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This doesn't affect me, but I thought I'd post it because many of you here in Lexus Enthusiast own or drive Lexus, Toyota, and Mercedes products. On those vehicles (and on a number of other brands with automatic emergency-braking systems), the sensors, under some conditions, cannot differentiate between regular objects on the road and some of the brushes, arms, and sheer-walls in automatic car washes. If the system cannot be disabled, some cars have been damaged, and /or accidents taken place, while going through the wash. This article explains it in detail, and lists the brands of cars involved.
(Just one more reason, BTW, why I usually wash my own cars by hand).
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorz.../#6b15ba982784
While fully self-driving cars still remain rooted in the future, a growing number of vehicles are offering semi-autonomous features that will, for example, self-park a car, help keep the vehicle centered within highway lane markers, and perhaps most importantly, automatically apply the brakes if necessary to help prevent both high- and low-speed collisions.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, auto-braking systems can cut rear-end collisions by 40% and reduce the severity of crashes that do occur by 30% in terms of related bodily injury claims. Automakers and regulators agreed to make forward collision prevention systems standard in most light-duty cars and trucks by the 2022 model year.
Unfortunately, as recent events regarding Tesla’s so-called Autopilot system have shown, today’s semi-autonomous auto technology remains far from perfect. And now, a just-issued report has identified a surprising – and surprisingly common – situation in which autonomous braking systems can be confounded to the extent that the vehicle becomes disabled.
And that would be the humble car wash.
According to the car-shopping site BestRide.com, fastidious motorists driving 14 different vehicle brands are finding that their rides can be rendered virtually immobilized at many automated car washes unless certain auto-braking systems can be disabled.
That’s because the sensors used for forward collision mitigation systems aren’t able to tell the difference between a solid wall and what the industry calls a “soft mitter curtain.” To an auto-braking system's sensors, both are considered large and equally hazardous obstructions with which collisions must be avoided. Car wash operators are reporting instances where cars have become stuck in mid-wash by their vehicles’ auto-braking systems. Some, ironically in the act of preventing a crash, have actually jumped the car wash rails and inadvertently caused a collision with the vehicle directly rearward.
What’s more, car wash operators report similar problems with some vehicles’ electronic parking brake systems holding up the queue, which tends to most hamper car washes in which the driver is required to leave the transmission in neutral, switch off the engine, and exit the car. Some cars engage the emergency brake automatically when a car is switched off, while others require a motorist to shift into park before turning off the engine.
“Collision detection, auto hold braking and other technologies are coming to every car as standard equipment by 2020,” said BestRide editor-in- chief Craig Fitzgerald. “Consumers have no idea about the unintended consequences of these technologies on simple, everyday tasks. We want drivers to be informed before they get to the car wash.”
The vehicles that can apparently be confounded by soap and suds come from Acura, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, RAM, Range Rover, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo.
It should be noted that auto-braking and electronic emergency braking systems have no effect if the car wash uses a conveyor belt system to move a car though the tunnel, rather than the conventional array of chains and rollers in which a car is physically pushed through the tunnel.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that not all semi-autonomous systems are created equal. “There's no standardization in how autonomous and automatic braking systems work, how they're disabled, or even if they can be disabled,” explains Eric Wulf CEO of the International Car Wash Association.
For example, Honda’s forward auto-braking system is designed to disengage automatically when the vehicle is moving slower than 10 mph, which presents no problem to even the quickest car washes. Others require drivers to manually disable the system, which, depending on the make and model, can be a simple as holding down a button or as complicated as navigating the menus in a vehicle’s touchscreen operating system. Some systems remain active even when the vehicle is turned off.
This information is usually detailed – however deeply buried – in a new vehicle’s owner’s manual, but that assumes a given motorist actually ever cracks the book open, let alone studies it. A complete list of affected models and official workarounds compiled by BestRide in conjunction with the International Car Wash Association can be found here.
(Just one more reason, BTW, why I usually wash my own cars by hand).
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorz.../#6b15ba982784
While fully self-driving cars still remain rooted in the future, a growing number of vehicles are offering semi-autonomous features that will, for example, self-park a car, help keep the vehicle centered within highway lane markers, and perhaps most importantly, automatically apply the brakes if necessary to help prevent both high- and low-speed collisions.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, auto-braking systems can cut rear-end collisions by 40% and reduce the severity of crashes that do occur by 30% in terms of related bodily injury claims. Automakers and regulators agreed to make forward collision prevention systems standard in most light-duty cars and trucks by the 2022 model year.
Unfortunately, as recent events regarding Tesla’s so-called Autopilot system have shown, today’s semi-autonomous auto technology remains far from perfect. And now, a just-issued report has identified a surprising – and surprisingly common – situation in which autonomous braking systems can be confounded to the extent that the vehicle becomes disabled.
And that would be the humble car wash.
According to the car-shopping site BestRide.com, fastidious motorists driving 14 different vehicle brands are finding that their rides can be rendered virtually immobilized at many automated car washes unless certain auto-braking systems can be disabled.
That’s because the sensors used for forward collision mitigation systems aren’t able to tell the difference between a solid wall and what the industry calls a “soft mitter curtain.” To an auto-braking system's sensors, both are considered large and equally hazardous obstructions with which collisions must be avoided. Car wash operators are reporting instances where cars have become stuck in mid-wash by their vehicles’ auto-braking systems. Some, ironically in the act of preventing a crash, have actually jumped the car wash rails and inadvertently caused a collision with the vehicle directly rearward.
What’s more, car wash operators report similar problems with some vehicles’ electronic parking brake systems holding up the queue, which tends to most hamper car washes in which the driver is required to leave the transmission in neutral, switch off the engine, and exit the car. Some cars engage the emergency brake automatically when a car is switched off, while others require a motorist to shift into park before turning off the engine.
“Collision detection, auto hold braking and other technologies are coming to every car as standard equipment by 2020,” said BestRide editor-in- chief Craig Fitzgerald. “Consumers have no idea about the unintended consequences of these technologies on simple, everyday tasks. We want drivers to be informed before they get to the car wash.”
The vehicles that can apparently be confounded by soap and suds come from Acura, BMW, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, RAM, Range Rover, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, and Volvo.
It should be noted that auto-braking and electronic emergency braking systems have no effect if the car wash uses a conveyor belt system to move a car though the tunnel, rather than the conventional array of chains and rollers in which a car is physically pushed through the tunnel.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that not all semi-autonomous systems are created equal. “There's no standardization in how autonomous and automatic braking systems work, how they're disabled, or even if they can be disabled,” explains Eric Wulf CEO of the International Car Wash Association.
For example, Honda’s forward auto-braking system is designed to disengage automatically when the vehicle is moving slower than 10 mph, which presents no problem to even the quickest car washes. Others require drivers to manually disable the system, which, depending on the make and model, can be a simple as holding down a button or as complicated as navigating the menus in a vehicle’s touchscreen operating system. Some systems remain active even when the vehicle is turned off.
This information is usually detailed – however deeply buried – in a new vehicle’s owner’s manual, but that assumes a given motorist actually ever cracks the book open, let alone studies it. A complete list of affected models and official workarounds compiled by BestRide in conjunction with the International Car Wash Association can be found here.
