E46CT

My experience

LKA (Lane keep assist)
I find it annoying and intrusive so I keep it off. It works well though but not with my driving style, for example when turning near a bike lane and you have to cross over, the car will try to get in your way. I think this feature, for me anyway, is better for long road trips in the event I become unattentive for whatever reason. But for trying to commute and just get home, it's a bit annoying. That's likely why you can permanently disable it.

PCS (Pre Collision System)
I have mine set to minimal sensitivity, and I customized the car through Carista to remember this setting so it doesn't return to default. I'm not sure what the exact difference is but one time PCS almost caused an accident. I was making a U-Turn and the car in front of me was making a left and I was somewhat close to the car in front of me but nothing crazy or out of the ordinary and the car suddenly slammed on the brakes extremely hard when I was no where near striking the car in front of me. Tires screeched momentarily it braked so hard, and the car in back of me almost hit me. It would've otherwise been a normal/smooth u-turn as it was flowing well but the car didn't think so. So I am hoping my new "minimum setting" helps with the sensitivity.

One time it did help however is this time I was looking at my stereo settings when freeway traffic suddenly halted and the car did save me by hitting the brakes. I looked up and notice the traffic a tad later than the car did and by the time my foot got on the pedal to smash it, the car already started the process about a half second earlier. bravo.

RCTA (Rear Cross Traffic Alert)
This is handy, especially with the sonar bumper sensors to show you which direction the person or car is coming from. My older car (2016 IS200T) with BSM did not have bumper sensors and would just beep and flash. This morning my ES showed me which direction.

BSM (Blind Spot Monitoring)
Works great. In Carista, I set the monitoring distance to low. There's either low or normal IIRC. Normal I feel is way too sensitive, and low seems a tad short in terms of notice distance. I may revert back to normal. Carista also allows you to change the brightness of the flashing indicator on the glass. There's normal or low. I left it at normal. I like it bright.

Parking Assist
In Carista, I set the beep/alert volume to low and distance to low as the beeps were freaking out my dog when I'm simply pulling into the garage. I like this setup and it works well.

What's been your experience and what settings do you prefer?

User 41924

I'm pretty much the same. The PCS really startled me once. I was backing out of the garage with my wife standing near the car while waiting to get in. When the car noticed she was there, it stopped VERY abruptly and flashed red all over my head-up display.

I was looking forward to having BSM, but for me it's mostly redundant. I was taught early on that your outside mirrors should be adjusted to eliminate your blind spot, not to see behind you. I thought it was cool to see that the BSM comes on at almost exactly the same time as a car in my blind spot appears in my mirror.

bc6152

I was backing out of a space at Home Depot when some moron decided to walk behind my car. I didn't see him approach but the car did... I would have hit the idiot if the car didn't slam the brakes on. The stop by the car was so violent that I thought I HAD hit someone or something. Saved my skinny butt...

User 41924

Violent is a great word for that. I also thought I had hit something!

E46CT

Yeah when my car braked in my scenario when I was making that U-Turn, it startled the F out of me cause you don't expect it. The stop was violent as well as I'm guessing 100% of the brake effort is applied at once by the computer. I've also had instances where the car beeped loudly as the car in front of me turned right and I was still going straight.. like the car was about to mess with me again. I do love the feature overall and glad cars are required to have it... i just think it's too sensitive for able drivers and is geared more towards grandmas.

I'm glad for the Carista app having the ability to fine tune this to remember the minimum sensitivity setting. Cause before it would revert back to normal. I'll report back to see how this new setting behaves.

mikemu30

I've had this happen several times. No matter how slowly you may be backing up, there's clueless morons reading their phones that the system sees before you do!

1Priest

Only had the car for a week now and I'm still getting use to the driving aids. Something interesting happened on the second day I had the car which was surprising but also a great feature to have. I was in the middle lane approaching a major intersection to make a right and the light had just turned red with a car or two in front of me already stopped at the light. A lot of major intersections here in Canada have the red light cams now so people do often stop hard on yellows to avoid a ticket. This light takes forever and there was a bus at the stop picking or dropping someone off close to the point at the intersection where it would cut off the ability to make a right but not quite and the bus was stopped with flashers on. I sped up just a little bit to beat the bus so that I could make the turn before it finished at the bus stop and moved forward to the light then blocking the ability for anyone to make a righthand turn until the light turns green and the bus moves through the intersection. Sometimes you're lucky and sometimes the bus will move forward before you get there. This was one of those times. The car picked up quicker than I was expecting being only my second day having it. The bus of course finished its stop and moved forward before I could get there and while I was still at a reasonable distance but approaching quickly all of a sudden a huge BRAKE notification in the heads up display came on with a red outlining. I think it flashed and there was a chime too. I had more than enough time to stop because I was prepared to but it's one of those split second moments where you're kind of watching the bus rather than in front of you and I can imagine how this might be a bad moment for some drivers. That fraction of a second difference with notification from the computer was so surprising to me. I'm not going to say I did or didn't need it because even after 20 years on the road a humble attitude will keep you in good standing and I respect the road and drive accordingly but wow! Is that ever an incredible feature to discover. 🙏 This car truly has my back! 💯

Not sure if the BRAKE notification would still come up if the heads up display was off but I'm guessing it would. Has anyone else experienced this feature?

mikemu30

Ive had that warning a few times and each time it was a false alarm, itchy trigger finger. No connection to HUD since mine is always turned off.

LexFinally

Thanks for sharing this informative thread.

Question: For those who don't have Carista, can (will) the dealer make these permanent settings changes for you if you ask?

TechNut

Mine will. I don't believe they will charge you if you combine it with another service, but if you bring it in just for this, there will likely be a fee to cover their labor.

mcomer

repost - If you merge into traffic at 56 MPH and are going to pass behind a truck going 55 MPH
on your way to the center lane to pass, PCS will "see" the slower vehicle and chop the throttle.
No way to get the menu open to turn it all off or turn down the sensitivity while cornering on the
ramp and no steering wheel button to quickly access as with the Lane Keep/Trace feature.
I have begun merging with greater distance and time intervals which I guess was the point, right?