To hate that the car decides how to drive?

[Pouffeycat]

I got a new car last month. I have been driving to work and back and not much more. But I have noticed that the steering has been pulling at certain points. I thought maybe it wasn't aligned properly...
It pings at me if I am not in the centre of a marked lane.
Last night it slammed the brakes on when something ran over the road in the dark.
I live rurally.
I don't like not being in charge of the car.
I have been driving for 30 years and have never had any accidents.
I feel unsafe in this thing.
If someone had been behind me last night in a non smug car,there would have been an accident. I wasn't being safe, because the car took over!
Looking online it seems they make it hard to turn the systems off.
Am I just a dinosaur that needs to get with the technology?

I've got a brand new Nissan. I've got on well with most of the new features, only had it randomly slam the breaks on once when a bush was overhanging the pavement. However it does make a low growling noise when we change road surfaces sometimes. I've just grown to ignore it all now

I’ve had mine try to swerve me back into lane when I’m passing a line of parked cars, for instance

A few people on here have said similar. Which means they are not indicating to overtake or pull in like they are supposed to. The lane assist switches off when indicators are used.

Oh crap sorry I see that’s already been mentioned many times.

What hasn't been mentioned though is rusting the lane assist does kick in a gentle pull in the opposite direction will also override it.

Thing is, I can see that lane assist is fine if you’re driving along a straight road, see something you need to go around, indicate and go round it. But driving isn’t always like that, especially on windy country lanes where a hazard may lead you to need to react quicker than that, and if you’re also having to fight the steering wheel, it’s just making the situation harder to deal with.
Which means that you just end up turning it off all the time, so when it might actually be useful, it isn’t there anyway.

On my car, it also has an optional thing where it tells me what’s coming up ahead, but it’s like, I KNOW, I can see road signs and it’s safer for me to be looking at the road than constantly looking down at the display, surely.
All this tech in cars is making me think that self driving is a pipe dream for U.K. driving. It might work in a grid system city in the USA but on lanes with no road markings, or where you share the road with horses, cyclists, big pot holes that you have to swerve around? I just can’t see it coping with that.
I’ve also noticed since moving back that the rural roads around me are full of trucks because sat Nav sees a country lane as a “60” zone, even when it’s a single track road. Like, sure, in theory you could go 60 but in reality you just can’t go above 20 or 30. But people don’t look at a map and think, that looks like a lane, I’ll go on the main road instead, they just blindly follow the sat Nav.

WonderingWanda · Yesterday 15:48

My car has one of those engine stop start features when you stop moving which is great from an environmental point of view. Except that it kicks in before the break pedal is pressed....

We have a V 60 with stop-start and i won't restart unless you have the parking brake on, or the foot brake depressed; you then put the clutch down. It doesn't start if it's in gear, either.

I think that you may have a fault with yours.

I hired a car to drive to Wales a while ago. It had lane assist, which I hadn't realised. I was on the motorway, which had some steep curves and following the lane, it kept juddering. I pulled off the motorway, to see if something was stuck, then called the hire company, who explained.

It also had automatic braking. I was on a dual carriageway, pulled out to pass a skip wagon and some idiot shot out of a very short slip road and right in front. I was already braking, but it did an emergency stop and stalled. In the fortunately empty outside lane.

Just look for a YouTube video on how to turn it off in my Citroen you can turn all the driving aids off if you want to.

This is exactly what I came to say! Lane assist is linked to indicator use. If you’re not indicating as you should be and you cross a line then the car will assume there’s an error and put you back. If you’re struggling with it then I would put money on it being impacted by not always using indicators correctly.

how can you possibly have no time to indicate? You can only overtake when the road ahead is clear.

If you were overtaking on a bend you were driving dangerously - that’s what makes the roads unusable for cyclists.

😄 tell me you’ve never driven on a country road without telling me you’ve never driven on a country road.
Sometimes you go around a blind bend and there’s a horse on your side of the road.

🙄I live in the countryside and pass horses at 10-15 mph.
you drive like the twat who was up my arse yesterday waving at me whilst I kept behind the cyclists on the bends.
the unbroken line in the middle means you shouldn’t cross it.
maybe check out the Highway Code again and slow down

tell me you’ve never driven on a country road without telling me you’ve never driven on a country road.
Sometimes you go around a blind bend and there’s a horse on your side of the road.

Surely you would slow down, not pull out at speed to pass said horse?

The lane assist in my car doesn't operate if you use the indicator to show you're changing lane. So if I'm passing a cyclist or whatever and crossing a white line, I always indicate and lane assist doesn't kick in.

My car has lane assist and braking but it has a switch to turn it off, which I do.
Look in your manual op, it should tell you how to turn it off in there.

QuizzlyBears · Today 08:10

Lane assist is linked to indicator use. If you’re not indicating as you should be and you cross a line then the car will assume there’s an error and put you back. If you’re struggling with it then I would put money on it being impacted by not always using indicators correctly.

Not in the situation I gave. Also, you don't have to use indicators, if there is no other road user who would benefit. I almost always do anyway, even if there's nothing I can see, just in case.

Definitely turn off lane assist. It drives me completely mad and I hate the steering wheel pulling does.

Also, you don't have to use indicators, if there is no other road user who would benefit.

No you don't, but in a situation where your lane assist would benefit it would be oddly stubborn not to.

Maybe I am a driver who drives like a twat (I’m not), but there are enough of us here saying that lane assist is downright dangerous when driving on rural roads. I’m glad for you that you drive so slowly that you never have to use it, but I drive like a normal person who occasionally comes across an unexpected hazard, and adding time to “‘mirror signal manoeuvre” means being dragged back into the cyclist.

Specifically talking about horses, do you not slow down for them?

I live rurally. It takes me no time at all to flick the indicator on at the same time as moving my steering wheel to avoid one of the many hazards I come across. It's instinctive and happens simultaneously, because I've always used my indicators.

premicrois · Today 08:34

No you don't, but in a situation where your lane assist would benefit it would be oddly stubborn not to.

I don't disagree! We haven't got it on our car, but I still almost always indicate.

Yes. I’m not getting the outrage around lane assist as it should only be activated if you genuinely are drifting or you’ve moved intentionally without indicating / indicating too late. Mine has actually improved my driving as I have now realised that occasionally if I was on the motorway and had loads of space, I was changing lanes just as I was indicating. I’d have sworn blind I wasn’t doing this if the feature hadn’t told me otherwise.

Had both on my car for 7 years. The auto brake thing i think has only come one 2-3 times, each time when it was necessary, and the lane assist is brilliant IMO, a gentle nudge back to stop you drifting. Doesn't feel any harsher than when you're in the slow lane on the motorway and you fall into the "lorry-rut". A bit more steering and it realises it's an intentional movement not a lack of concentration.

Also, you don't have to use indicators, if there is no other road user who would benefit.

Surely the biggest danger on the roads is to road users that the driver isn’t aware of? So indicating even when you think there’s nobody around to benefit is a sensible precaution.