I have a new BMW with the Driving Assistance Professional Package, and recently it was put to the test during my drive between Northern California and Southern California. The package includes, adaptive cruise control, automatic steering, auto lane change and braking. The sensors include radar, and cameras.
In the California Central Valley, when the conditions are right, a fog called Tule fog develops. I cannot overstate how thick Tule fog is, with visibility reduced to 20 ft in some instances, and this fog goes on for hundreds of miles at the I-5 corridor connecting NorCal with SoCal. I was driving at night, and you can barely make out the tail lights of the cars in front of you until you're almost kissing the car's rear.
I haven't even used the full features of the driving assistance in ideal conditions, but I figure the car radar will at least "see" the cars in the front before I do, and the cameras will keep me in the lane, when I could barely see the lane markers.
It was hard to put my trust in the system at first, but as the miles rolled on, it worked very well. It kept me in the lane, it slowed down when there was a car in front of me, and when asked, it changed lanes flawlessly.
There were two instances where I had to take control. One was when the car lost traction due to a bump on the highway. The other was when I asked to change lanes without realizing that it was a merging lane due to the fog. This was on me.
Please wait...
