Just a heads up - especially for those pulling horse boxes,

The FCC can, on the 2014, apply the brakes if it perceives the distance from a slowing object in front. By applying the brakes I mean it slams on a full emergency stop!

If trailing a horse box, I would advise that the selection for the FCC in the settings menu be OFF to avoid any nastiness with fragile horses should this occur.

Otherwise it is an excellent safety feature as it reacts very quickly, as is useful when idiots slam their brakes on in front of you for no apparent reason, hence how I found out how this works...

 

Really good advise!!!

 

Although rear-ending the car in front of you isn't too good for a horse either.

 

True but hitting the car would probably be softer, I tend to try and get away with as many rolling stops as possible with the box attached and my timing is pretty good!

This can catch you out due to its abruptness not the distance is activates at. Bringing a 3K load to a stop means I brake really early anyway. Anticipation is the name of the game, and yes the feature is a good last ditch measure though.

 

Whoops multiple postings..... Eek

 

Deleted

 

I have noted an issue, though it primarily happens with the cruise on. When following someone with my cruise on, if they pull off into a turn lane and decelerate or brake, there is a period of about 4 seconds where my FCC does not register that they are no longer in front of me, but it does register we are closing on them - so it slams on the brakes. This SERIOUSLY annoys my wife, and anyone behind me, both wondering what the hell I'm doing. My wife insists I should turn off FCC, but my thought is that turning FCC off would increase the chance of an accident. I now avoid using the cruise when the wife is in the car. When alone, I still use it, but make sure I watch for this situation and override it by accelerating slightly.

Also have noted how sensitive FCC is. I was driving on city streets where they had covered excavation temporarily with half inch steel plates. When I approach one of those, it sounds a collision warning. For a half inch steel plate!

 

I had the steel plate incident happen to me yesterday. I guess the radar senses the mass. I also have the same issue when a car is turning. The adaptive system takes to long to let go of its lock. I have learned to just briefly tap the brake and disable it until I'm past.

 

Got the same issues like you all mentioned. This bloody thing sometimes also detects bicycle drivers not really in front of me but driving in a separate lane 2m besides the car! I always gently depress the accelerator to overcome braking maneuvers as it deactivates the ACC as long as you depress the pedal.... So the advise from Leman is still valid and good. Normally if you drive with animals in a trailer you are more than focused on the streets and want to try to avoid unnecessary breaking maneuvers so the ACC is a little bit to overreacting... it's definitely not build for such a purpose to be fair.

 

True, it is not built for when towing since it isn't smart enough to gently apply the brakes, but what it is immensely good for is heavy mist/fog/road spray.

The sensor can 'see' when you cannot. I had to do a long road trip on an Interstate with heavy truck traffic in a driving rain storm and those 2 little lights on the rear of a tractor's trailer are useless. I set the distance to 3, set my max comfortable speed for the wet roads and 'attached' myself to the back of a truck.

If the truck downshifted or otherwise dropped speed without applying the brakes, thus activating the brake lights, the D already sensed the closing speed and reduced its speed as well.

It was awesome to be able to drive with my feet on the floorboard and not glued over the brake pedal.