I have recently suffered a second recent emergency brake activation. The system has activated twice in the distant past and each time it was activated as I approached the horizontal ground-rails for security gates as I left a vehicle compound. In both of those cases there was no one behind me and the reason for the activation was fairly clear. But the recent activations both occurred as I drove along a main road in normal traffic. The first time, I saw nothing that could have triggered the brakes and the action was very brief. If it had lasted any longer, I think the car behind would have run into me. What happened today was far more alarming. I think it might have been caused by a large leaf blowing across the road in front of me. The alarm icon flashed, there was a loud warning tone and the brakes came on very hard. This all happened instantly. My passenger and I were quite shaken by the suddenness and violence of the event. Fortunately, there was no one close behind me.

  Normally, I am pleased to have the system active because it acts as a backup to spotting sudden manoeuvres by other drivers, usually someone on front suddenly slowing to turn left, or someone darting out of a side road to join the traffic, so I don't want to turn the system off.  But does anyone know what would be the outcome if I caused an accident by apparently hitting the brakes as hard as possible for no apparent reason. This behaviour is dangerously similar to the insurance con where the car in front causes the following car to run into it so that the occupants of the car in front can all make claims for whiplash injuries.

The system does seem to be a bit twitchy. I was driving home at the weekend and the audible alarm was triggered when approaching a T-junction - there was nothing in front of or behind me, and the brakes didn't trigger, but it certainly raised the heart rate!

 

I'm not sure what would happen if the system dropped the anchor (for seemingly no good reason) and someone went into the back of you. Are such activations logged somewhere in the car? Even if you could prove that it was the car that stopped on your behalf, I am not sure if that would change the liability at all...

1 hour ago, sparckzero said:

I'm not sure what would happen if the system dropped the anchor (for seemingly no good reason) and someone went into the back of you. Are such activations logged somewhere in the car? Even if you could prove that it was the car that stopped on your behalf, I am not sure if that would change the liability at all...

The liability would be the same as if you slammed the brakes on to avoid a child running into the road i.e. it's the driver who rear ended you who is liable. He/she should have left sufficient distance from the rear of the vehicle in front to stop, without colliding, in an emergency .

This happened to me recently when going into a steep dip in the road as I reached the bottom of the dip the breaks came on momentarily and the alarm sounded the radar must have reflected off the road surface. Not long after I got the car the vehicle infront breaker suddenly because the road ahead was flooded the alarm sounded, breaks came on and I stopped safely he could see the water I could not so it does work in the right circumstances Joe