[LandShark159]

On a long road trip or around city streets, how good is driver assistance in sticking to a lane. Does it recognize stop signs and traffic lights? Does anyone feel comfortable enough to look away from the road/what's the threshold until the car yells at you?

[Rob_G77]

Originally Posted by LandShark159

On a long road trip or around city streets, how good is driver assistance in sticking to a lane. Does it recognize stop signs and traffic lights? Does anyone feel comfortable enough to look away from the road/what's the threshold until the car yells at you?

Driver assist does not recognize stop signs or traffic lights. Always keep your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel as well. Not doing so is being negligent.

Rob

[Chas8283]

Once I got used to how the system functions I think it’s great. It’s a driving partner not a driver, if that makes sense.

On city streets you’d likely use the traffic assist in heavy traffic. That’s the only situation where the truck drives itself but still requires you keep your eyes on the road via the camera in the dash. It works fine, I find, unless you’re in a situation where the traffic is repeatedly accelerating and stopping, where it tends to be slow to get moving and then slow to get on the brakes (which, honestly, it’s hard for me to drive smoothly in those conditions so that’s fair). But with a 40 mph cap I’ve only used it maybe a half dozen times in a little over a year.

The lane keeping assist and radar cruise are great on long highway drives. I think it makes the drive less fatiguing for me and a more pleasant ride for my passengers (on a long drive there’s always a few times I start to wander out of the lane and have to jerk the wheel, that doesn’t happen with this system). Amazing on rural two lane roads with 55 mph where it’s incredibly boring to drive.

Having had two x5’s in this generation, one with and the other without, the only thing I’d probably miss about not having the option is radar cruise, but that’s far from the end of the world.

I think the next generation they’re rolling out now on the latest cars (7 series) with highway assist has the potential to really make progress with automated driving in BMW, although I haven’t read a review on that system yet.

I appreciate BMW being somewhat conservative with this tech vs over promising on capabilities.

[Guy Fleegman]

Originally Posted by LandShark159

On a long road trip or around city streets, how good is driver assistance in sticking to a lane. Does it recognize stop signs and traffic lights? Does anyone feel comfortable enough to look away from the road/what's the threshold until the car yells at you?

The functional benefits are much greater on the highway than on city streets. Traffic assist isn't going to activate in most city driving situations and lane keeping is inactive (and unnecessary) under 40mph.

While I do use driving assist often around town, it doesn't look far enough ahead to react to stopped vehicles at intersections. It tends to maintain speed until a car ahead comes within range, giving it a relatively short distance to stop. When I'm 8-10 car lengths behind a stopped car, I don't want to still be going 35. I can only imagine the anxiety of the guy ahead looking at his rear view mirror seeing me coming right at him at full speed.

On busy streets at lower speeds with lots of signals, it works well. But it's not a self-driving car. The system sometimes deactivates for no apparent reason and there have been times when I'd have been in trouble if I hadn't been paying attention.

It's great on the highway and noticeably reduces driver fatigue on long trips, but even there I see its role as a backup to prevent me from doing something stupid.

[aMIC]

The feature Traffic Light Assist seems to be available for G05 in UK

Looks nice to be capable more then just detect the traffic lights and be capable to stop at red light.

[jiggie]

A few sections in that video were sketchy AF.