Well it has been 4 months, so I feel I can now pass judgement on the not so popular Active Driving Assistant option.

It is comprised of a camera that does the following:

1) Automatic High Beams

This feature is pretty silly. It will not activate until you are going over 30MPH and it thinks any kind of light (including street lamps) are a reason to not activate. The only time I can actually get it to work is if I am out in the country driving on the back roads fast. If this was a separate camera from the driving assistant camera like it is in BMW, I wonder if it would work better?.

2) Forward Collision/Pedestrian Warning with "Brake Support"
I like this feature. You can set the sensitivity, and it is not obtrusive. When you get too close to a car, a Red Mini comes up on the HUD (also the icon of the car on the instrument cluster between the two lines lights up). If you do not react, it will flash and beep. I thought that it would actually stop the car, but I have learned by coming real close a few times that it really only pre-charges the brakes- and you feel it! The owners manual said it would stop the car, but I cannot get it to do that, and I have come really close a few times. Trust me it is not a system you can try to trick, it just does its job when you least expect it, which is what I like about it.

3) Adaptive Cruise Control
This is kind of annoying. I don't have the same problems that some had where the sun inactivates the cruise due to the camera not being able to see, but rather I find it leaves just too much of a gap between the car in front of you even when the distance is adjusted to be the closest following distance. I wind up overriding it a lot of times and just using the old fashioned system. Also, if someone cuts you off it ALWAYS freaks out, beeps the car flashes and I cannot understand why considering there is so much room most of the time!

4) Road Sign Information
This is an awesome feature. It is very accurate and reads only the speed limit signs. I was under the impression that it could read all kinds of signs, but it only reads speed limit. Nonetheless I like having this feature- especially in construction zones where the speed limit is different than what you might be used to. Sometimes it gets confused when you are on service roads next to a highway, but this is a rare loophole that I can overlook.


All in all, I like it for the FCW/RSI. I could do without the ACC and AHB. I still cannot understand why it is an undocumented option. It is not on the US website at all (the configurator or option sheet), and while it is in the ordering system (5AS)- It does not show up in your build info when you login to the owner's lounge. So weird!

 

Wow, 358 views with no comments. Must be not too many people are interested in things like 'Active Driving Assistant'.

 

Thanks for the detailed review. I'm feeling kind of sad that I didn't get these features on my F56. Can you tell me what options/packages you ordered to get the Active Driving Assistant? I searched the configurator and couldn't find any details.

Thanks,
Alan

 

Isn't that really the only time you might want it?

Does it automatically flip them off for you?

Seriously not looking forward to other people getting upset because their computer says i pulled in too close.

 

In order to get the 5AS Active Driving Assistant ($1,000), you need to order the following:

Fully Loaded Package (Prem/Sport/Wired Pkgs)
Wired Upgrade Package (Which requires Rear PDC or Parking Assistant)

Trust me there are no details. I had to input the order at the dealership because they had no idea what I was talking about. The Mini genius was even confused. It is widely publicized in Europe- Even on the website!! I don't get it!

 

No, that is not the only time I want it. Any time there is no other car around, I want the most light possible. It seems stupid that I have to turn my high beams on manually all the time in the city where it is dark.


And trust me no one is getting upset- it gives you way too much room- like 5-6 car lengths..

 

Here's what you need:

 

More like no one knows its available..

 

seems like $7500+ of things I wouldn't want. When it gets to the point of needing all that I'm willing to stop driving.

 

I also have the Driver Assist Package and while I agree with some aspects of your review I do not know if you have given other Motorer's a full impression of some of reasoning behind why it works the way that it does, and how in some ways it works really well.

1. Automatic High Beams. I have found this feature to work exceedingly well. Given that all cars that have Drivers Assist will have the LED headlights, it is pretty frequent that I will get flashed from people driving the other way. I love that the Auto Headlight feature turns the high beams off when it sees the headlights of the other cars so they can see the change in the light. It has lead to significantly fewer times of getting flashed and blinded by other's brights. I like that it does not activate in city driving where you have streetlights and are going slowly, you are not supposed to be using your brights in the city or residential areas anyway.

2. Forward Collision. I think you were spot on with this one. The only difference is that I have had the car brake for me a few times in low speed scenarios. I cannot figure out if there is a way to adjust the sensitivity.

3. Adaptive Cruise: I had a very similarly frustrating experience to what you had when I tried using the adaptive cruise for my daily commute. With so much traffic changing lanes and such on the regular highway it will quickly get frustrating, but then again, so is using regular cruise control in those situations. The area where this feature really excels is in long distance Thruway/Toll Road driving. When you don't have people constantly trying to get off at the next exit and you just want to relax and get there without constant cruise control adjustments, I believe the feature works perfectly. I understand why MINI did not allow for a closer following distance with the active cruise, it is simply a liability thing. I have also found that the closest distance for following will put you just under the two second rule for braking.

4. The Road sign information has been great, it gets the latest road sign 95% or more of the time. the only time it really gets confused is in school zones or areas where the speed changes for different times of the day.

Also If you have HUD (Heads Up Display) The adaptive cruise and the speed sign feature become that much better and easier to use as you can have all of that information on one screen. All in all I have been very pleased the drivers assist package as a whole. The only thing I really want to see them add is blind spot monitoring, I found it kind of odd that it is not an option on MINI's at all when you can get them on a Toyota Camry.

 

I enjoyed your perspective of these features.

1.You are correct that when the auto high beams are working they are very good at turning on and off when a car is near- I guess I am just victim of living mostly in the city where I do not get to take advantage of the feature. If It was a separate option, like on BMWs, I would not have been as interested in it.

2.For the FCW, Maybe since my car is a manual- that is why it does not auto brake. Although I thought I remembered reading in the owners manual that it would brake the manual car and might cause it to stall..

3.Yes, on a long road trip it is not too bad- but I often find it slowing me way down since it wants to keep such a distance, and then the people behind me get annoyed. I can press the gas and speed up, but it defeats the purpose.

4. We are in total agreement on this feature.


In the US you have to get the HuD to get the active driving assistant (what it is called in the US- it is called driver assist pack in EU). In EU you can just get the driver assist pack without the HUD, but not in the US since it requres what we call the Wired Upgrade pack (backup cam/HuD)


I agree with the BLIS situation. But honestly the hardtop is so small, that I doubt it would work well. The sensors for a BLIS system are mounted under the sides of the rear bumper so that when a car enters the blind spot it will illuminate the yellow symbol. By the time someone would get the symbol to illuminate, you would most likely be able to see them already.

Now why we can't get the LDW system that is part of the BMW active driving assistant is a whole other story. Our MINIs even have the symbol in the tachometer that the BMWs have where the car is going out of its lane. Weird..

 

I have a manual car and it has still braked for me. It can be a little startling when it does it.

 

Maybe it is because I have the sensitivity to the lowest setting. I am very curious. I mean there were two times that I could not believe it did not brake with how close I came.

 

to each his own. I happen to love the tech and would buy it all over again.

 

Where do you adjust the sensitivity?

 

In the car settings, there is a sensitivity setting- I will take a picture later.

 

You can also see in this photo, that when you press the car button next to the flasher button, it displays the feature to turn it on and off, and on the bottom there is a little gear that brings you to the sensitivity settings:

 

Thank You I will have to give that a go later

 

As promised some more pics

 

Its seems I have mine adjusted to brake the earliest. I just want to find a way to create a scenario where it will brake without the possibility of hitting the other car. You know, to test it.

 

It seems it's really not 100% ready for prime time. Makes me cringe to think how well self driving cars will do.
With that said the only driver assistant I'd love to have is a self driving car in stop and go traffic. It'd be great to just switch to auto pilot in 1 mph traffic and read a book, relax, stare at other drivers etc.

 

I think I'd pass on this option. The think that interested me the most was the cruise control. I can read signs and work the high beams. Good useful description though thanks.

 

When I put the cruise on there is also an adjustment therre as well. By using the arrows you can change from a large distance (4 bars) down to one bar. These up and down buttons sit just to the right of the cruise control. And mine auto brakes quite well adjusting to the vehicle speed in front of me

 

Does the ACC bring the vehicle to a full stop? Also if it does, does it resume acceleration on its own or is input required to get the car moving again?

Thanks for the details, hard to find any info on Mini's system. Really appreciate it!

 

Not sure about the full stop, in that I usually take over by getting on the brake as everything gets slower such as a right or left turn going on with the vehicle in front of me. If the brake or accelerator is not used, and the slowing vehicle speeds back up, the car does accelerate back on it own to the Cruise control level set. I feel like it would come to a full stop though, if pressed to do so, but I have to jump in out of habit (fear) before I would trust it all the way down. Best on Highway cruising, but also use it in free flowing highways at the 45 and/or 55 mph speeds. It maintains a perfect distance without jerks and constant braking with the vehicle in front of you. I'm sold on it.