Lane Tracking and Steering assist

[brainii]

Hello ppl. I have a 2021 corolla, manual. It has LTA and steering assist. The system works when you have non continuous lines (dashed lines) on the highway (it works for example when the car is on the left lane then drifts to the right lane, or the opposite). However, if you are on the left lane and you drift towards the left edge of the road, the car does nothing! Similarly, if you are on the right side and you drift to the right towards the barricade, again, nothing. Over here we have white continuous lines at the edges of the roads.

Is this how it's supposed to work????

If not how can this be adjusted/fixed?

 

Thanks

[Hybrid21]

Hi, the way it works in my RAV4 is when you switch it on as you say it detects the lines on each side of the lane you are in.

Then if you move over the lines without indicating it bleeps and moves the steering wheel back into the lane, not a massive pull but just a nudge back to the lane.

If you indicate,  it knows that the lane change is intentional and does not come into play.

Not sure how to adjust the sensitivity, but will check it out the next time I'm in my car 👍

[Roy124]

You should have a lane display,  two white lines converging.   Then either side different shaded lines indicating the edge definition.   If solid blue both sides it indicates positive identification. 

The less well defined the lower the accuracy. 

Check what your's is displaying. 

[brainii]

2 hours ago, Hybrid21 said:

Hi, the way it works in my RAV4 is when you switch it on as you say it detects the lines on each side of the lane you are in.

Then if you move over the lines without indicating it bleeps and moves the steering wheel back into the lane, not a massive pull but just a nudge back to the lane.

If you indicate,  it knows that the lane change is intentional and does not come into play.

Not sure how to adjust the sensitivity, but will check it out the next time I'm in my car 👍

Mine pretty much works like this as well, EXCEPT the continuous lines of the street are not detected. Sensitivity can be adjusted, but if I remember correctly, for steering assist, it's either on or off.

 

[Chriss27]

To be honest not noticed any issue with mine but generally turn it off to stop the annoying beeps. Toyota love a beep in the car 🤣

[brainii]

4 hours ago, Chriss27 said:

To be honest not noticed any issue with mine but generally turn it off to stop the annoying beeps. Toyota love a beep in the car 🤣

turning it off was the first thing I did in the car 🙂 However, it'd be nice to get it to actually work properly during late night driving, when tired etc.

[Cyker]

It does seem quite picky on what it will recognise to trigger the auto-steer - I find it has to have broken or solid lines on both sides, and it has to be painted with that slightly sparkly white or yellow IR-reflective paint for optimal function. Even better, if there is a car in front it can lock on to as, if it gets confused by the lines it will lock onto the car in front and follow that instead until it can re-acquire the lines.

The London-side of the A10 doesn't work well, as it doesn't have a white line on the pavement side, and the car has trouble recognizing the raised pavement as the left-boundary of the road.

I must admit having the HUD makes using the auto-steer much easier to use, as it shows when the auto-steer is active or not via the white lines being flanked by blue lines, indicating it's recognizing road markings - They will go away sometimes without warning, then come back, and I've no idea how you would notice that from the dashboard as it's very hard to see the tiny dashboard graphic while concentrating on driving!

 

Edited August 22, 2022 by Cyker
I cab spel propur engrish

[brainii]

11 hours ago, Cyker said:

It does seem quite picky on what it will recognise to trigger the auto-steer - I find it has to have broken or solid lines on both sides, and it has to be painted with that slightly sparkly white or yellow IR-reflective paint for optimal function. Even better, if there is a car in front it can lock on to as, if it gets confused by the lines it will lock onto the car in front and follow that instead until it can re-acquire the lines.

The London-side of the A10 doesn't work well, as it doesn't have a white line on the pavement side, and the car has trouble recognizing the raised pavement as the left-boundary of the road.

I must admit having the HUD makes using the auto-steer much easier to use, as it shows when the auto-steer is active or not via the white lines being flanked by blue lines, indicating it's recognizing road markings - They will go away sometimes without warning, then come back, and I've no idea how you would notice that from the dashboard as it's very hard to see the tiny dashboard graphic while concentrating on driving!

 

the whole system sounds like a recipe for disaster, working intermittently like that.The drivers brain might get used  to it working, until it doesn't when it should. That's why I turned it off. Plus, having the steering wheel move on it's own freaks me out 🙂

Having said that, I can see the system saving lives (when it does work right), in cases where drivers doze off momentarily late at night (when they shouldn't be driving but do anyways).

[Roy124]

Brianii,  you are right in both cases.   When we first experienced the LTA it had a very much left hand bias,  alarmingly so.   It seems to do a bit of a snake before settling down.   Thereafter a light touch and it will follow gentle curves on the road. 

Thanks to Cyker for explaining the 'follow my leader'  bit as I have not been able to find it in the books and when it happens it's such a short period it's hard to check. 

It did happen in my first week I believe as the car followed a truck into a filling station  🥴

[Hybrid21]

To be fair only an idiot would use the system to steer the vehicle, it's only an additional safety system,  not to be depended on for safe driving.

 

[brainii]

1 hour ago, Hybrid21 said:

To be fair only an idiot would use the system to steer the vehicle, it's only an additional safety system,  not to be depended on for safe driving.

 

and the world is lacking idiots? 🙂

[Cyker]

6 hours ago, brainii said:

the whole system sounds like a recipe for disaster, working intermittently like that.The drivers brain might get used  to it working, until it doesn't when it should. That's why I turned it off. Plus, having the steering wheel move on it's own freaks me out 🙂

Having said that, I can see the system saving lives (when it does work right), in cases where drivers doze off momentarily late at night (when they shouldn't be driving but do anyways).

It would if this was supposed to be a real autonomous auto-pilot, but it's only meant to be an assist which is why it turns itself off if it senses you aren't holding the wheel - The driver is still meant to be in control at all times.

I liken the whole system to a learner driver, with you as the instructor, so they will mostly steer for you but you do have to be alert to correct for it if it gets confused.

It works for me, esp. on the motorway, as it keeps me alert without using up more of my brain power to actually drive, so I can shift more brain power to looking for road idiots instead of wasting it on maintaining speed and distance following long trains of cars that is so boring, monotonous and borderline hypnotic on the motorway.

As soon as 'interesting' things start happening I usually pause the system and take over fully until it's back to boring and monotonous again, then tell it to resume.

It's helped a lot with long distance driving fatigue and arm/shoulder ache!

As I got more familiar with the system I also started abusing it for urban traffic jams too as it's very good at following another car slowly   (Works best with lorries as they are less 'jerky' - It will try to keep up with moron cars (SUVs, Audis etc.) and will accelerate and brake much too sharply and suddenly when following such drivers so best results with smooth drivers!

 

[Dylanfan]

I agree with the motorway use, it just takes some of the concentration away but you still have to stay alert. I normally only use it on dual carriage ways and from previous experience know it can be dangerous on narrow roads where it tries to keep you away from the near side and can push you towards oncoming vehicles.

[DC_Ms]

Funny how people can blame a car manufacturer about the bad state of the road lines visibility 🤷‍♂️😁

[Cyker]

To be fair, it's no good if the system works on a test track but not in the real world! They need to be better, much better, if they're to be used in the real world... esp. the logic for road sign recognition, as that is totally not fit for purpose right now, and will be a total disaster if they're going to tie them in to hard limiters.

There are already some groups saying they will wear clothes with giant (5)'s printed on them to try and trick cars into thinking the speed limit is 5 mph!

 

[Roy124]

If RSA becomes mandatory it is beholden on Highways to ensure all limit signs are compliant. 

They should be visible.   If repeater signs are required they too must have strict adherence to the rules. 

We have too many twisted,  hidden,  or simply non compliant. 

[Cyker]

It won't be, they'll push the buck back to the manufacturers because they can. They aren't beholden to anyone so there is no incentive for them to spend their budget on such 'trivial' things.

I sometimes wonder if it's even deliberate, as I often see signs indicating a speed limit change hidden by overgrown foliage just before a speed camera, where signs after are cleared.

Also, given they have essentially been absolved of any responsibility for all the people killed since 'smart' motorways were rolled out, I doubt they care at all. The only times they've done stuff is in accident blackspots where so many people have died they've been forced to do something out of sheer embarrassment, despite having years of complaints and warnings prior.

Wow I'm getting cynical in my old age!  

[brainii]

Well, you can only "automate" so much regarding driving with the current state of things (roads, human drivers, older cars etc etc).

I predict that there will come a point in the future where all cars will be fully automated and also detect one another. That will be the point where road accidents are reduced by 99%.

The above assumes that this will be so by law and that the cars will be affordable and you will simply not be able to buy a cheaper, non fully automated car.

Till then, we wait and see, and disable half working measures such as steering assist 🙂

 

 

 

[Cyker]

The only way it could happen is if it was mandated by law, as there is just no way to make an automated system as good as a human - There are too many edge-cases and computers are really bad at unique edge cases.

They should just concentrate on getting it to work for the majority and give up on the full automation thing IMHO. We only really need full automation for long distance, so they just need to get it working fully on motorways and big dual-carriage ways - At the moment my Yaris is maybe 70% good at driving on the motorway so they've got a ways to go.

With Town driving it's hopeless, like 5% good   (Basically only usable in traffic jams on straight roads)

 

I've actually been using the 'dumb' cruise control more lately - It's actually been more efficient than the ACC, as it actually switches over to MG2 when it hits its target speed and is able to run on EV only, whereas ACC usually doesn't and will often just stay on the ICE until the Battery is highly charged.

I just wish I could remap the speed limiter button to activate the 'dumb' cruise control, as it's really annoying to activate - You have to hold the cruise control button, which first turns on the ACC and fires up the radar, then switches it all back off again when you've held it down long enough, and there is NO indication that normal cruise control is active, other than a TINY icon in the dash that's obscured by one of the steering wheel spokes, and the only way I can tell it's on is I can see the big message saying "Radar Cruise is Active; LTA is Active etc." disappears from the MID in my peripheral vision.

And then I forget if it's on or not and have to pigeon around the steering wheel to try and spot the tiny icon.

I have to say the more I drive it, the more glad I am I got the HUD - I find the ergonomics and visibility of the Mk4's dash much much worse than the Mk1 and Mk2 and I think it would drive me crazy if that's all I had to rely on!

[Rhymes with Paris]

There already are fully automated cars on the roads.

You can recognise them immediately from them keeping an exact 2M distance from the car in front at above 60mph.

And they have no activation for the indicators at junctions and roundabouts.

Most of them seem to be BMW's, Audi's and giant Tonka truck double cab pickups.

[Chriss27]

Do you think automated cars would avoid potholes ? 🤣

[Roy124]

3 hours ago, Chriss27 said:

Do you think automated cars would avoid potholes ? 🤣

What potholes? 😄

Actually we have had an absolutely massive repair programme since April with local roads all resurfaced.  Fix My Street reports are also being ticked off more frequently. 

[AndrueC]

I find that its continuous twitching of the wheel is annoying and it likes to sit at the right side of a lane which seems wrong. Consequently I've not used it much. I didn't use it all on my recent holiday up to Scotland. Having to fight the wheel or keep enough pressure on it to stop the moaning is worse than just doing the steering myself.

[AndrueC]

On 8/23/2022 at 10:39 AM, brainii said:

and the world is lacking idiots? 🙂

And if they build it better to cater for idiots someone will just create a better idiot 🙂

[Roy124]

13 minutes ago, AndrueC said:

I find that its continuous twitching of the wheel is annoying and it likes to sit at the right side of a lane which seems wrong. Consequently I've not used it much. I didn't use it all on my recent holiday up to Scotland. Having to fight the wheel or keep enough pressure on it to stop the moaning is worse than just doing the steering myself.

Mine initially had a lefthand down a bit.  Seems OK on a well defined lane.