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Comment by sublinear | Hacker News Reader

I have a 2017 Outback and there exists a cluster of switches on the dash for easily toggling all the EyeSight features.

They actually recommend to disable the "pre-collision braking" feature before driving through an automated carwash. Apart from that situation, I also disable it when I'm facing highly congested traffic for the reasons indicated in the other comments. It's very easy to do. I don't understand why this is a big deal.

I think the system works very well and has saved me several times over the years while approaching intersections and on the highway.

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It's more startling but dangerous, but also, disabled the Reverse Automatic Braking when pulling a trailer. If you try to back into a parking spot with it engaged, the car will freak TF out and make an awful noise as it jams on the brakes. Or so I've heard.

Again I have one on my 2017 Forester, and never turned its safety features including AEB off. All it does when reversing is beep because the sonar sensor is confused. It never behaved unpredictably.

(and yes the AEB did save me from backing into things at least twice in these years, so I know it works)

I was just making a joke about how you basically can't back up a trailer with AEB turned on since it sees the trailer behind you and senses an imminent collision. I've got a 2020 Outback and the only other safety feature I turn off is the driver detection or whatever it's called so it doesn't constantly beep at me when I'm looking at cornfields or whatever on road trips.

Super satisfied with the system otherwise though. Lane keeping and adaptive cruise control are good enough to ease the burden on longer trips but just bad enough that I never "fully" trust them and completely divert my attention.

I drive a 2017 Forester and in 5 years of driving it I never had to turn off any of its safety features including pre-collision braking.

I think, quite literally, one's mileage may vary. Not all stop-and-go traffic is the same.

It's not always safe to keep the huge distances apart at the speeds the system wants (other drivers will cut in). The system can also have a difficult time with motorcycles lane-splitting.

Anyway the way I see this is the switches are there for the driver to use at their discretion. I would hate for the industry to move towards full automation. I love the system as it works right now. Just my two cents.

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