Assisted driving notes

The new Compass has all the modern active driver aids that you could wish for. All but the cheapest model get adaptive cruise control with stop and go, lane keeping assistance, blindspot monitoring, traffic sign recognition with speed assistance, driver drowsiness monitoring and a system that checks for traffic coming from the sides when reversing. The trouble is that none of it works all that well. The ACC is easily spooked by cars in another lane, the LKA is fairly typical in being annoying off the motorway and active lane following is due to be included but wasn’t on our test car. The speed limit warning, collision warning and blindspot monitoring are all too intrusive in their default settings. There are two saving graces in the form of a chunky button to turn off the LKA and a button to switch between ordinary and adaptive cruise control, but that shouldn’t be a substitute for mature systems.

AUTONOMOUS EMERGENCY BRAKING

 Does the system seem prone to false activation? ✓  Can it be deactivated? ✓  Does it have pedestrian/cyclist detection? ✓

LANE KEEPING ASSISTANCE

 Is the system tuned to keep the driver engaged at all times? ✓  Is it ad justable for sensitivity? ✓  Does it allow you to drive around a pothole/obstacle within your lane easily and without deactivation? ✓

INTELLIGENT CRUISE CONTROL

 Can the system consistently recognise and automatically adopt motorway gantry-signed variable speed limits? ✓  Does it prevent undertaking? ✗  Does it have effective audible or visual alerts, or steering intervention, to prevent changing lanes into the path of an overtaking car? ✓