Sudden violent slamming on brakes

[gregory]

Recently, the car has been suddenly slamming on the brakes harder than I have ever slammed on brakes in my life. It happens sometimes approaching a car that is stopped at a sign in front of me - I have my foot already on the brakes and I am already braking and it suddenly sucks the brake pedal away from me and hysterically slams on the brakes. It’s frankly terrifying. Have you guys had this?

 

[socktucker]

Recently, the car has been suddenly slamming on the brakes harder than I have ever slammed on brakes in my life. It happens sometimes approaching a car that is stopped at a sign in front of me - I have my foot already on the brakes and I am already braking and it suddenly sucks the brake pedal away from me and hysterically slams on the brakes. It’s frankly terrifying. Have you guys had this?

I had a Mercedes that would do that on some railroad tracks, it’s an automatic braking thing.

 

[prgarg]

Yes, many times and it's scary. I noticed that many times it was because it confused sun reflection with an approaching object.

 

[Kairide]

Haven’t had it actually apply the brakes going forwards, but it does seem to hate speed bumps. I have it beep at me and warn me when going over speed bumps in my son’s school parking lot.
I have had it brake numerous times while backing up. The Gravity’s rear collision avoidance system seems to be really overzealous, even in the “late” setting. It loves slamming on the brakes in reverse.
But after living with Tesla’s phantom highway braking this is nothing

 

[socktucker]

Haven’t had it actually apply the brakes going forwards, but it does seem to hate speed bumps. I have it beep at me and warn me when going over speed bumps in my son’s school parking lot.
I have had it brake numerous times while backing up. The Gravity’s rear collision avoidance system seems to be really overzealous, even in the “late” setting. It loves slamming on the brakes in reverse.

Air is too, I turned mine off or it wouldn’t let me back out of my garage

 

[FeelLicks]

Both Cadillac and Gravity have same issue backing out of garage and driveway so I always have rear braking turned off.

So far haven't had automatic braking happen forward

 

[gregory]

Yeah I was also being stupid: of course you can just turn off the feature! But I wouldn’t mind the warning without any actual intervention - not sure if that’s possible?

 

[FeelLicks]

It still warns you - beeps and flashes stop on screen

 

[pezpunk]

As others and yourself have mentioned, you can turn that feature off (I have). It’s quite overzealous in its default settings.

I mean it’s designed to prevent an eminent collision, so the fact that it slams the brakes jarring is the desired functionality.

 

[NoseyReporter]

Many times is annoying but I guess it just means I wait later to brake. There is a setting to make it wait longer. I think my default it is conservative so is happen relatively early

 

[zoomzoom]

Recently, the car has been suddenly slamming on the brakes harder than I have ever slammed on brakes in my life. It happens sometimes approaching a car that is stopped at a sign in front of me - I have my foot already on the brakes and I am already braking and it suddenly sucks the brake pedal away from me and hysterically slams on the brakes. It’s frankly terrifying. Have you guys had this?

This has happened to me recently a few times as well - the emergency front end collision kicking in. I have it set to 'late' but it still is far too sensitive. I'd hate to turn it off all together just in case but it has me considering it...

Car turning onto left sideroad in front of me, already initiating the turn, i approach with some speed but slowing down slightly by letting off the gas in high regen. It slammed on the brakes like 20' out when I would not have even touched them or hardly feathered them as a driver since I could see clearly the car would be fully out of my lane by then. As the driver. I immediately looked in my rear view to see if I was going to get nailed from behind but fortunately there was no car behind me. Annoying and straight up dangerous.


Also, If I back up into my driveway with any speed at all it also slams on the brakes when i pass the curb threshold.

 

[FeelLicks]

This has happened to me recently a few times as well - the emergency front end collision kicking in. I have it set to 'late' but it still is far too sensitive. I'd hate to turn it off all together just in case but it has me considering it...

Car turning onto left sideroad in front of me, already initiating the turn, i approach with some speed but slowing down slightly by letting off the gas in high regen. It slammed on the brakes like 20' out when I would not have even touched them or hardly feathered them as a driver since I could see clearly the car would be fully out of my lane by then. As the driver. I immediately looked in my rear view to see if I was going to get nailed from behind but fortunately there was no car behind me. Annoying and straight up dangerous.


Also, If I back up into my driveway with any speed at all it also slams on the brakes when i pass the curb threshold.

keep in mind turning off the front braking is only temporary and you would have to do it each time you drive

 

[eelpout]

Recently, the car has been suddenly slamming on the brakes harder than I have ever slammed on brakes in my life. It happens sometimes approaching a car that is stopped at a sign in front of me - I have my foot already on the brakes and I am already braking and it suddenly sucks the brake pedal away from me and hysterically slams on the brakes. It’s frankly terrifying. Have you guys had this?

maybe I missed this, was DreamDrive enabled when this happened?

 

[knewman]

These modern safety features can be so dangerous.

 

[Saksak]

The few times my Gravity did this to me, I realized I could have driven a bit more defensively for a greater margin of error. Sure, I didn’t think intervention was needed, but I also understood why the system decided to intervene and I appreciated this extra safety feature. I leave all safety systems on, learn the limits, and adjust my driving style. Granted, learning the limits is sometimes jarring.

Frankly, I choose to volunteer to drive most of the time in group situations, as the driving style of others sometimes terrifies me, and I wonder how they have avoided getting into an accident. They don’t anticipate, react late to situations, and/or have unsafe following distances. Now I can take 6 other adults others comfortably (except for the dreaded middle seat) in style with the Gravity!

Don’t get me wrong - I’m by no means a conservative driver. When alone, I need to be leading the pack, maneuver for poll position at every stop, and hate road boulders. I’m a bit more conservative with passengers so that I don’t scare them with my driving style. Aggressive driving and defensive driving can be in the same sentence.

 

[simonjam]

Mine has done this at least a dozen times pulling up to traffic at red lights. I’ve learned to just stop comically far away from the car in front.

This is always at low speed. It’s jarring, but not that different than what I was going to do anyway, so it doesn’t seem a safety risk.

What happens when it decides to stop incorrectly at high speed? Can you override it? If not, that seems scary.

I’ve kept it on in the hopes it’ll save my life someday. But I’ve also never needed it in the prior 30 years, so maybe I can go a few more.

 

[borski]

What happens when it decides to stop incorrectly at high speed? Can you override it? If not, that seems scary.

You can always override it by stepping on the accelerator.

Also, I have never had it phantom brake at high speed.

It is not just distance, but speed of approach; that is, at sufficiently low speed where the car will regen to a stop without hitting the vehicle in front of you, it will not trigger. It will only trigger if it requires you to step on the brake (or if you don’t it will hit the car without emergency braking).

 

[illopp00]

I just had it on the highway think it hit something, or jab at the brakes enough to disable cruise control and automatically turn on the emergency blinkers, somehow it triggered the shock warning system. I could turn off the emergency blinkers, but had to drive without cruise control to my destination put it in park and reset to get DD back....

 

[borski]

I just had it on the highway think it hit something, or jab at the brakes enough to disable cruise control and automatically turn on the emergency blinkers, somehow it triggered the shock warning system. I could turn off the emergency blinkers, but had to drive without cruise control to my destination put it in park and reset to get DD back....

That’s… super odd, and not the same system. Did you hit a bad pothole or something? That means the car thought you were already *in* a collision.

 

[Saksak]

Mine has done this at least a dozen times pulling up to traffic at red lights. I’ve learned to just stop comically far away from the car in front.

How far is that? The rule of thumb is to be able to see the rear tires of the car in front of you touching the pavement. This gives you room to:

1. “Escape” if the car in front of you gets stuck.
2. Prevent being rear-ended by allowing you to move forward if the car in back of you is squealing brakes and needs a foot or two extra stopping distance.
3. Provides a buffer to prevent you from being pushed into the car in front of you if you do get rear-ended and causing a chain reaction.

I see the majority of cars stop bumper to bumper for no reason.

Another defensive driving tip: if traffic unexpectedly slows down on the highway and you are the end car, turn on your hazards so the next car going normal highway speeds doesn’t come barreling into you. Do this especially if you end up doing a hard brake - you can bet the next car will likewise be caught unawares and may not react as fast as you.

It’s small consolation that these types of accidents are not your fault. Taking small steps that cost you nothing can prevent a lot of pain. All of the above have saved me countless times.