[Geary126]

Anyone hear anything about VW trying to improve their driving assist software on the ID4?

I'm not expecting BlueCruise, but it would be amazing to have something that really helps on those long highway drives.

(Note: I don't have an ID4 yet, but am assuming that Drive Assist is about like what we have on our other car, a '22 Tiguan.

 

[jakesterpdx]

Given their track record with rolling out updates (which is darn near zero success in the last 2.5 years), I wouldn't recommend you hold your breath on it.

 

[Nai3t]

Curious, what exactly are you wanting improved?

In the past 10 years I've owned two other vehicles with radar-based ACC, and two generations of i3 with camera-only based ACC, and based on that the ID.4 radar + camera impresses me with how smoothly it's able to handle pacing, fast-approaching a slower car, merges, and in general lane keeping. If they can fix their mediocre navigation (main complaint is inputting / searching for destinations), with the lane suggestion and the upcoming changes to the ID. Light, I think the overall experience will marginally improve, but that it's already a big workload reducer. I certainly come out of longer drives much more rested with the system we already have.

 

[WhoaItsAFactorial]

Just finished a week away with 900 mile drives on either end. Travel Assist did about 95% of the work, I had to keep a hand on the wheel, but typically air drumming along to whatever song was playing was enough to keep the system active.

 

[jatrax]

I'm not expecting BlueCruise, but it would be amazing to have something that really helps on those long highway drives.

What exactly are looking for?
I'm actually quite impressed with VW driver's assist. If you are expecting self driving, well no, it's not that. But on freeway driving it really helped me. Not sure what else I would want it to do.

 

[Dougie01]

I am also in the camp of thinking it works pretty well as is. My method is to turn it on and then drive like I normally would; it only steps in occasionally. But I have found that I can go a lot longer (in time) than in previous cars.

Of course by "previous cars" I mostly mean my tiny little Honda Insight without cruise control and with so little power you have to downshift to get up hills even on the Interstate.

 

[Froggy]

It works well enough. Perhaps if it could make course corrections twice as frequently it would be a little better. It saves a lot of the drivers energy as it is.

 

[GenerationGav]

with the lane suggestion and the upcoming changes to the ID. Light

What are these changes and when are they coming? Sound very interesting.

 

[ErickF]

I like it just the way it is.

 

[p__x]

Anyone hear anything about VW trying to improve their driving assist software on the ID4?

I'm not expecting BlueCruise, but it would be amazing to have something that really helps on those long highway drives.

(Note: I don't have an ID4 yet, but am assuming that Drive Assist is about like what we have on our other car, a '22 Tiguan.

What do you mean by "improving" it? It does a literally perfect job at highway driving: holding lane, but still allows you to do microcorrections, and it does such a good job keeping distance smoothly that I would have to make my best effort to outperform it in smoothness. And this smoothness doesn't only impact the ride, but it also makes highway driving more efficient. I've used it for about 800mi of driving thus far.

I want a bunch of extra software features added/fixed for this car. TA is just incredibly good as is. I don't expect my car to drive on city streets that are full of erratic idiots and stop signs.

 

[Nai3t]

What are these changes and when are they coming? Sound very interesting.

Lol, "Soon™"

So they're saying that in 3.2 we're supposed to see "class leading voice recognition" and an ID. Light feature that suggests the correct lane by steady-illuminating just a segment of the light bar relative to the lane the car should be in... not the pulsing"'turn here" we have now.

I believe them on both counts, if they can get OTAs rolling. Fingers crossed you 3.1 owners will see an OTA, uh... Soon™ 😉

 

[TidingSStables]

Anyone hear anything about VW trying to improve their driving assist software on the ID4?

I'm not expecting BlueCruise, but it would be amazing to have something that really helps on those long highway drives.

(Note: I don't have an ID4 yet, but am assuming that Drive Assist is about like what we have on our other car, a '22 Tiguan.

This is Mobileye, technology Tesla had in 1st generation model S and X. They dumped it because of its limitations and to pursue FSD.

While it does good in steering and following the car in front. Its main weakness is it doesn’t alert you when the system is off. For example if the road is being repaired and lanes are not painted. This is outright dangerous as your car is wondering into a ditch instead of someone taking a video of you sleeping in a Tesla on autopilot. Another dangerous factor is it doesn’t stop quickly at cars in front about 200 feet ahead that are stopped or slowing down. Many times I have tried testing my nerves to see how far I can push it and just end up slamming the brakes out of fear of rear ending the car in front of me. My wife gets freaked out compared to my Tesla which does it with confidence she doesn’t even notice. Also when cars all of a sudden cut into your lane, the graphics doesn’t show so I’m not confident if the computer even picks it up or not. It certainly is better than the Kia Nero I rented and similar to what legacy has to offer, but it is not smart like a Tesla. I believe Ford Blue Cruises also uses Mobileye but with a layer of their own proprietary technology.

As for improvements to VW autonomy, there is suppose to be an auto acceleration and then lane change on the upcoming update. Also swarm data is suppose to help map important point data on the road.

 

[MR. Ed of course]

As for improvements to VW autonomy, there is suppose to be an auto acceleration and then lane change on the upcoming update.

Does my 2023 ID.4 already have the updated software since it has and does those functions??? YMMV.

Also, I've been cut off while in ACC and the ID.4 does react quickly and appropriately. I've also allowed the car in ACC to stop for stopped cars far ahead. I admit, it's a bit unnerving and personally, I'd prefer stopping less abruptly, but the system works.

 

[Eric Nay]

As @TidingSStables mentioned, it has always irritated me that there is no clear indicator saying TA-ON & TA-OFF.

As to improvements, there is a huge area for them to improve. I live in a hilly area of SoCal and the car hugs the lane line a LOT more than I feel comfortable with, and when going around a bend that line-hugging can lead to the TA system crossing the line. If it can't stay in the lane then it is not fully baked. Period.

Add to that the asphalt edges that it thinks are lane lines... Yeah, I haven't even mentioned the POI problems with the navigation. TA is an interesting science experiment.

 

[MR. Ed of course]

As @TidingSStables mentioned, it has always irritated me that there is no clear indicator saying TA-ON & TA-OFF.

As to improvements, there is a huge area for them to improve. I live in a hilly area of SoCal and the car hugs the lane line a LOT more than I feel comfortable with, and when going around a bend that line-hugging can lead to the TA system crossing the line. If it can't stay in the lane then it is not fully baked. Period.

Add to that the asphalt edges that it thinks are lane lines... Yeah, I haven't even mentioned the POI problems with the navigation. TA is an interesting science experiment.

The proximity to a lane line can be adjusted. Read the Owner's Manual.

 

[Dr.Sparky]

I'm pretty pleased with the assist mode, but find that it's a bit "nervous " at highway speeds making micro adjustments keeping in the lane. I don't notice this at lower speeds. Maybe I would get used to it as overall it is stress reducing.

 

[d287]

Of all the systems on the market that have lane centering it's one of the best. Even Kyle (from OOS) who seems to be critical of VW lately, was saying the other day that VW's Travel Assist is the best system out there...

There's a few key advantages of the VW system as compared with others...
1. No ping-pong; unlike the Hyundai/Kia system it drives smoothly. Bjorn referred to this as the "Asian ping pong" on a recent video and I know what he's talking about, having driven a Hyundai once... the wheel kept "twitching" back and forth.
2. No need to keep moving the wheel. Unlike Tesla, it has a capacitive wheel, so you don't need to keep moving the steering wheel to prove you're alive. Just keep a hand on it (unless you're wearing thick gloves) and it sense the presence of your hand using a capacitive sensor (like the touch screen on an iPhone) through the wheel.
3. You can pick your spot in the lane. This is the thing Kyle keeps talking about, and I've used it a few times - you can use the wheel to push he car towards one side of the lane and it will stay there. For example, if passing a convoy of trucks and you want to be to the left, or if driving by construction zone and you want to keep to the right.

Unlike Tesla, it won't try to drive through zones where the lanes aren't clearly marked - you need to drive yourself through construction zones, etc... but that's not a bad thing; it will never get confused and drive you into a barrier or a parked fire truck!

 

[pooge30]

Anyone hear anything about VW trying to improve their driving assist software on the ID4?

I'm not expecting BlueCruise, but it would be amazing to have something that really helps on those long highway drives.

(Note: I don't have an ID4 yet, but am assuming that Drive Assist is about like what we have on our other car, a '22 Tiguan.

2021 RWD. No problem with the driver assist. Love it.

 

[jcohnc]

My personal experience has been daily driving a 18MY LEAF with ProPilot and a 22MY ID.4 Pro RWD with Travel Assist/ACC. Both actually utilize MobileEye software / hardware. The LEAF actually does a soft chime / and doorbell alert system when engaging and disengaging the L2 autopilot features...very helpful and reassuring. It was a bit surprising the ID.4 did not (along with so many other companies out there) have any audible alert when the system disengages. The advantage of the ID.4 is the camera is much more sensitive and responsive when detecting lane lines compared to the LEAF. it is able to find the center of the lane on poorly marked roads in varying conditions, and even on narrow country roads. Both have very good gradual braking when vehicles ahead are slowing down.

I definitely appreciate and enjoy the ID.4 L2 autopilot as like others above, it REALLY does reduce fatigue on open roads. The ability to "teach" the ID.4 to hold one side of the lane or other is also very nice. The braking when coming to a stop is pretty natural. Just cannot depend on it to gradual braking for completely stopped traffic or obstruction.

Tesla Autopilot is far more advanced, but also has it's own issues in that the newer versions depend on camera vision entirely with no sensors of any kind. It still refuses to allow any driver input which can be really annoying if one wants to slightly adjust to avoid a vehicle or obstruction in the road getting to close in one lane for example. It's ability to see "farther" ahead to allow for more natural braking is nice though...but not 100% reliable either.

While it does good in steering and following the car in front. Its main weakness is it doesn’t alert you when the system is off. For example if the road is being repaired and lanes are not painted. This is outright dangerous as your car is wondering into a ditch instead of someone taking a video of you sleeping in a Tesla on autopilot. Another dangerous factor is it doesn’t stop quickly at cars in front about 200 feet ahead that are stopped or slowing down. Many times I have tried testing my nerves to see how far I can push it and just end up slamming the brakes out of fear of rear ending the car in front of me.

 

[AlastorX50]

We had just finished a 2k mile drive and exclusively used VWs travel assist feature. Worked well the whole trip.