SBS/SCBS Warning Light on 2017 CX5 GS?

[Jnclem]

As with my 2020, the 2017 uses the "radar sensor (front)" to operate the SBS according to that year's owners manual. It's safe to say you have that radar and the diagram in the 2017 manual shows it positioned behind the logo:

https://www.mazdausa.com/static/manuals/2017/cx5/contents/05282200.html

Regardless, knowing you have it and how it works is the main thing.

As for auto bright/dim of the headlights, I see in the sample sticker I linked in post #10 above that your model has "Fully Automatic Projector Beam Led Low/High beam...." That sounds like it. On my 2020 sticker they call it simply "High Beam Control".

To test for it, see if your light stalk has an "Auto" setting." Start the car in the dark (no garage door opener light on please), stay in park and turn the stalk to "Auto". The headlights will come on. Flip the stalk forward to the brights-on position. If the brights do not come, and you get a dash indicator, you've got that function. It only operates above a certain speed which is why you should test in park.

I would recommend using this function. I find it works quite well, very few false positive or negatives in engaging or disengaging the brights. The only downside I've encountered is when an oncoming car goes down into a dip the brights flip on and when he comes out of the dip they flip off. You kind of look like an idiot to that oncoming driver when that happens but when you get down to it, so what. It's very quick and you're not blinding him.

A final word on cameras and radar. While those bits of hardware may be present and operable with one function there is no guarantee the other functions that use them in other models are operable in another model. The cameras and radar are dumb. It's the microprocessors that interprets the camera images and radar signals to activate the mechanical controls. It's the chips and controllers for a particular function like SCBS or Lane Keeping Assist that may have been de-contented for the $500 savings in your model.

None of this safety stuff is in any way "autonomous" driving and if you set the various functions to low or medium sensitivity they are minimally intrusive for an attentive and at least moderately defensive driver. Elon Musk (and GM with their ads showing smiling people with hands off the wheel) should be taken out back to the woodshed for selling snake oil, my mixed metaphors notwithstanding.

Yes, once again I had it backwards. I had looked at the two diagrams of the camera and the radar, and was thinking that SBS was done by the camera. SCBS is linked to the camera. Anyway, my wife and I are both conservative drivers, and the SBS has been able to sleep with either of us at the wheel.

My main concern, and maybe it's unfounded, is that one of our most common hazards is to come upon deer or elk, or have a deer suddenly bolt out of the ditch, on a snow packed or icy road. That situation takes some finesse with the braking. Modern ABS is quite good, and I realize the car is continually monitoring traction, nevertheless, I don’t want the car slamming on the brakes in those situations.

I had read a couple of reviews of the early SBS on the 2017 model that thought it was good tech that needed refinement. The complaint was the force that was applied to the brakes in what the driver considered to be a not so close call. That could be disastrous on an icy road with a steep drop off on the side.

I've only had the CX5 through one winter, but the Traction Control and AWD seem to work quite well. I'd still say that our Subaru Outbacks had slightly better AWD, but I like this car much better overall. Even this summer taking it up a steep two-track road with a lot of embedded rock, it did very well crawling over a couple of spots and keeping the power to the wheels that had traction. Sometimes you have to just give it a second to think about it and move the traction from a wheel that is barely touching the ground, but then it digs in and crawls right over.

Now if it would just use that radar to give me some parking distance information…

 

[Jnclem]

None of this safety stuff is in any way "autonomous" driving and if you set the various functions to low or medium sensitivity they are minimally intrusive for an attentive and at least moderately defensive driver. Elon Musk (and GM with their ads showing smiling people with hands off the wheel) should be taken out back to the woodshed for selling snake oil, my mixed metaphors notwithstanding.

BTW, I'm not a complete Luddite. I use and enjoy a lot of modern tech. However, especially as an avid motorcycle rider and mountain road driver, I am 100% convinced that drivers are becoming more and more aggressive and distracted, and less and less skilled. Giving their cars more control seems to only be causing them to pay less attention to what’s going on around them.

There also seems to be a greater hubris, or maybe it’s a self-centered, “I'm the most important person on the road and I need to get there first”, attitude. All I know is that in order to survive on a motorcycle, you truly have to assume that you are invisible to every driver. I see more people driving way too fast for conditions in the mountains, and passing on completely blind corners, every year. Many of them don’t get away with it. They cause a head-on, multi- car accident, or in some recent cases near us, go full speed off an 800’ cliff.

I think the nanny tech is simply making drivers worse, and so far, I have no confidence in it recognizing a motorcycle, bicycle, or pedestrian. If you don’t like to drive, or don't want to drive your car, then stay home or take public transportation. At the very least, stay out of the mountains!

Ok, I feel better now.

 

[181962]

BTW, I'm not a complete Luddite. I use and enjoy a lot of modern tech. However, especially as an avid motorcycle rider and mountain road driver, I am 100% convinced that drivers are becoming more and more aggressive and distracted, and less and less skilled. Giving their cars more control seems to only be causing them to pay less attention to what’s going on around them.

There also seems to be a greater hubris, or maybe it’s a self-centered, “I'm the most important person on the road and I need to get there first”, attitude. All I know is that in order to survive on a motorcycle, you truly have to assume that you are invisible to every driver. I see more people driving way too fast for conditions in the mountains, and passing on completely blind corners, every year. Many of them don’t get away with it. They cause a head-on, multi- car accident, or in some recent cases near us, go full speed off an 800’ cliff.

I think the nanny tech is simply making drivers worse, and so far, I have no confidence in it recognizing a motorcycle, bicycle, or pedestrian. If you don’t like to drive, or don't want to drive your car, then stay home or take public transportation. At the very least, stay out of the mountains!

Ok, I feel better now.

I'm with you all the way. This purportedly "autonomous" gadgetry can make bad drivers worse. Last nigh I saw an ad for a GMC SUV touted as a "hands free driving" vehicle with gabbing smiling people. They had the nerve to cut to a long shot of the vehicle passing while pulling a trailer. First it was a Cadillac SUV. Don't get me started on Tesla's irresponsible nonsense. Elon's "beta test" vehicles worked so badly Tesla deactivated the radar and he swapped out chips for actuators to keep product rolling off the line during the supply crunch. All this stuff is going to get people killed and not just the clueless that drink the Kool-Aid.

I think we will see driverless semis in the not too distant future under specific controlled conditions--drive a 1/2 mile from a warehouse to an expressway entrance, tool along in the right lane, then exit and go a 1/2 mile to another distribution center or a Walmart. A driverless Uber in a complex urban or suburban environment? You could put a supercomputer in those things with the most sophisticated neural net AI and it will not be enough in a perpetual trial and error exercise.

 

[Jnclem]

As for auto bright/dim of the headlights, I see in the sample sticker I linked in post #10 above that your model has "Fully Automatic Projector Beam Led Low/High beam...." That sounds like it. On my 2020 sticker they call it simply "High Beam Control".

To test for it, see if your light stalk has an "Auto" setting." Start the car in the dark (no garage door opener light on please), stay in park and turn the stalk to "Auto". The headlights will come on. Flip the stalk forward to the brights-on position. If the brights do not come, and you get a dash indicator, you've got that function. It only operates above a certain speed which is why you should test in park.

Sticker or no sticker. The GS doesn’t have the auto dimming feature. Just FYI.