While my 2021 GMC Terrain is a far stretch from some of the stuff discussed in the article, the one 'automated' feature that I really like is the adaptive speed control. When you set your cruise control (if you turn the option ON) it will use a new scheme to not only maintain your speed, but also the interval (the amount of space) between you and the vehicle ahead of you. You have three setting to control the distance. At first I used the most conservative setting, that is what gave you the most distance. However, over time, I've gotten to trust the system more and I'm now using the middle setting because if you use the more conservative setting it keeps such a long distance between and the next car that people are always cutting in front of you which then forces you further back. Also, with the longer distance option, when space does open-up in front of you, and you're not yet traveling at your set speed, the delay in when you start to accelerate is longer than if you had set a shorter interval distance. Basically what's happening is that when you set your cruise control, you're setting your MAXIMUM speed that you're willing to drive and the system will try to give you that speed as long as the distance between you and the next vehicle is greater than what you had set for the interval distance.
Note that this works really well, no matter what the vehicle in front of you might be. It's works with trucks, cars and even motorcycles. And even if the traffic in front of you slows down suddenly, it not only cuts back on your gas, it will even apply the brakes. In fact, I've experimented a couple of time when I was not driving on a freeway, that is on normal surface streets, and it will even bring your car to a complete stop, like a stoplight, as long as the car in front of you has already stopped.
It also has lane control warning so if your turn-signals are NOT on and you wonder out of your lane it will vibrate your seat either on the right or left side, depending on which direction you moved out of your normal lane of traffic. The same thing happens when you're backing up and the car detects someone coming from the left or right side of your car or even if it's directly behind you and this includes both moving cars or pedestrians walking behind you.
It also has an automatic dimmer system for the high and low-beams for you headlights. Again, it works great. I don't think I've manually changed my high/low beams since I got the car. And even if you're not using your cruise control, if you're driving less than about 30 mph, it will automatically apply the brakes if the car in front of you suddenly stops. The one 'automatic' feature that if doesn't have that I wish it did was automatic windshield wipers. My wife's slightly older Mercedes, while it doesn't have most of the other computer assisted stuff that my car does, hers does have the automatic wipers which is really nice, because not only does it turn them on when it starts to rain, but it will control the 'speed', that it the interval, that they run at as the intensity of the rain changes.
Anyway, I suspect that if and when I'm in the market for my next car, if a few years, the number of computer assisted systems will be even more widespread, although I'm not sure that I would ever want to drive a fully automatic, self-driving vehicle.
OCU
