Dumb question about adaptive cruise

[CraigW]

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a 2016 Ecoboost Convertible. I'm loving the adaptive cruise during my commute, I'm pretty sure it's actually lowered my blood pressure because I can just set a speed and let the car deal with the twits in front of me who can't maintain speed just because the road goes up in elevation over and overpass.

So what's my dumb question?

When the car slows down, particularly when it needs to slow down quickly, it is applying braking force (at least it feels like it). Do the brake lights come on in that situation? I'm guessing they do, but I can't see what's happening on the back of my car. If they didn't I'd probably have gotten rear-ended by now.

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[jasonstang]

I would imagine it should come on.

 

[awmustang]

We have tested it in our 2012 Ford Explorer and the brake lights do come on when the adaptive cruise hits the brakes. I can't imagine they would have changed that in the Mustang.

 

[jstump2490]

I too have thought about this for a while and am having my buddy do some recon behind me this week on a road trip to the Tail of the Dragon. I would imagine it is turning on the lights on the really hard slow downs, but if it is doing it even on the light slow downs, that is kinda annoying because I would be engine braking in a lot of the instances the car is actually braking so I am not flashing my lights all over the place causing people to panic. THIS is what causes traffic jams and I don't to be the cause of one nor do I want to appear to be the guy who rides the brake everywhere like they don't know how to drive. This drives me INSANE!

 

[WaltA]

My dumb question...

I see that Ford offers ACC as an option even with the manual trans on the Mustang. How does this work? The ACC can't downshift. So, does it attempt to use top-gear even when having to slow down to 10mph traffic?

 

[Krogen]

Go for a drive at night. You'll see the third brake light glow in your mirror.

 

[airfuel]

My dumb question...

I see that Ford offers ACC as an option even with the manual trans on the Mustang. How does this work? The ACC can't downshift. So, does it attempt to use top-gear even when having to slow down to 10mph traffic?

I'm sure it is programmed to disengage at a preset speed.

 

[TruBlue16]

My dumb question...

I see that Ford offers ACC as an option even with the manual trans on the Mustang. How does this work? The ACC can't downshift. So, does it attempt to use top-gear even when having to slow down to 10mph traffic?

I have ACC on my PP manual and it will disengage around 15mph. I believe it does that in the automatic transmission too though.

And to answer the OP's question yes the brake lights come on for sure when the ACC applies brakes.

 

[jasonstang]

I have ACC on my PP manual and it will disengage around 15mph. I believe it does that in the automatic transmission too though.

And to answer the OP's question yes the brake lights come on for sure when the ACC applies brakes.

that can be annoying as the CC would disengage when you push in the clutch.

 

[WaltA]

I have ACC on my PP manual and it will disengage around 15mph. I believe it does that in the automatic transmission too though.

So, it will attempt to drive around in, and when the opportunity arises re-accelerate back up to highway speed from, 16mph using 6th? Does that even work?

At least with the automatic, it can downshift as needed.

 

[TruBlue16]

So, it will attempt to drive around in, and when the opportunity arises re-accelerate back up to highway speed from, 16mph using 6th? Does that even work?

At least with the automatic, it can downshift as needed.

That's correct. Yes the car can accelerate from 16 mph in 6th. It's slow as molasses and probably not very efficient but it will do it. I usually pop it out of gear disabling ACC if it goes below like 30mph and then just hit resume when traffic starts flowing above 30 again. If I'm using ACC off the highway I will usually just keep it in 5th and that doesn't have much problem going down to 20-25mph.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Has anyone else noticed if you're under your set speed behind a car, and you start to move around it, ACC seems to "pre-accelerate" just based on a turn signal and a tiny amount of steering input.

It may be just the front sensors getting input from the slight shift in position, but it almost feels predictive.

 

[TruBlue16]

Has anyone else noticed if you're under your set speed behind a car, and you start to move around it, ACC seems to "pre-accelerate" just based on a turn signal and a tiny amount of steering input.

It may be just the front sensors getting input from the slight shift in position, but it almost feels predictive.

Yeap that's by design, the turn signal gives the throttle a little kick when ACC is on.

 

[Rob00GT]

If they didn't I'd probably have gotten rear-ended by now.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Under the right circumstances I'll sometimes downshift instead of using the brakes and *knock on wood* the perfect idiot has so far failed to rear-end me.

 

[goldengooner]

Yeap that's by design, the turn signal gives the throttle a little kick when ACC is on.

Love my ACC
In my opinion when you overtake a car the radar speeds you up, only thing the indicator does is make the BLIS flash if something in your blindspot
I find if I am in a lane and set to 60 and I am going at 50, as I pull out of the lane, the radar sees the object infront vanish, so the car will speed up to the set 60mph
Don't see how the indicator has any effect on it

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