First Impressions of '21 Leaf SV

[DaveinOlyWA]

In my mind, none of the "next generation" driving aids that attempt to go beyond just providing assistance are reliable enough to be useful outside of highly predictable situations, such as cruising down the highway in light traffic. I will definitely be a late adopter of this technology.

The aids I find personally useful enough to turn on/regularly use include:
- Lane departure alert
- Blind spot alert
- Rear cross-traffic alert
- Parking assist/360 camera
- Auto high beams
- Driver attentiveness

I haven't had any issue with auto braking in our 2019 Leaf+, so I've left it on. It activated once as I approached a stopped car at a red light just as I was about to brake myself, and I was a little late, so I thought that appropriate. It hasn't activated since in 2 years and 12k miles of driving in-town. I understand that it can be confused by snow and ice accumulating on the front of the car, so I try to keep that clear. Not sure if that's been verified, but it's plausible.

As to adaptive cruise, we don't use this car over-the-road, so our highway miles are pretty limited. Interstate across town, basically. I haven't used cruise control of any kind at all. We disable lane return (auto-steer or whatever they call it).

Driving is an inherently hazardous activity. We've reduced the risk very substantially in the 30+ years I've been behind the wheel, and for that I'm grateful. But it is also an inherently complex activity, and I don't expect AI systems to be able to replicate the alert, practiced, healthy human performance any time soon.

In 3+ years, I have had it, it has warned me several times but never actually braked. The most common is approaching roundabouts with a car just ahead of me in the next lane. Although it hasn't happened to me, several report that even heavy rain can cause problems. Sometimes I think the simpler systems (I only have the S Plus) work better?

 

[SageBrush]

I'm solidly in the ranks of 'late adopter' when it comes to most of the driver assist tech. In my case this is in a Tesla but I think general comments applies across cars.

City driving: I want to be the driver, and I want the car to make me a better driver.
Interstate driving: ACC is great, maybe the car taking more control is OK

On a personal note, my driving is most deficient when it comes changing lanes. In part this is due to aggressive drivers, and in part due to a bad habit I have of drifting while turning my head to look at the blind-spot. For the last couple of days I've been trying out leaving the rear camera on the screen all the time. This takes learning since cars are quite a bit closer than they appear but the view is outstanding. I'm going to keep using it although my preference would be for the rear view to activate when I flip the turn switch.

If you have a big center screen and you have the option, try it out.