2017~2025 CX-5 Auto Braking And Beeps

[Pitter]

The other day in city traffic I suddenly came upon a car in front of me that was stopped. I hit the brakes of course but at that moment heard three beeps. Do those beeps sound when auto braking is activated? Perhaps the auto braking beat me to the punch.

 

[sm1ke]

Yes, part of the emergency braking system is the warning/alert system. I believe you'll hear the beeps, the steering wheel may vibrate, and you'll see a BRAKE! warning pop up on the HUD. I might be wrong about this, but sometimes you may not get all three that appear at the same time, depending on the sensitivity settings and how quickly you react.

Anyway. following those warnings, if the system determines that it needs to intervene, it will apply the brakes for you. The sensitivity for this can be changed in the settings within the Infotainment menus.

 

[181962]

I-ACTIVESENSE first beeps as a warning, then applies the brakes if deemed necessary. Further, according to the 2020 manual, "when the driver depresses the brake pedal, the brakes are applied firmly and quickly to assist."

I've had it apply brake pressure once in 15,000+ miles when I was already braking at low speed approaching a stopped vehicle when it was not necessary. I guess I crossed some conservative line. You'd know if it braked for you--it was a WTF moment for me shortly after buying the vehicle.

Now, it beeps at me from time to time, maybe once per 1,000+ miles, when moving toward the left in a turn lane (with turn signal on), sometimes with no car in front of me, while braking to a stop for a red light while at the same time a vehicle is making a right turn from my left toward me. It beeps in these circumstances but has yet to apply the brakes. It's happened a couple of times at each of a couple of particular intersections.

I can only guess it is interpreting the angles of the vehicles pointing toward each other as a possible collision circumstance. I'm still not entirely sure if this is the brake support in all circumstances or sometimes a blind spot warning. In some cases the oncoming vehicle may have entered the blind spot detection zone.

I view these incidents as run of the mill false negatives as these driver assist systems are prone to regardless of the make. It's happened enough for me that it isn't startling anymore.

 

[181962]

Yes, part of the emergency braking system is the warning/alert system. I believe you'll hear the beeps, the steering wheel may vibrate, and you'll see a BRAKE! warning pop up on the HUD. I might be wrong about this, but sometimes you may not get all three that appear at the same time, depending on the sensitivity settings and how quickly you react.

Anyway. following those warnings, if the system determines that it needs to intervene, it will apply the brakes for you. The sensitivity for this can be changed in the settings within the Infotainment menus.

I don't see anything in the 2020 manual about steering wheel vibration and have not sensed it.

Also the differentiation between Smart Brake Support, Smart City Brake Support, and Advanced Smart City Brake Support is kind of a headscratcher.

SCBS and ASCBS are described as driven by the Front Facing Camera only and have pedestrian detection. On the other hand, SBS is described as using both the front camera and front radar while making no mention of pedestrians or the issuance of warning messages. The speeds at which these systems operate overlap and the vehicle responses when identifying a possible collision are described similarly if not identically. In some circumstances it is impossible to tell which or how many of three systems are operating.

It seems to me this confusion comes from an engineering perspective--different modules doing different things that are transparent to the user. A good user manual would encompass all three under one name and describe what these modules do all together under the various circumstances without differentiating which is doing what, which as it stands is a fail anyway--just call the whole shebang SBS and go from there. That's assuming anybody reads the owner's manual.

So, when I said Smart City Brake Support operates in a certain way in the previous post it's not entirely clear which modules are operating but for low speed events it's as good a description as any. I suppose I should have said I-ACTIVESENSE instead. I think I'll edit that.