EV general discussion

We have ended up ordering an Abarth 600e (well the forms are in) to replace the old Cmax

£200ish per month 1+23, the boss had been looking at Micra/ R5 / Mini, this is a good bit cheaper than any of them yet still acceptable to it's primary user. Difference "saved" Vs one of those will more than pay for it's electric use on a monthly basis. Looking forward to stealing and driving it (could only look at a showroom car in advance). Strange proportioned car - looks around the size of my MG4 from the outside, if not slightly larger (it's not though), similar-ish boot but tiny in the rear compared to the MG
 
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ICDP said:
Yes most of not all ACC cars have this feature. But it can still happen, all it takes is a split second for the ACC to see the road ahead has cleared and off it goes. So slowing for the car in front correctly but just as it cones to a stop the car in front gets the filter light and sets off. The ACC has not entered “safe mode” yet and off it accelerates through a red light.

That’s the scenario this guy tried to blame the car for in an urban setting.
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I'm sure I've mentioned my underwear staining episode of using ICC (Intelligent or Adaptive, whatever!) but I'll reiterate to give an example of either poorly thought out tech or driver's inappropriate use of it.

- I'm driving along in the rear of a convoy of about 5 cars on a NSL single carriageway road. I set the ICC to 60mph and it locks on to the car in front to maintain it's distance, adjusting both speed and distance it as the car speeds up or slows down.
- The convoy gradually drops down to about 40mph due to a nun or granny out in their puddle jumper.
- The NSL road tightens up and becomes a bit twisty.
- During a tight right hand bend, my car loses lock/track of the car in front, presumably thinks the road ahead is clear and decides to accelerate (startlingly quickly I'll add) back up to 60mph, launching me in to the bend/hedge.

Thankfully I was new to the car and quite wary of the technology so I wasn't reliant on it or distracted by something else and managed to get the car back under proper control (mine) before it ploughed a field for the local farmer.

Not the proper use of ICC and certainly not the road for it either, but as more and more people start to use these "assists" they will desensitise themselves from driving and their skills will diminish.

I now only turn on the ICC when the road is long, straight and empty, which is usually never :D!
 
Mysterae_ said:
I'm sure I've mentioned my underwear staining episode of using ICC (Intelligent or Adaptive, whatever!) but I'll reiterate to give an example of either poorly thought out tech or driver's inappropriate use of it.

- I'm driving along in the rear of a convoy of about 5 cars on a NSL single carriageway road. I set the ICC to 60mph and it locks on to the car in front to maintain it's distance, adjusting both speed and distance it as the car speeds up or slows down.
- The convoy gradually drops down to about 40mph due to a nun or granny out in their puddle jumper.
- The NSL road tightens up and becomes a bit twisty.
- During a tight right hand bend, my car loses lock/track of the car in front, presumably thinks the road ahead is clear and decides to accelerate (startlingly quickly I'll add) back up to 60mph, launching me in to the bend/hedge.

Thankfully I was new to the car and quite wary of the technology so I wasn't reliant on it or distracted by something else and managed to get the car back under proper control (mine) before it ploughed a field for the local farmer.

Not the proper use of ICC and certainly not the road for it either, but as more and more people start to use these "assists" they will desensitise themselves from driving and their skills will diminish.

I now only turn on the ICC when the road is long, straight and empty, which is usually never :D!
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I always have my foot resting on the accelerator just in case but thankfully I've only had one case I can remember in my old Ibiza where it randomly lost lock to the car in front and started trying to bulldoze it's way through.
 
Mysterae_ said:
I'm sure I've mentioned my underwear staining episode of using ICC (Intelligent or Adaptive, whatever!) but I'll reiterate to give an example of either poorly thought out tech or driver's inappropriate use of it.

- I'm driving along in the rear of a convoy of about 5 cars on a NSL single carriageway road. I set the ICC to 60mph and it locks on to the car in front to maintain it's distance, adjusting both speed and distance it as the car speeds up or slows down.
- The convoy gradually drops down to about 40mph due to a nun or granny out in their puddle jumper.
- The NSL road tightens up and becomes a bit twisty.
- During a tight right hand bend, my car loses lock/track of the car in front, presumably thinks the road ahead is clear and decides to accelerate (startlingly quickly I'll add) back up to 60mph, launching me in to the bend/hedge.

Thankfully I was new to the car and quite wary of the technology so I wasn't reliant on it or distracted by something else and managed to get the car back under proper control (mine) before it ploughed a field for the local farmer.

Not the proper use of ICC and certainly not the road for it either, but as more and more people start to use these "assists" they will desensitise themselves from driving and their skills will diminish.

I now only turn on the ICC when the road is long, straight and empty, which is usually never :D!
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Self driving on 99% of car's aren't designed to be using on twisty roads, that is a driver error.

I think FSD on the Tesla's in the USA can do it, but I don't have any experience of that.
 
rodenal said:
Plain old white (looks alright actually). Any other colour +c£30/ month - not worth it for us when we are after "cheap" motoring
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Was more concerned it might be the bright green, MG default on MG4 is Orange, and BYD Dolphin Surf is some sort of lime yellow green - seems to be the trend to make the default colour something people won't want so you pay to change it! :)
 
Journey said:
Was more concerned it might be the bright green, MG default on MG4 is Orange, and BYD Dolphin Surf is some sort of lime yellow green - seems to be the trend to make the default colour something people won't want so you pay to change it! :)
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I drove past the import docks south of Bristol yesterday where there are thousands of cars stored and there was a huge section of luminous green/yellow in one area. That might explain it!
 
OspreyO said:
You can hardly do 70 if the car in front decides to do 60.
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You can if the lane to your right is clear :)

OspreyO said:
In mine I set the distance at which it takes effect, it's a button toggle I can cycle through the distances dynamically.

Mine doesn't react as slowly as yours seems to.
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It's not necessarily about reacting slowly, more the fact you're having to assess exactly the moment to move out so that

A) it's not too early
B) it's not too close

With standard cruise it doesn't matter so much, if you move out a little late then you haven't slowed down, so of course the answer with ACC is just to move out early, I just find it annoying - probably very much a personal thing!

Mysterae_ said:
I'm sure I've mentioned my underwear staining episode of using ICC (Intelligent or Adaptive, whatever!) but I'll reiterate to give an example of either poorly thought out tech or driver's inappropriate use of it.

- I'm driving along in the rear of a convoy of about 5 cars on a NSL single carriageway road. I set the ICC to 60mph and it locks on to the car in front to maintain it's distance, adjusting both speed and distance it as the car speeds up or slows down.
- The convoy gradually drops down to about 40mph due to a nun or granny out in their puddle jumper.
- The NSL road tightens up and becomes a bit twisty.
- During a tight right hand bend, my car loses lock/track of the car in front, presumably thinks the road ahead is clear and decides to accelerate (startlingly quickly I'll add) back up to 60mph, launching me in to the bend/hedge.

Thankfully I was new to the car and quite wary of the technology so I wasn't reliant on it or distracted by something else and managed to get the car back under proper control (mine) before it ploughed a field for the local farmer.

Not the proper use of ICC and certainly not the road for it either, but as more and more people start to use these "assists" they will desensitise themselves from driving and their skills will diminish.

I now only turn on the ICC when the road is long, straight and empty, which is usually never :D!
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I only use mine on motorways/dual-carriageways. On single carriageway NSL roads, the user manual is very clear that it can "lose" the vehicle in front of tight bends/hill crests etc. However the speed limiter can act as pseudo-CC in those situations; foot to the floor (or rather the resistance spot above the lockdown), but can easily ease off if needed.
 
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Journey said:
Was more concerned it might be the bright green, MG default on MG4 is Orange, and BYD Dolphin Surf is some sort of lime yellow green - seems to be the trend to make the default colour something people won't want so you pay to change it! :)
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Is that the new or old MG4? The old one was quite nice in orange IMO - certainly the colour I would have picked if I got one!
 
Mine is Orange but it was a paid colour when ordered (3 years ago), maybe it changed through the initial life cycle.

Can't get it in the "new" one, albeit Ealing Green is nice which seems to have dropped in instead
 
VincentHanna said:
Self driving on 99% of car's aren't designed to be using on twisty roads, that is a driver error.
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I can't argue about driver error, although I will defensively say it's also being a bit unschooled in the technology and therefore unaware of it's limitations and risks. It'll catch a few folk out.
 
tamzzy said:
Don't people find it more tiring to nanny the car during autopilot/acc?
I detest mine and don't use it
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I just use it on motorways and now an then on a long stretch of a hill going down. Basically it is off most of the time, but I am happy it is there.
 
For me it's off all the time, only in exceptional circumstances like when I'm on the motorway at 3 in the morning and there's zero cars around.
I just find the autopilot/acc experience very underwhelming and requires a lot more concentration than just, you know, driving like a normal person.
You don't know what it (the computer) knows and how it'll react and if you have to intervene. And by that time that you may have to intervene...precious seconds have gone by and too late by then.
May be I'm just being paranoid :cry:
 
Similar here - only time I use those features is like 3am on a motorway, occasionally speed limiter for specific things like average speed cameras.
 
tamzzy said:
For me it's off all the time, only in exceptional circumstances like when I'm on the motorway at 3 in the morning and there's zero cars around.
I just find the autopilot/acc experience very underwhelming and requires a lot more concentration than just, you know, driving like a normal person.
You don't know what it (the computer) knows and how it'll react and if you have to intervene. And by that time that you may have to intervene...precious seconds have gone by and too late by then.
May be I'm just being paranoid :cry:
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I feel the same about other systems in the car, like in the example below:


Did that BMW hallucinate or something?!
 
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