[RBEmerson]

BUMP

Lane Assist... I am not a fan of lane assist systems. I turn them off in rent-a-racers. But, hey, I paid for this one, so lets see what it does. What it does is confuse my wife and me.

First, when it and the pilot function shine... in my speed run, I tried the auto-pilot (yes, that's a pun) and it seemed to work. At least the little green steering wheel stayed green except when changing lanes. Nice! I had my doubts about how well it tracked the fog stripe (name for the white line on the edge of the road - honest). In the construction zone, the barriers (concrete or Armco) were only a foot or two from the fog stripe. Putting a wheel on that line would be very, very, very expensive. However, I found a couple of "pull in here" gaps - the fog stripe seemed to be detected. Overall, this thing works. Yea!

Now, on normal roads with boring speed limits... sometimes Lane Assist (no cruise control, no auto-pilot) either buzzed the wheel or shoved the wheel. In other places it didn't. The little Lane Assist icon on the instrument panel was grey when the middle stripe was ignored (hit the on-coming truck - I don't care if you do). Sometimes the stripes would turn white, which I take to mean "awake and watching". And get zero feedback from setting a tire on either the center line or fig stripe. And occasionally the icon stripes would turn yellow and I'd get feedback.

Either my Lane Assist is a bring-back item (Grrr...) or I haven't a clue as to how to use it correctly. "Input! Need input!" - Johnny-5 (robot - extra points for knowing the movie title)

I'm still looking for experiences with Lane Assist. It just isn't reliable. It won't find bright yellow lines and then it does. As I said, it'll stop working in the middle warning about a stripe. It makes no sense.

I tried Pilot Assist on a couple of secondary roads, and it worked quite well, even in most curves. Why does Pilot Assist work as it should simple Lane Assist is fundamentally useless?

 

[RBEmerson]

LA doesn't work until 40 MPH or higher. Then it works like a charm.

 

[RBEmerson]

I've made my peace with LA. I drive through 15 MPH school zones at 41, secure in the knowledge I won't wander across the yellow line and in front of an on-coming school bus. And if I'm accosted by LEO for 41 in a 25 MPH zone, I'll give the nice officer the number for Volvo US and say "let them explain why I'm doing 41 to stay safe". All of that foolishness aside, LA does work as it should. I'd still like to see it kick in at 30, 35 at worst. I'd like free beer, too.

 

[RBEmerson]

It turns out that there is a way to change the name of what's loosely called a GPS waypoint. It ain't obvious, but it can be done. Read the Navigation Manual for the details. Do the job a couple of times and it's really not that hard.

 

[RBEmerson]

Our garage is, thanks to the previous owner's odd idea about building a garage, almost a 1 1/2 car garage. With a little care, it's possible to get two cars in, but it's not fun.

At least for me, the best way to handle sticky tight spots is to get the vehicle barely rolling, and stand on the brake in case of disaster.

My XC40 simply would not roll, period. Gas and brake at the same time sorta works. Maybe.

The fix? Turn off "hill hold" - The button has an A with a circle around it, and what look like parenthesis around the circle. The button is directly behind the parking brake. Push the button to get the green LED next to the "hill hold" symbol to go out. Now the car rolls exactly as I want. "Hill hold" in manual shift vehicles is a driver's prayer answered. With an automatic, not really needed.

End of problem.

 

[RBEmerson]

Some people say "I won't use auto run until h*** freezes over." I like it. My "short legs" gas tank (what was Volvo thinking???) likes it. Driving in the land of $5.50 USD gas (the Europeans are clever - gas looks like a bargain except... that's per liter (quart). Multiply that "not so bad" price times four and a fill up becomes "do we mortgage the house for this" expensive. Auto run is very much a friend.

If you're standing at a red light, h*** bent to deliver an awesome hole shot the instant the green light barely starts glowing. Take your foot of the brake for a moment and the motor starts up, ready to show everybody the back side of you XC40.

Point being, auto run is almost all upside.with an easy trick to have the motor running when the light turns green.

 

[RBEmerson]

There you are, sitting in the parking lot, wondering how to listen to Somebody Famous on XM, without idling the engine.

Easy peasy. Stop the car - push the BBB (Big Black Button), as usual. Here's the trick: with your foot off the brake pedal, fold the BBB down for five seconds. The car stays "awake", XM goes on as before, and there's no engine idling.