[jhh]

Hello everyone. I been driving around with my MKC for over 3 months and 7000 miles now. So far, adaptive cruise control is my favor feature for this car. However, I still feel it need some improvements.

First, adaptive cruise control would cancel itself at low speed, somewhere around 15 mph. I found this design to be annoying and unreliable. When I put my car on adaptive cruise control, I depended on it to control the speed of my car. Freeway speed does drop below 15 mph from time to time, so I have to be very careful to see if it cancels itself. I just wish this auto cancellation can be turned off.

Second, adaptive cruise control does a good job keep a good distance from the car ahead. However, whenever there is a line merge, or a car cuts in front of me, the system respond very slowly. It won't recognize there is a car in front of me until the car is at least 60% in the line. So whenever there is a line merge or a car cuts in at close distance and slower speed, I was forced to hit brake myself to avoid collision.

I like my adaptive cruise control and want it to be perfect. It's not difficult to fix the two problems mentioned above. I don't know why the function is setup this way, and I wish it can be improved. Last time I check with customer service, they said there is no software update for any part of the car other than SYNC.

 

[vimish]

The Ford Lincoln is a earlier version of ACC. Had it in my Ford Edge and now the MKC and I find it extremely reliable. It is not a full start stop system and should not be driven as such. Nevertheless, I am extremely happy with the level of tech and safety it presents... basically, it allows you to take your eyes of the road for maybe 2 secs in traffic, but not much more. I find I can arrive at work much fresher after a high degree of varying .highway speeds due to traffic. The system does very well by safely pacing with the car in front; more should not be expected with this version of the technology.


The next generation ACC has stop-start capabilities, but bear in mind ALL these systems are in the early stages and ALL still require an attentive driver.


You will definitely get your perfect ACC in 10 -20 years (after extensive testing)... it will be called autonomous driver... can be seen now in the Google test cars. Going from point A to point B will become as exciting as riding an elevator.

 

[todd92]

Almost all, if not all, cruise controls will not work below 15 MPH, adaptive or not.

The radar beam that senses traffic ahead is a fairly narrow cone directly ahead of the car. This is why a car only slightly in to your lane will not make the adaptive cruise react. Too wide of a cone would have it slowing for cars in the adjacent lane.

Just tried it in a loaner MKZ while the MKC is in for its first service. I thought it worked very well. Of course, you still have to pay attention and monitor what it is doing. I would never trust it 100%.

The lane keeping assist is just as useless as it is in every car I've tried with it. Annoys you when you change lanes. At least the steering wheel doesn't vibrate like in Mercedes. This is one I would turn off and leave off.

 

[jhh]

The Ford Lincoln is a earlier version of ACC. Had it in my Ford Edge and now the MKC and I find it extremely reliable. It is not a full start stop system and should not be driven as such. Nevertheless, I am extremely happy with the level of tech and safety it presents... basically, it allows you to take your eyes of the road for maybe 2 secs in traffic, but not much more. I find I can arrive at work much fresher after a high degree of varying .highway speeds due to traffic. The system does very well by safely pacing with the car in front; more should not be expected with this version of the technology.


The next generation ACC has stop-start capabilities, but bear in mind ALL these systems are in the early stages and ALL still require an attentive driver.


You will definitely get your perfect ACC in 10 -20 years (after extensive testing)... it will be called autonomous driver... can be seen now in the Google test cars. Going from point A to point B will become as exciting as riding an elevator.

I did mention that ACC was the best function I enjoyed on this MKC. It's not full autonomous because you still need to control the steering wheel. So your eye should be on the road all time just like drive a car without ACC. What it does is to make you more relaxed during the drive by take care the gas and brake. The best I had with ACC was about over an hour on the freeway without hit the brake or gas.

The next level of autonomous driver will come next year. GM will release cars with "super cruise' and the car will drive on its own by takes control of steering wheel, gas, and brake. So we are not that far away from the next level. This is part of the reason my MKC is on a 3 year lease, so I can get the next generation of autonomous driver 3 years later.

What I said at the top was only regards the current ACC we have in this MKC. I still don't see the point to auto cancel ACC at 15 mph. The current ACC CAN stop the MKC from 60 to 0, so what is the point to cancel it after ACC put the car into stop?

 

[jhh]

The radar beam that senses traffic ahead is a fairly narrow cone directly ahead of the car. This is why a car only slightly in to your lane will not make the adaptive cruise react. Too wide of a cone would have it slowing for cars in the adjacent lane.

I have some doubts regarding this. During my drive with ACC on, I noticed in several occasions that motorcycles were in front of me. Quite often those motorcycles drive near the edge of the lane. My ACC did notice their existence and kept a safe distance from them. Please note that a motorcycle drive near the edge of the lane is no bigger than a car slightly into the lane.

For lane keeping, that I can agree with you.

 

[jhh]

Almost all, if not all, cruise controls will not work below 15 MPH, adaptive or not.

The radar beam that senses traffic ahead is a fairly narrow cone directly ahead of the car. This is why a car only slightly in to your lane will not make the adaptive cruise react. Too wide of a cone would have it slowing for cars in the adjacent lane.

Just tried it in a loaner MKZ while the MKC is in for its first service. I thought it worked very well. Of course, you still have to pay attention and monitor what it is doing. I would never trust it 100%.

The lane keeping assist is just as useless as it is in every car I've tried with it. Annoys you when you change lanes. At least the steering wheel doesn't vibrate like in Mercedes. This is one I would turn off and leave off.

Ok, this feature I was looking for is called "adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go functionality". It is on 2017 MKZ for sure, and should hopefully be on 2017 MKC.
https://media.lincoln.com/content/lincolnmedia-mobile/lna/us/en/2017-lincoln-mkz.html

My 2015 MKC has this ACC, but without the "stop-and-go" part. This "stop-and-go" is exactly the enhancement I was looking for.

 

[CalMark]

You all are fools to think that full speed range adaptive cruise control won't be available for 10 or 20 years. Volvo has had it since at least 2011, if not 2010. Subarus can come to a full stop with ACC as well. You can even get full speed range ACC on a $20,000 Honda Civic, for Christ's sakes!

Ford/Lincoln is behind the times. It's too bad. I'd love to get an MKC, but this lack of technology is a deal-breaker for me.

 

[FloridaMatt]

My Cadillac has a full-range (aka stop-and-go) cruise control, and we love it. We'll never buy another car that does not have it. As to the 10-20 year timespan, that's easily the case for the transition from today's ACC to semi autonomous vehicles. Note I'm not saying fully autonomous -- I don't see that within 25 years or more. Steps along the way will be the ability to stop for traffic lights and stop signs. Full auto? Yeah, we'll need programming that can handle things like a driverless car approaching a flooded intersection.

 

[countryguy]

How are driverless cars going to work in the winter with snow covering the signs, road markings, traffic lights, etc.?