Near miss brings unknown feature to light

[DKZ5745]

So, not that I am known for driving my Z hard :eusa-whistle: but this afternoon, with limited time to get home for a family occasion, I was travelling down a country road giving it large, when, just like the advert on TV says, round a bend was a hidden danger, in this case it was a broken down Ford Fiesta with its hazards on, the driver, standing nearby ended up with eyes like saucers when he saw me appear rather quickly, travelling towards him with foot firmly planted on the floor with the brake pedal underneath it.

I have to say, the Z was just as amazing at stopping as it is in acceleration. Just the hint of squealing as the tyres complained under braking, and to say I was going around. Bend, it stayed on the correct side of the road, mainly, which was quite good news for me, as there was a car coming in the opposite direction.

However - the hidden feature, that I don’t recommend you try to find, the hazard lights automatically come on under very heavy breaking. Who knew?

I suppose some of you will have found this already, and it no doubt tells you about it in the manual, in a bit I clearly haven’t read.

Anyway, cool feature, nice to have, not good to find out about :eusa-think:

 

[stewartwillsher]

Closely related, but sort of opposite - our sweet little runabout is a 108 Puretech 1.2 Top, which we loaded with all the gizmos from new.
One of these features is called "Active City Brake", which will, so it says, apply the brakes automatically if, travelling at up to 30 kph and an obstruction ahead is encountered.
Now, knowing it has this safety aid is all very well, but one always wonders if it works. :eusa-think:
However, I do not have the ba11s to aim our baby at a wall or similar to try it out! :crazy:
Would you????

 

[renegade79]

Yes pete, I had the hazards come on automatically on my Z a few years ago when I had to drop the anchors on the motorway one day! I think it’s becoming a fairly standard feature nowadays on cars!

 

[frankvdb]

Yeah this is getting pretty standard these days. It's one of these things you get for free once you have all the sensors for ABS etc and I think it also helps in getting a good NCAP safety rating, which is why nearly all new cars will have it now.

 

[RCZ-R]

Glad to hear you made it!

I know this feature well.
In the R those emergency hazards come up pretty late, I mean you need to do serious emergency braking to light them up. They won't come up on usual roads doing 60 or 80 MPH. Even on the autobahns you can push as much as about 98% of braking power, they will not come up. Only if you give them the last beans, like slamming the brakes from +100 MPH.

 

[RCZ-R]

...
However, I do not have the ba11s to aim our baby at a wall or similar to try it out! :crazy:
Would you????

Once I got caught up by this "feature" on a rental. It was a Ford and it had that city braking system on it. It failed me on an almost daily situation. As I was leaving the underground parking I stopped at the gates to put in my ticket and leave. So I stopped at the boot, put the ticket in and watched the barrier moving up. While the barrier was going up I already started to move forward. Just the usual thing people do. One calculates automatically the speed of the barrier going up and you starting moving so by the time you reach the barrier, it is already up and you can pass "underneath".
But the system didn't like my urgency and subconscious intelligence. It slammed the brakes and the car following almost ploughed into my rear. Annoyingly enough the off button to this glorious invention was hidden in some 3rd level menu of the touch screen. What a mess.

Another dangerous situation I had on another rental (was it a VW?) was the lane keeping assistant going berserk while driving in a road works area. While entering this section on a motorway and doing a safe speed of about 50 MPH, the system got confused by the yellow and white lines crossing all over the place. By the time it happened I was already entering the narrow lanes of the construction site having a big lorry sitting next to my right (about 1 m away from my right mirror).
Suddenly the system decided to warn me about leaving my lane and forcefully steered to the right into the lorry. I reacted in time to prevent mayhem. It must have looked silly from behind, like someone caught texting on his phone.

I'm in for safety systems but they must be 100% safe and assuring. Not dodgy.

 

[DKZ5745]

I can heartily recommend the abs system on the Z :thumbup: the road was damp/wet the surface was uneven, and it was on a left hand bend, and still stopped me more or less on the correct side of the road & before I swapped paint with the Fiesta.

 

[stewartwillsher]

Two neat by-products of gizmos on the 108 are useful.
The lane departure warning system works fairly well, and on motorways has an unintended law reminder - in Spain it is illegal to change lanes without indicating; the system bleeps if you go to change lanes without indicating but is silent if indicating; so it reminds you!
The 108 does not have cruise control, but the speed limiter works as such if set and foot kept pressed part down on the accelerator.