Went Solo Today, New Cascadia With Collision Avoidance System

Hello all, as of today I upgraded to rookie solo driver! Woot Woot!! So I tested out today and was given a 2019 Freightliner Cascadia which is just beautiful. Had 20 miles when I took it. I am taking the weekend off to set the truck up and read the manual to learn how everything operates then steady rolling monday!! Yay. Something I learned on my way home though that surprised the heck out of me...it has a front collision avoidance system on it. I was bobtailing down I-40 coming up on a slowing truck, was about to pass him when he suddenly moved left and there was a truck in front of him, I kid you not, doing 30 on the highway, just cruising for no apparent reason. No on/off ramps anywhere for several miles, nothing in front of him. I suspect he may have seen falling asleep and losing speed (maybe intoxicated)? I started to brake and the truck took over, like I said, surprised the heck out of me...almost scared me cause I didnt know it had that feature on it! The truck has a faster reaction time than I do! I just hope I dont get a message from safety for a braking incident after my first hour in the truck. I wouldnt have hit the truck on my own but WOW does the system work.

Sweet!

Congratulations and Happy New Truck!

It will take some getting used-to. Will also give false reads on occasion and brake for an overpass. A pain in the rain and snow. Be careful with it in those conditions.

Your truck has a comprehensive owners manual. Take some time to read it and get a better understanding of things like adaptive-cruise and some of the other systems it’s equipped with. Complex machines they are. The better you know the beast, the better you’ll be at managing it. It’s a cool truck.

Congratulations on your upgrade. It’s a big deal...you earned it. Congratulations and safe travels.

Does this only take over when on cruise or does it also slow you down while operating the accelerator yourself? It seems this could really mess with you when people cut over too soon or if you have an instance similar to this when you want to begin accelerating as you change lanes to merge with approaching fast lane traffic.

Unfortunately that wont be the last time it decides to do that, it will sometimes pickup overpasses, signs, construction cones/barrels, mine did it for a car on the off ramp one lane over slowing down , and once there was nothing around so I have no idea what it picked up but it applied the brakes anyway.

It takes sometime to get used to and you will notice what can set it off and try to either avoid it or prepare for it.

Does this only take over when on cruise or does it also slow you down while operating the accelerator yourself

Ours did it with either cruise or the pedal as it assumes your crashing and tries to prevent/minimize it.

Congratulations! You might have noticed when the cruise is on it won't let you get to within more than 2.8 - 3 seconds of the person in front of you. It will automatically adjust your speed to maintain that distance.

That's exactly what I have. I'm not a fan lol. It is a beautiful truck however.

The problems I've had so far have been air dryer issues, having to return it to freightliner to have all the sensors recalibrated, as it was slamming on brakes when approaching overpasses, curves, birds, leaves and trash in general blowing across the road.

IMO its problematic to safely pass other vehicles as well.

Congratulations

I drove a 2017 Freightliner Cascadia with all those controls for a while. Yes, it might panic going under overpasses. But it also spoiled me for the automatic systems.

When you come up on a slower vehicle, the ACC will keep you from tailgating. But you can press the accelerator to move up closer when you get ready to pass.

On a down grade, the ACC will also automatically bring in the engine brakes to keep you from overspeeding.

Yes, the anti-collision system may try to stop you suddenly, even for no apparent reason sometimes, but that didn't happen often.

A hint: your company may have a way to see if your too close to the vehicle ahead. Swift's limit is 3 seconds back. In the dash panel, there should be a readout of following distance. Get out that driver manual and read about dash board settings. You can change the distance measurement to show time instead.

Good luck! Enjoy!

Thanks all, so I have only driven it for two hours so far, to get "home". I did notice the Adaptive cruise control, I had it set at 65 and noticed I was slowing, I looked down and it was going 58. As RealDiehl stated it keeps its own following distance. As mentioned by G-Town, several hours today will be spent reading any and every manual or piece of paper that came with it. I dont want to be surprised like that again! G-Town, as I just got up and havent gone to the truck to get anything out of it yet, how do I prepare for that stuff in the rain and snow? Can I override the system in bad conditions? Seems like a computer doing a hard brake in bad wheather is potentially dangerous. Susan D. passing slower traffic was the very first time I noticed the adaptive cruise and I also didnt care for it. So with regard to all of the issues with the brakes being applied for cones, overpasses, cars in the other lanes etc. is there anything I can do to stop it from braking? Seems like its begging to get me hit in the rear when I didnt even apply the brakes! Again I will be reading the manual today to see if theres anything I can do but would be happy if you shared your knowledge/experience with this system. One more question, when I come up on another vehicle either a little close or close to pass them the instrument panel goes yellow with a too close warning. Is this something thats just for my benifit or is my company safety department going to be calling me if It does this too many times?