Smart cruise control, scary at times.

[Stinger2019]

Hello everyone.
I have few questions about the use of the Stinger smart cruise control (I hope this is the right forum) and maybe get a feedback from you guys.
I generally like the system and how it works. I use it mostly on busy highways or in city traffic when I am a bit tired and don't want to accelerate and break all the time. I'm pretty satisfied with it except few cases, and maybe here is where your feedback may help, probably because we can't use this feature always and in all conditions.
For example, if the system is on and 200 meters ahead of me a car is stopped at a red light, I'm expecting a slow down before getting too close: because it has happened few times and I got scared, I never rely on the system for this scenario (that probably it's not the way it is supposed to be used). I also think, if I wanted to trust it, the cruise control could scare the driver behind me looking at the mirror and seeing my car approaching so fast.
Another scenario, it happened few times, while the system was on, especially in medium-slow city driving traffic, during the slow down (a little late, in my opinion), the forward collision warning system was triggered as well. This scenario is even more surprising than the first one, but I may be wrong again, because I think that the system should know itself if the car is too close or too fast and anticipate gently these manoeuvres.
Just a note: I have set up the system settings so the the forward collision warning comes early.
I'm sorry for the long post but I am very curious about you guys experiences and tips.
Thank you.
✌🏻

 

[Manaz]

You may need to adjust the sensitivity of the system. On the steering wheel is a button with a symbol that has a few horizontal lines - it adjusts how far ahead of you the system is looking. The more bars showing on the HUD (or dashes showing on the dash), the further ahead the system is looking.

I tend to use it at maximum range most of the time, and even in stop-start traffic (I don't think it's designed for this - I've tested it here, but don't generally use it here, mostly I use it on the freeway), I've never had the collision warning trigger.

It's never going to look 200m ahead of you. And it's no replacement for an alert driver - if you are rapidly approaching a car stopped in the distance, I'd suggest you should be disengaging it (manually or by braking) and control the approach of your car to the vehicle ahead.

 

[Stinger2019]

Thank you @Manaz for your reply.
Yes, I do pretty much the same you are doing and set the max distance.
Sometimes I get the collision warning when the vehicle ahead makes a turn and it is not completely out of the way, but technically not in a range where I would hit it.
I understand that the smart cruise control works best when speed is mostly constant, either in freeway and highway or in slow traffic.
Stop and go worked great so far for me.

 

[Manaz]

I occasionally get the collision warning coming up on bends when cars are parked on the shoulder and I'm in the next lane over, or when I am turning when there's a car parked right after the corner.

The stop and go capability is amazing, but I'm VERY cautious with it.

 

[Stinger2019]

I have to be honest: yesterday the collision warning worked as expected and I was not expecting it.
Was driving on a busy road, no cruise control, probably 50-60km/h and at one point I got distracted (don't remember by what), so I turned my head on the right and two seconds after my Stinger started beeping: turned my head in front of me and saw that the car ahead of me slowed down suddenly and I was proceeding too fast. So I hit the brakes and I safely avoided to get too close or even hit that car.
Thank you 🙏 Stinger.