[FAIAAA]

Voted No here and with my money - bought the Verna 1.5 turbo SX DCT. Only reason to skip the SXO was to avoid ADAS, in the process missing a few other features as well.
In my view, all Manufacturers should have a variant like SX and SX-A or ZX and ZX-A and so on ( Only ADAS being optional).

[ubermensch]

Voted for no.

I dislike it when the car thinks for me - I find the collision detection and emergency braking rather lethal. A rather spirited zomato delivery guy decided to split lanes, overtake me on to another side of the lane. The car (verna) applied brakes in a magnitude that wasn’t necessary. Plus in bumper to bumper traffic it makes more noise than intended. Everything else imo is fine, but nothing i can’t do without.

[BudgetFailure]

voted yes! Why? I find it useful on highways. Lane assist, steer assist alongwith collision warning in my Verna works almost flawlessly on highways. And in city it's an absolute nightmare as it ends up with random braking due to our road conditions, but for highways it is still a useful feature.
My highway drives have become less tiring due to above mentioned assists, but I am still as attentive during driving

[d-g-p]

High beam assist and Blind spot monitoring are the two important features of current ADAS package which would be acceptable to most if not all. Rest of the features suits mostly expressway drives and very few would be using it in practice. It doesn't matter how good or responsible driver you are in our country. Some others are not, making these features dangerous in most of our roads.

[iFrag]

In India -
I don't think I will drive with ADAS in India, the car will go mental and it will take twice as long to reach my destination.

In the USA -
Contrary to my opinions my wife actually hates it in my car, as she feels that it will put her to sleep when she drives, lol.

[inwester]

Interesting thread and very relevant for our times.

These systems are broadly divided into two categories. One is ADS (Automated Driving Systems) and the other is ADAS (Advanced driver assistance systems). Most road cars are not equipped with 'real' ADS and companies like Waymo are leading research in this space. A majority of the cars in the market these days come with Level 2 ADAS and a few with Level 3 (Mercedes Benz, Honda Legend, new Audi A8 etc.). In the US around a third of the cars (> 30%) sold last year have ADAS features.

In India I have no major experience in driving vehicles equipped with ADAS. However in the US, every single car I've owned since 2015 or so, I've made sure I only purchased the variants that came with it.

Here is my experience so far.

I find it extremely useful when you are on well marked and divided highways. In the city no car is capable of doing a full autonomous driving, yet. Although, certain systems like blind spot monitoring, lane keep/change assist, forward and rear collision warning/mitigation, park assist etc. are useful in most circumstances. It should be said that none of this is a substitute yet for drivers' paying attention to the road, surroundings and traffic conditions. Always keep your eyes on the road and be ready to takeover when it doesn't work.

I have owned and experienced various manufacturers ADAS capability (although not as much as some of you auto journalists). Here are some of the vehicles over the last 8 years.

2022 Mercedes Benz GLS 450, 2021 Tesla Model Y, 2020 Volvo XC90, 2018 Audi A5, and 2015 Mazda CX9.

The best system I have experience was in GLS, which will basically change the lane for you when you activate turn indicators, navigate even single lane marked roads and reduce speeds in curves/exits, and do a lot of heavy lifting for you. Second best is Volvo's Pilot Assist 3, which comes standard with XC90 and it's pretty good. It however, doesn't slow on ramps or exits. Volvo also have collision mitigation and it has swerved me back to the lane multiple times when you are trying to change lanes and a car unexpectedly comes speeding into it. Tesla's Auto Pilot is a mixed bag and I found it useless for the most part (I did not have FSD). I also didn't like the way you had to reactivate lane keeping assist every time its interrupted. I've read good things about Hyundai Highway Assist and Cadillac Super Cruise and these two are supposedly one of the better systems you can get.

There are so many features, but I will only elaborate on the ones that I found very handy. In no particular order.

1) Adaptive cruise control - this is a must for any car if you live in a country with well marked highways (not really useful in the city).
2) Lane centering / lane keep assist - this is also super handy and most cars nowadays can keep the lanes and steer it back to it if you veer off. This doesn't quite work when the conditions are bad, e.g. snow, rain, etc.
3) Blind spot monitoring - this works every time and everywhere and is really good to not look over your shoulders all the time (although I still do for the most part).
4) Collision warning/braking/mitigation - this is also useful especially these days when people are using phones all the time or get distracted and the car in front of you have slowed down or come to a sudden stop. The collision avoidance also can sound an alarm, show it on your heads-up display, tense up seat belts, close the sunroof / windows, and raising reclined seats if it expects a collision. The rear cross traffic alert and braking is also handy in parking lots.
5) Automatic lights and wipers - this is a small but important thing. Numerous times I've seen people drive at night forgetting to switch on their light, or on high beams and this can avoid that.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the US have published 2 reports last year using the data they started collecting for a few years now. Interestingly in cars that use ADS most of the crashes/damages were in the rear and for cars with ADAS it was in the front. Read the full reports here.

I might get a stick for saying this, but in India these don't work because our road infrastructure is poor, driving habits are even worse and people generally have a lack of respect for safety and adherence of rules. Hopefully, the new highways and new cars with safety features will nudge people to change and make a better future for Indian motorists. To progress!

[abirnale]

Wow! The general opinion here is on the NO side of the fence (And I honestly hope this is NOT a “feel” based opinion).

Originally Posted by GTO

Have found all of them to be useless in Indian conditions
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And that will never change because automated systems like these will always err on the side of safety.
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One thing that is universally dangerous is the emergency braking though.
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As of date, ADAS is purely a gizmo to make a sale, show a strong feature list and portray the product as being "futuristic".

Thanks for your views - with utmost respect, I want to disagree!

I have been driving XUV7OO AT AX7L AWD for past 15+ months, 45K+ Kms. Of this mileage, only the first 5K kms were probably driven without ADAS used to the fullest extent. Thereafter, the ADAS is “always ON”. Never had any issues, any surprises. It in fact saved me by applying brakes once in traffic when I was distracted with my phone. My mistake but system kicked in to save. The ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) is the most used ADAS feature in my car followed by the traffic signs - speed reading!

To a lot of people, ADAS is too many things and seems like a complex system - and it actually is too. We need not brush aside ADAS though just like that. In my car, ADAS means array of features - you need not use all of them all of the time. You could choose to keep certain things ON vs others could be OFF. For example - Lane Keep Assist - to “warn” mode only and not “full assist”. AEBS - Automatic Emergency Braking could be kept for warning only and not actually allow it to brake. Configure the warning levels such that it suits in general your driving style - that way you have someone watching your back.. errr, the front.

If you spend some time with the car and understand what it does, how much control it can take vs give vs warn, you can decide what would work for your style of driving. It is a damn computer without one’s emotions and feeling of “drive like you”. And that precisely is the advantage of having this system! When you want to “drive like you”, YOU have to drive, simple. When you just want to drive with a lot of relaxed highway cruise, “let computer drive”.

Again, the ADAS in india is not yet Tesla level. Even tesla has killed people so I better not bring it for debate having said that, I definitely see it’s value in Indian system too - a lot more safety for sure. And hence, my appeal to the forum and it’s reader is: please use the system for some time, get it to know better and then see it for yourself! Don’t discount it just because it wants you to change a little. And oh, anyone driven the new Safari with blind spot detection?

Hope I am making some valid points here worth a thought for everyone.

[Velmurugan]

ADAS feature is definitely useful, when equipped with. Probably I will use where we have multi-lanes, and some traffic engineering is built-into the infrastructure and some kind of road traffic discipline is followed, driven by competent drivers. I always noticed, many drivers still using the phone in conventional way to talk despite having Bluetooth connectivity and also refrain from using cruise control, still folding the side RVM & drive, not using indicators, wrong lanes, opposite side driving etc.
There is no defensive driving concept followed. More awareness is required, for us to be safe!
I use when I am driving overseas and in India, manual check/ intervention is wise choice; as few do proper driving on road and others just operate the vehicle (Not do driving!).

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by abirnale

And oh, anyone driven the new Safari with blind spot detection?

Hope I am making some valid points here worth a thought for everyone.

Well made points Avinash, I think one has to experience it to know how the system behaves and suits your driving style. Like few of them mentioned here, ADAS has changed the driving habits as well.

And yeah, I own the new Tata Safari with ADAS and blind spot detection is spot on, along with the door opening alert which is really useful in our country. Like I mentioned in my post earlier, Tata has got some useful features in the Harrier and Safari, well thought and practical enough. Also, I am in love with the rear cross traffic alert. which is very helpful in narrow lanes inside the city.

[hrk997]

I turn off any such autonomous safety feature immediately after getting into the cars. They have actively created problems.

1. The lane keeping feature in my A6 had momentarily resisted my input and nearly caused me to crash into an idiot driver who cut into my lane. During emergency maneuvers, using indicators are the last thing on a persons mind and the car resisting inputs, even if only for a fraction of a second, can prove to be disastrous.

2. The e class has an emergency braking feature. I always turn it off, but my father forgot to during a trip on the highway. The car made an emergency braking maneuver that was completely unnecessary, caused by a car braking so much further ahead. The e class violently slowed down, and a truck scraped the left end as it was moving in the next lane.

These features require everyone to drive sensibly, something that will require atleast another decade in India, if not two. So please keep these features off and stop posing a risk to everyone else.

[JacksonStorm]

From a recent conversation with my friend (about ADAS and connected car technology). My friend is working for one of the leading automobile company in the SW division.
From the manufacturer's perspective, they will track each and every part.
for eg:

• speed of the car
• location of the car
• other information, etc.

Simply manufacture will track each and every piece of information once the car is delivered to the customer. He also mentioned that when a car goes into an accident or crashes, the manufacturer will take all the details from the accident or crash and analyse all the information. In the event of any defects or errors from the OEM side, they will rectify and re-implement them.
In any case, the OEM has all the data from the customer.

[streetfighter]

When I was doing the test drive with Volvo XC40 equipped with ADAS, the conversation with the sales advisor (SA) happened like this...
SA: Sir, this car is equipped with ADAS and it will keep itself in lane, follow and keep distance from the vehicle in front and will auto brake if needed
Me: Ok
Just then a autorickshaw cuts into my lane from a side road, there was approx 10m gap between us and the auto. I start braking slowly
SA: Sir, please don't brake, the car will brake itself
Me: What if it doesn't?
SA: Sir we have full insurance coverage, nothing will happen

End of the story !! In short, I found it quite unnerving that I am not in control and was being guided with technology. I feel it is a mental roadbloack too as this tech change is a big change for us who have been driving the conventional way for many years. We Indians also know and anticipate the crazy traffic and driving patterns and we have learnt to expect the unexpected which probably the technology is yet to adapt and mature.

On the other hand, ADAS or lane keep assist or driver attention assist could be helpful when the driver is drowsy or sleeps on the wheel. This has happened to one of my close friend who met with an accident as he probably dosed off on the wheel.

Technology should be adaptive and should be open to learn and mature. Tech developers should take into account corner cases and be practical to accept feedback from real life users to improvise the product, and not be intrusive at the same time.

[jennyboy13]

My MG Astor Savvy has helped me couple of times thanks to the blind spot indicators tbh.

[sidoxic]

Can't vote yet, but it's a very loud yes from me!

We got the XUV700 AX7L P AT in Dec 2021. Along with some other features, this variant was specifically chosen so we could experience the future of computer aided driving... and the feeling of Tesla-like self driving
I truely believe Mahindra and their partners have done a damn good job designing it for Indian city and highways, as much as they could, in a Gen 1 product.
Firstly, the sensitivity tuning is ideal. Little on the side of caution, but that's intentional.
Secondly, customisation is great. All featues can be individually switched on, off or alert only.

1.5 yrs and 30k km later, heres my experience.
(A heads-up though - these are super unpopular opinions for TBHP, I hope I don't get thrashed! Humbly disagree with the senior BHPians on this thread)

- autonomous emergency braking
We've set this to always ON. Level is set to "Late" - it brakes at the very last second, which means it's likely after the window of human intervention is nearly over and we are in panic braking territory. This has saved us 10+ times. It's triggered probably a few times a month. It is not annoying nor dangerous, but only after you get the hang of it. There's a lesser discussed feature - quick override - which is using brake or accelerator pedals immediately when AEB gets triggered, so the human driver can quickly take charge from the computer.
The gem is that it let's you do your thing and backs off when it feels you are in control.
If you were going to brake anyway - AEB helped by initiating the braking a bit sooner, and the driver takes over using the brake pedal for finer modulation. Anyway AEB is triggered at the last second, so this is for situations where the driver was going to panic brake in any case. This is the real gem of ADAS and glad we paid more for this safety feature.
If it's a false positive, ie a braking not needed situation, a gentle tap on the accelerator overrides it, and you can go on with the drive as usual. The passengers might feel a slight jerk and hear the 3 beeps, but it's a small price to pay for added safety. This typically happens when bikes sway in and out of lanes when traffic is between 15-30 kmph.
Overall I feel more cars should get AEB. At a system level it will increase road safety, despite the general opinion here against AEB, thanks to the rear endings. I'm rating my experience a strong 9/10. Missing a full 10 score because of the learning curve.

Adaptive cruise control (ACC) + Lane keep assist/lane departure warning combination
Well, how much do we use cruise control on Indian roads? If you do, I'm sure the ACC is an add-on worth having. Comparatively, I'm calling non-adaptive CC as dumb CC! Fixed speed on which road is possible? Not even on expressways. So IMHO the ACC makes CC more usable on Indian highways.
I'm rating the ACC feature a 5/10. It's low not because of the ADAS, but because CC inherently is unusable here.

Lane keep on the other hand is down right pathetic. Well the tech works fine, but it's relying on lane markings which is a joke! Experience: 1/10. I've kept it activated nevertheless, because it comes on with the ACC only and doesn't bother otherwise. Best party trick though - passengers can witness a ghost steering the car
The saving grace for the 1 star rating is lane centering - it does a better job than me.

blind view camera (turn indicator based camera feed in the MID)
Doesn't hurt to keep it on, but human judgement + mirrors are better. Might be a distraction for some, like my chauffeur. Definitely doesn't replace mirrors for turning or lane changing. In any case you can either look at the screen or the mirrors at a time - so a fairly silly feature. My experience is a 1/10. Is it even "adas" ?

Traffic sign recognition
Doesn't hurt to keep it on, helps occasionally when you are in doubt of the speed limit of the road. Might have saved me a challan or two, so I'll give this experience a 6/10

[audioholic]

The biggest change when driving a car with ADAS India or anywhere in the world is - Trust. Its like letting someone else drive on behalf of you and not trigger the reflexes to brake and waiting for the system to brake. This needs some time to get used to. Until then using adaptive cruise control will feel uncomfortable. After that, you will end up engaging it at every opportunity possible.

These days, even though my cars have only regular cruise control, I end up using it almost 80% of the times on highway. Helps maintain constant pace, improves FE and increases passenger comfort as well due to the absence of frequent speed variations. The trick is to set the right speed to allow good judgement and lane change. On some good roads I have engaged set speeds above 140kmph, and on others 90-100kmph.

Overall any sort of automation that's introduced is just something people want to reject out of bias or discomfort of getting used to something new. People first complained about automatic transmissions not being fun to drive. Then about ABS reducing braking performance when people could know how to threshold brake. Then came cruise control which was opposed by many. Finally now ADAS. Just some more time and this will become normal. Its just the resistance to accept change.