The radar system they use in modern VW and Audi cars is extremely conservative, claiming to not engage the brakes at all above 35 mph, and waiting until the last possible moment to apply the brakes below that window. It's been absurdly accurate for me. Once every few months or so it "warns" outside of a dangerous situation, but they are almost always situations I could have prevented with a gentler approach to driving, for example following closely a truck with a trailer that is slowly turning off the street will erroneously activate the warning because I'm continuing as if it will be out of my way, which is not the safest.
The time it activated in a real danger situation it didn't even apply the brakes, it "primed" them so that my action of pressing the brakes would happen faster.
I love my 2021 RS 5, but I have to disagree with this. Even in Traffic Jam adaptive mode, many times it will accelerate towards a vehicle _that it detects_, and only brake very late, and hard. On several occasions I've intervened because I wasn't sure if it would. When I've been alone in the car, I've waited later (and seen it brake hard, of its own accord), when I've held off on the brake since I have no passengers to give whiplash.
It will also absolutely emergency brake above 35mph.
Thanks, Dad. Clearly I have no idea what I'm doing, or what I'm talking about, so my real-world experience is invalid.
For the benefit of everyone else, phantom braking is a thing that by definition occurs when you're not following anyone. Such as when the car slams on the brakes upon approaching a car that's clearly about to turn right from a nearby parking lot, but who is equally clearly waiting for you to pass before entering the road.
I shouldn't have been patronizing, I'm just so confused how the same hardware and (possibly) software can produce such different results. Why would the audi version be so much more sensitive?
One episode per 3000 miles is too many, and that's about what I was seeing before I disabled the feature.
If someone has built an AEB system with the degree of immunity from false triggers that's needed to make it a net positive for road safety, I haven't seen any evidence yet. Similar complaints across many different car models are widespread.
It definitely is erratic with the speed, speeding up and slowing down slightly, which is annoying, but not so dangerous.
The dangerous parts are driving home from work, 6 miles, at least two very hard brakes each trip with no cars ahead of me (I only made a few trips like this before disabling it).
Automatic emergency braking (with the loud beeps and red message on the screen) on two lane highways, over crests, a myriad of other circumstances.
https://electrek.co/2022/06/08/tesla-files-use-new-radar-con...
(Absolutely no reason to stop and no weather or afternoon sun for confusion. My best guess is that flaky vision systems thought a semi truck was entering my lane, but I really don't know.)
All AEB's from all manufacturers have a certain amount of phantom braking, but non-Tesla AEB are well studied and definitely save lives.
"Oh, by the way, starting in 2025, your breakfast cereal will be legally required to contain this drug."
Tesla seems to have a lot of software issues when it comes to "smart" features like these. I wouldn't be surprised if they are indeed worse than the competition, but I'd love to see a similar comparison