XC 60 Features

[davidash]

Just a word of warning from my earlier post. If you are going to try the CitySafety feature, you must have your foot on the aceelerator. If you allow your car to drift into the obstruction or have your foot on the brake, it won't work.
I had a most interesting episode with my XC60 yesterday. I turned onto a highway only to find that the car had very little power and a warning came up to say that it urgently needed a system service. I limped to the agents and after they had connected the car to Sweden via the Web, they found that my catalytic convertor was clogged. We have particularly poor diesel in SA (but thankfully getting better) and after running the check, it cleaned itself and seems to be fine. In the ordinary course, you might suddenly see a cloud of white smoke trailing you. Apparently, this is when the system self-activates to clean out the accumulation of deposit in the exhaust system from diesel fuel.

[Aidan Bell]

[QUOTE=davidash;635823]Just a word of warning from my earlier post. If you are going to try the CitySafety feature, you must have your foot on the aceelerator. If you allow your car to drift into the obstruction or have your foot on the brake, it won't work.

WHAT??!! I have an XC60 on order and was looking forward to CitySafety being a major plus. So you're saying that if you're in very slow-moving traffic, allowing the car to drift along with out touching the accelerator, just lightly breaking when necessary; under those conditions city safety won't work? That's appalling!

[davidash]

Absolutely correct! The idea is that it only works if you are distracted and happen to be accellerating below 40kph. If you are braking or idling forward, the "theory" is that you know what you are doing and won't need CitySafety.
That said, it is a wonderful vehicle.

[Vecais]

No doubt most here have read the Jeremy Clarkson review of the XC60: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/dri...cle5330874.ece

He found the City Safety feature not reliable.

The concept as described in this thread would seem to be totally useless to most drivers. It may be of some use to an inattentive idiot who would not brake when approaching a solid obstacle. Breathtaking innovation by Volvo?

[wimorrison]

Originally Posted by Vecais

No doubt most here have read the Jeremy Clarkson review of the XC60:

He found the City Safety feature not reliable.

As ever Clarkson managed to try to get a car to do something is was not designed to do and when it failed he complained.

His 'test' failed when he walked in front of the car and it did not stop - that is because it was not designed to stop for people, but for vehicles or larger objects. It may be that new variations will have the sensitivity required to 'protect' idiots, but in the case of Clarkson it may be better if the system is switched of when you drive to wards him


You have to remember that Clarkson is a journalist with the technical skills or competency - something he openly admits too.

[Vecais]

You may have missed this bit:

"The system is called City Safety, it’s fitted as standard to all XC60s and it works like this. A radar “sees” the road ahead and if it senses that you are about to have a rear-end shunt it will apply the brakes for you.

Of course I had to try this out and that means I must apologise profusely to the driver of the BMW 3-series whose car I thwacked while he was waiting at a roundabout on the Oxford ring road."

Edit: I should add that Jeremy probably was not aware that to avoid the rear-end crash using City Safety you have to take your foot off the brake and apply the accelerator just before impact. Quite a few of us would have trouble with that.

[Cornish]

Maybe I've got the wrong end of the stick, but my understanding of City safety was the opposite - that it only works when there is no driver input...

So if you are ambling along and not concentrating whilst fiddling with the CD changer for example and about to hit teh car infront at low speed - then it engages.

If you are steering, braking or altering the speed of the vehicle then it assumes you are in control and paying attention. Maybe I'm wrong but thats what I thought.

I remember watching thsi video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b8ABCjZmRw which seems to support my theory. Definitely no driver input... in fact - no driver!

[Aidan Bell]

Jeremy Clarkson is a humorous TV personality, not a seriouis reviewer. However, there are dozens of genuine reviews out there all paraising CitySafety. But I'm going with this video. Yes, it too comes from a humorous TV programme, but unless they've actually rigged the test, it does prove that no pedals need to be being pressed for CitySafety to kick in.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b8ABCjZmRw

[Vecais]

This discussion highlights what a useless feature City Safety is for most drivers. The only people who benefit are the careless.

[Aidan Bell]

I understand where you're coming from, but that is a little harsh. A friend of mine is a mature, responsible driver with a clean record, however only last week in slow-moving traffic he had a momentary lapse of concentration and bumped the car in front of him, cracking some plastic on the front of his own car. I had to smile in my sympathy with him, explaining that once I get my XC60 that is something that it will be impossible for me to do! But the point is, something like that can happen to even the best driver and therefore I see CitySafety as an excellent feature.