Mazda Test Drive Ends in Crash Due to Automatic Brake Failure

TTAC Staff
by TTAC Staff

When the year 2025 comes around, and your sons and daughters purchase their autonomous commuter pod sans steering wheel, you may want to check the automatic brakes just to be sure they’re able to stop your children from smashing through the commuter pod in front of them, much like what happened to one customer during a test drive at a Mazda dealership in Japan over the weekend.

A customer and a dealership employee were putting a CX-5 equipped with the Smart City Brake Support through its paces when said braking system crashed through a urethane testing barrier, resulting in a severe neck injury for the hapless test driver, and a fractured arm for the employee. Normally, the braking system would have sounded an alert while applying the brakes and curbing engine power were the driver to approach a detected obstacle, all through automation.

The Smart City Brake Support was introduced in the automaker’s home market as an option for the crossover in 2012, only to become standard last month on all CX-5s in Japan for the 2014 model year.

TTAC Staff
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  • Walleyeman57 Walleyeman57 on Nov 12, 2013

    Our 2004 Sienna XLE Limited has a feature that uses laser beams to control the speed of the van and adapt to other vehicles ahead. I purchased this van used with 60K on the clock. I was excited about this feature that also promised to apply the brakes when needed-no necessarily to stop the car but ..well...get a start on the braking process I guess. My drive home with the van I used this feature and while going up an incline that curved to the left I was about to pass a slow moving semi. The bells chimed, and it activated the brake-even though there was no one in front of me in my lane. Fortunately there was no one behind me or that could have been the end of the car. Since then I limit my use of this feature to two lane roads with limited passing opportunities. I also find that since it is laser based, cars with smoked taillights, older cars, cars with snow or dirt in the tail lights, lifted pick-ups and a host of others it will not "see". I think Toyota ditched this technology a couple of years later and now uses a radar based system. My point is that no matter how good any of these systems are at "seeing" what is ahead, there will always be factors outside of the capability of the system and thus, require the attention of the driver. We now have over 350K on this van and the laser cruise works no better or worse with that much use. Thankfully, the engineers had the foresight to include standard cruise control also-although it is not the default setting which, after each start-up goes straight to the laser cruise.

    • JimC2 JimC2 on Nov 12, 2013

      "...engineers had the foresight to include standard cruise control also-although it is not the default setting..." Ah, and therein lies another pitfall. You, sir, either invested the time and effort to read your owner's manual (or the time and effort to learn how the your vehicle's features function). That simple-yet-crucial act elevates you above a significant portion of the motoring public. You're probably the same type of character who, upon getting into a rental car, adjusts your mirrors...

  • Brandloyalty Brandloyalty on Nov 12, 2013

    Car manufacturers are proposing to combine existing lane-departure systems with existing electric steering. The goal is for the cars to maintain their lane unless the driver has signaled a lane change. Knowing that Toyota Prius, Highlander and Camry hybrids have been recalled because of failures of the electric steering, and that Ford Escape Hybrids have this problem without a recall, it gives me the creeps to hear about the adoption of systems like this.

  • Turboprius Turboprius on Nov 12, 2013

    Automatic brakes with no manual option is a stupid idea. The Japanese have come up with some brilliant ideas, but also some very bad ones. Automatic brakes are one of them.

  • Maymar Maymar on Nov 12, 2013

    I was at a Mazda3 ride and drive on the weekend, and part of the course was set up to show off this system. They were still pretty adamant that you had to keep below a certain speed, and you couldn't touch the pedals or the steering wheel (because the car assumes you're in control of that's the case). Naturally, as I'm walking out, one car plows right into the soft obstacle they had set up (I'm assuming the driver panicked and did something). I don't know if that's the case here, but at the same time, in the real world, a failure of this system just means it'll fail to stop an accident that was going to happen anyhow. And, considering it's only currently supposed to be effective in low speed incidents (re. not likely fatal), it could help weed out a couple incompetent drivers who expect their car to save their bacon. I'm not saying I trust computers, but our fellow motorists aren't setting the highest bar to beat.

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