[olliesgrandad]

This morning on a 125 mile journey whilst using active cruise control my car's collision avoidance system decided to apply the brakes in emergency mode 3 times.
On each occasion the road ahead was clear. The weather was dull and overcast.
The common denominator was that every time it happened I was approaching overhead bridges on the motorway.
I rang my dealer who suggested the car shouldn't be driven and that I should contact MINI Emergency. In the event I didn't fancy sitting on the roadside 50 miles from home so drove my car home. I then called MINI emergency who arrived with me about an hour later. The guy plugged the code reader in which showed no faults. He asked for Plant Oxford to be informed to get advice.
He said he would call in to my dealer and contact me later. He wondered if the software update last week might be involved.

 

[MiniManiac]

Yikes! I know this was a while ago @olliesgrandad but has it been sorted?

 

[olliesgrandad]

No, car was at Garage for 3 days this week. In 1500 miles since the first episode it did it once more last week under identical weather circumstances at 71mph with an open motorway with overbridge in front of me - luckily the quashqui behind avoided ramming me!!!.
I was able to give garage exact details of how car was set up. They tried to replicate fault but have failed (weather and lighting different?).
Still I had use of the new 5 door Cooper and am sooh glad I didn't order one for a number of reasons.
Watch this space.
Les

 

[MiniManiac]

I assume you can switch collision avoidance off for good, your car sounds far too dangerous to use otherwise.

 

[uke]

I assume you can switch collision avoidance off for good, your car sounds far too dangerous to use otherwise.

Agreed. There's obviously some kind of software issue. I would go as far as to say anyone with this feature should disable it (if that is even possible) until BMW figures out what is going on and fixes it. At the very least stop using it.

 

[littleblackdog]

Another scary software glitch :| I shudder to imagine the coding that goes into most new cars today; one misplaced negative number and the rover falls into a crater.... Hope they can get this sorted for you.

Still I had use of the new 5 door Cooper and am sooh glad I didn't order one for a number of reasons.
Watch this space.
Les

Watching :nerd:

 

[olliesgrandad]

Dealer customer service rang me late this afternoon to ask if I was happy with my recent visit. I explained that nothing could be found and the lady said she would get service department to ring me to discuss the problem.
I await the call with baited breath.
I think I may be contacting MINI directly in the near future.

 

[jeremybingham]

And they reckon the driverless car will be safe. Mmm

 

[archermoo]

And they reckon the driverless car will be safe. Mmm

Well, in fairness Google has been driving them all over the US for quite a while now. Granted, they have a human behind the wheel who is able to take over if there is a problem. But my understanding is that the problems are few and far between. As in considerably less common than humans making driving errors.

 

[jeremybingham]

Yes I'd read that too. Makes you wonder though. Planes still get confused .....

 

[uke]

Yes I'd read that too. Makes you wonder though. Planes still get confused .....

What do planes get confused about?

 

[jeremybingham]

Air speed,storms etc.

 

[littleblackdog]

Still hoping to hear your ruminations on the F55.

 

[uke]

Air speed,storms etc.

As a pilot, I'd say that pilots get confused far more than planes. Though we'll see what happens when airplanes are completely automated (no pilots) and 13 year old nerds are hacking into them from their mother's basement...

 

[Angib]

Though we'll see what happens when airplanes are completely automated (no pilots) and 13 year old nerds are hacking into them from their mother's basement...

Gonna be **** embarassing if it turns out the 13 year olds get a better safety record.....

I used to travel on ex-Soviet airplanes which, in countries with dubious maintenance practices, had the great advantage that they didn't have any technology to go wrong. And of course they were flown by four not-necessarily-all-sober crew (pilot, copilot, engineer and radio officer) - none of your western skimping with only three, or even two, flight deck crew.

 

[profiteroles]

Whilst I agree the F56 is a pretty advanced bit of kit, I'm not sure it compares to a £200m Dreamliner in terms of electronics!

 

[jeremybingham]

and very glad i am of that too. Have you seen the teething troubles on the dreamliner.......

 

[lawrothegreat]

and very glad i am of that too. Have you seen the teething troubles on the dreamliner.......

Above all else I do like the dreamliner's self tinting windows.

 

[olliesgrandad]

Still hoping to hear your ruminations on the F55.

The F55 has a better boot space. There does not seem to be much ore rear legroom. The rear doors are tight to get in and out of. The front doors I found awkward (and I am only 6') to get in and out of (managed to bang my head on the door frame 3 times.....).The B pillar also obstructed my view slightly due to the position I had the seat in. When my wife drove (she is 5' 1/2inch) the side sunblind was of no use to her as it fouled the seat backrest.
The car we had was on 16 inch victory alloys and the ride was rather wallowy even on the motorway, as previously mentioned I felt a little quesy as passenger.
A couple of times I thought the back end was close to breaking away on a damp road and I wasn't driving any quicker than in my own car (might be due to wheel and tyre sizes/types. A plus was that the petrol engine seemed to be pretty economical, although I don't think it appeared any quieter on the road than the diesel. I did about 250 miles in the 2 1/2 days I had it and was very glad that I had tried it. Will be interesting to see what the clubman version is like when it arrives.

 

[olliesgrandad]

Update on braking issue. I today received a phone all from MINI to say that they had spoken with the dealer and that nothing more could be done as the problem couldn't be found by the dealer. I suggested that the car would never show a fault as it would appear the technology is misinterpreting what it sees and thinking that a collision is inevitable. It also appears that the dealer had not previously informed MINI of my issues.
Still I asked for them to put something in writing.
Here is the pertinent part of the correspondence - spelling exactly as received.


' I can confirm that I have logged your concerns to your cruise control with breaking assist under the case number 1-xxxxxxx. Therefore if you contact MINI UK again we will have this as proof. Unfortunately on this occasion we have to stand by the MINI Centre xxxx xxxx and advise that they will need to notice the fault before further diagnostic.'
Isn't education wonderful