-safes built in.

 

Hmm. Kind of buried in the text. I wonder why they don't elaborate on what "certain conditions" are? The only thing I can say is that every time it's happened to me I was: new to the car, was in proximity to other vehicles and was arguably closer to them or was approaching them more quickly than is optimal - well within my tolerances but (presumably) not the car's. I have never had FCA activate when I was alone on the road. Now that would be a clear indication of malfunction and possibly "certain conditions".

 

Toolworker, sounds like you're having some sort of different problem. If there's no alert noise, then it's either not FCA, or it's some kind of dysfunctional FCA activation.

 

If you take it to a dealer, there must be some kind of diagnostic test they can do to determine if there is a problem or if that is just how it works.

 

I'm sorry if I missed it but have you mentioned if you've had the brake software recall work done?

 

If you have issues with that, you should definitely set the FCA to EARLY!! Do not set it to late!!

If you set it to late, there will only be a short time between it starting to beep at you and when it activates the brakes. That's what late means!! It will potentially scare the crap out of you.

However if you set it to early, it will beep at you way ahead of it actually starting to activate the brakes. We are now talking several seconds! This way you have plenty of time to either slow down a little, or at least be aware that it's thinking it needs to activate.

The algorithm, in both cases decided it needs to intervene. (Simplified) That happens at the same time, just in one case it won't tell you until the very last second (late setting).

Make sure you understand how that works. If you have issues with it you will just make it worse by setting it to late.

 

I am not really sure if that is correct. Does the Late/Early apply to the braking or the audible warning? Maybe it applies to the braking. I know I tried different settings before but IIRC didn't seem to make much difference. However, since I haven't had the problem now for a long time, I am just leaving it as is with the Late setting.

 

Random peanut gallery question: is it possible that whatever gremlin is causing your intermittent 12 volt battery issue could also be causing this?

 

Agreed.

However, without being able to see how the individual line replaceable units are actually installed and grounded, it can't be totally ignored.

Sometimes all it takes is a common ground to not be torqued properly to set off seemingly unrelated intermittent electrical problems.