[EQA-S.oz]

Today has been a bit of an EQA indulgence day for me.

This afternoon, I took a recreational drive in the Adelaide Hills - moderately hilly terrain for those not conversant with this outer metropolitan / near-city rural area - with the intent of using my EQA's cruise control for the first time. My main objective was to drive on sealed (bitumen-paved), undulating country roads speed-limited up to 100kph, as I hadn't previously driven in such conditions - using the cruise control function - during the 10+ weeks' ownership of my EQA. The salesman described the function in glowing terms when I test drove the car over 3 months ago, so I thought it was about time I sampled it for myself, on my own.

I used the Comfort dynamic mode (i.e. all settings in default) and for the drive setting, D (i.e. not D-, D--, D Auto or D+).

Was I impressed? Yes and no. I was impressed with the way the car pre-empted reasonably sharp bends and (overall) with the way it managed speed. For most of the journey, I set the cruise control at the relevant speed limit. It slowed adequately - and smoothly - for reasonably sharp bends, but for more open 'sweepers', it maintained quite a clip, highlighting the EQA's reasonable handling capability (for an SUV). Sometimes, for the sharper bends, it slowed the car more than I would have preferred, washing off more speed than desirable, which it then had to recover, once past the bend: a typical cruise control flaw, in my opinion.

One aspect I really disliked was the maintenance of speed when traversing blind crests. I would normally back off a little in such circumstances and I kept willing the EQA to do the same, hoping that there wasn't a nasty surprise on the other side of the crest. I realise that to expect it to respond to such circumstances is asking a bit much, but it was one aspect of my experience that I didn't particularly enjoy.

I returned to the city on a dual lane freeway, speed limited to 110 kph, and the cruise control performed very well in that situation, although if a car pulled in front of me, within the detection zone, it would reduce speed, then if that car moved back to the lane it had been in, the cruise control would accelerate more abruptly than I would prefer (in the interests of smoothness and economy).

If anyone finds this topic interesting and would be willing to share their experiences about how to refine the use of the EQA's cruise control I, for one, would be interested to learn more.

 

[TOUcharging]

Like you, I've found the automatic slowing for bends to be a little hit and miss. Similarly for roundabouts; sometimes it slows and accelerates before and after the roundabout in good form, but sometimes not. I wonder what inputs are used to control or adjust the speed. gps, the windscreen cameras, or a combination?

One thing I have noticed is that active lane keep assist seems more sensitive and more active when cruise control is on. I'm not sure it's my imagination. I also like to test the system by providing minimal steering input and let the car do its own thing (up to a point) until the dashboard alert comes up in a few seconds for hands on steering wheel. A little bit of manual steering input makes the alert disappear and the process starts again.

 

[EQA-S.oz]

I also suspect that speed regulation depends on GPS and cameras.

I don't think you're imagining things in regard to lane keep assist. I normally find it quite unobtrusive, but during my cruise control drive yesterday, it really annoyed me - to the point where I turned it off.

 

[Pacman-BNE-NL]

Ahhh the Adelaide Hills the place I learnt to drive. I loved driving those roads back in the day around Devils Elbow (Is it still called that) it's been so long since I have been to my childhood city to visit. But the drive up to Mt Barker then across to Birdwood down through the Chain of Ponds past the Big Rocking Horse near Gumeracha and out through Tee Tree Gully was a fun drive as you wind through the hills. Honestly dont think it would be as fun a drive if you let the technology do all the work like lane assist. I uderstand the need for using the Cruise Control on an EV as you want to have economical power consumption I would assume the public charging options are limited in the Adelaide Hills. The blind crest speed would freak me out also I would disengage Cruise Control for the approach. The downside of living in The Netherlands its dead flat here not a lot of hills or winding road upside the German Autobahn is 40 min drive away for those moments you would want to stretch the legs of the engine and test speed. It would be interesting to feel how the regen when your coming back down the mountain that drive down from Eagle on the Hill down through devils elbow I suspect you could set it on D- or D Auto and get a good charge back on the battery

 

[EQA-S.oz]

Your recollection of those parts of the Adelaide Hills to which you refer are very clear, Pacman-BNE-NL.

The Devil's Elbow still exists, but in the late 1990s a new road - the South-Eastern Freeway - was constructed, with 2 lanes each way from the Tollgate to Murray Bridge. The SE Freeway between the Tollgate and the crest of the Adelaide Hills escarpment at Crafers is quite controversial. The road is much straighter than the old one, but for heavy vehicles the descent is 60 kph speed-limited, with several warning signs to engage low gear. For a few years, the police monitored truck drivers who consistently used their brakes in the descent and many fines were issued for doing so. There are 2 gravel arrester beds to capture out of control vehicles, but unfortunately there have been several incidents, some resulting in fatalities, where heavy vehicles - out of control - have collided with stationary vehicles waiting at the Tollgate traffic lights. The latest such incident occurred only about a week ago and fortunately there were no fatalities.

The section of the old road which includes the Devil's Elbow and the nice curves and dips - passing the site of the former Eagle on the Hill hotel - to Measday's Hill is still open, but sadly it's 60 kph speed-limited.

Whether descending on the SE Freeway (more common) or the old road, I use D- to recover some of the energy lost in other parts of my journey. I really enjoy using the regenerative system; I certainly didn't appreciate its practical effect when researching the possibility of an EV instead of my previous ICE vehicle.

I'm not so sure about cruise control being economical, especially in ICE-powered cars, as it tends to be reactive, rather than predictive - so it's always in catch-up mode, often with strong applications of the throttle. Theoretically, the EQA, with (somewhat) 'smart' cruise control, should be more economical, but in my limited experience its 'smartness' can sometimes be found lacking. I think it's fine for open road cruising, but for journeys where driver intervention is more rewarding, I tend to use the speed limiter and modulate the 'throttle' using the paddles for temporary retardation (i.e. - then +), with minimal use of the brakes. Having said that, I continue to experiment.

To date, I haven't travelled far enough afield to require charging at a public charging station, so I'm not sure what's available in rural South Australia. I have recently installed a 16.2kW solar system on our home, together with a wallbox charger, which provides convenient and cheap energy for the EQA's high voltage battery.

 

[Pacman-BNE-NL]

I recall reading somewhere else on the forum that navigation in Australia unlike here in Europe doesn't include the elevation changes in the road so that could explain the lack of full smart engagement with the cruise control on which may result in a more ICE style of speed catchup rather than an economical speed increase for the EV Battery

 

[EQA-S.oz]

Aha, you could be right, Pacman-BNE-NL! So far, I haven't used the satnav, so I'm not sure what it shows, but if, as you say, the Australian mapping / GPS doesn't measure elevation, our EQAs may very well not perform as well as their European counterparts whilst reliant upon that technology.