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-   -   Auto Hold: Most convenient yet neglected feature! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/270387-auto-hold-most-convenient-yet-neglected-feature.html)

Since the time I started driving back in 1994, manual transmission were only the available gearbox for a middle class family. Good old ABC paddles and you never complained as the traffic rarely required you to operate all three at once.

Fast forward to 2023 with a sub 20 lakh automatic car (in my case Sonet D AT) plying in peak Bengaluru b2b traffic gives my foot more exercise than a basic manual. Reason - no auto hold function. Each time you have to crawl/creep your car with intermittent braking for undefined period, the auto hold function comes in as a Godsend function albeit your car has it. Even if you have to hold your car for under 10 seconds, you either keep applying brakes with car slotted in D or you bring it to N/P. In both the cases it beats the idea of having a true automatic transmission. What angers me more is that with same engine and gearbox, it's bigger sibling gets this important function. For me if I have to choose between sunroof or auto hold, I will without a thought choose auto hold function. Even the reviewers when reviewing any new lauches casually skip through this important function with only just mentioning it, if only the launched car has it.

I am still clueless as to why the manufacturers skip this function in their budget automatics? When cruise control can find it's way in a sub 10 lakh car, then why this function is not being mainstreamed?

Fellow BHPians what's your thought on this. I know many of you who are not residing in any metro city might not be dealing with mammoth traffic situations, but in my opinion this is very convenient feature and now it should trickle down to budget automatics also.

It is an excellent feature once you get used to the convenience. I use it extensively in the ZS EV. But whenever someone else in my family takes the car with autohold feature, they immediately turn it off since it hampers the normal crawl function ��.

Having never used the auto hold function properly, I find it so confusing when people talk about Auto Hold, Creep, Crawl, Cruise control -- all in one sentence :eek::Frustrati

It is available on some manual cars too. My 2010 Mini One has it too. It will hold the brakes for just a couple of seconds, so you don’t need to apply handbrakes

Jeroen

First, we did away with the clutch when the automatic transmission came in. Then the cruise control came in & made the accelerator pedal redundant.

Now we're complaining about having to keep the foot on the brake!?

Sincerely hoping that Tesla comes to India soon enough & saves all of us from the hassle of having to drive!

I might have fully agreed with you. But a 10 km drive in peak hour can be 40-60 minutes affair. Once you are caught in snail pace traffic with your car's front bumper just inches away from back bumper of another car, then holding the brake tightly for unknown period is not very convenient. Sometimes it's just touch and go stop, but sometimes you may be holding the brakes for half a minute to even 2 minutes at a stretch. And mind you that this is not one time affair.

Oh! Really. Never heard about this function being present on a manual car. Thanks for enhancing my knowledge. Will look up on net to explore more.

That's the thing. To really understand the true potential of this feature one must use it extensively. Once you get hang of the convenience then only you understand the usefulness .

Note from Support: Posts merged. Please use the edit / multiquote functionality instead of back to back posts within 30 mins on the same thread.

There is one group which would prefer the auto hold while the other group would prefer the creep function in traffic. Manufacturers should give auto hold/creep as a configurable setting which can be used per preference.

Personally I think the creep function makes more sense and am okay with keeping the leg on the brake. If the halt is longer then move to N/P and use the hand brake and even switch off the engine is the way to go depending on how bad the traffic is.

Can anyone please explain how auto hold function works?

It is there in my vehicle and till now have not used it. Thanks in advance.

Can't you just shift to N/P at signal? In most of the other scenarios, I think crawl works fine.

In my opinion Mercedes has the worst type of Auto hold operation. The BMW and Audi seem to be much better. The MG ZS is not too bad. The Comet doesn't have one which is okay because there is no creep when the accelerator is not pressed, something that I prefer.

It's the ability to maintain the car at stand-still without the brake pedal being depressed after the driver brings the vehicle to a complete stop by depressing the brake pedal. Generally, there would be a dedicated switch/knob provided to enable/disable the functionality. Once engaged, it will hold the car for a short interval of time or up until the accelerator pedal is depressed.

I sense the sarcasm in your post :). However, I look at it as an evolution of automobiles.
For example, many of us were still happy with our Nokia 3300 when first generation touchscreen phones were gaining popularity. Look at where we stand today.

Anything that adds convenience to our lives should be welcoming. As many software/AI enthusiasts would say, "If a machine can do it, a machine should do it."
And auto hold is not a mandatory feature to use. One can easily toggle it on/off.


My Hyundai has a button to toggle auto hold on/off. I'm sure many other manufacturers offer it too. It's completely a personal choice for the driver.

That's the way I like it - if a feature is not mandatory to use, just make it optional, i.e., ability to turn it on/off.


When the car comes to a complete stop and there is adequate brake pressure available, then car would engage auto hold (if it is enabled by driver). Then, driver can remove their leg from brake pedal and car just maintains the brake pressure. To move the car, lightly tap on accelerator (don't have to depress it like we do for moving a manual car from a standstill).

Many people complain about jerk in automatic cars when moving from the standstill. What I follow is - let auto hold maintain the brake pressure (I shift to N if wait time is more than 10 seconds), dab the accelerator to let creep function move the car from standstill for couple of seconds and then depress the accelerator as required to gain the speed. Smooth as butter. :D

Hey Jeroen
I suppose the OP was mentioning about auto hold function and not hill hold function. The one you mentioned looks like hill hold function.

This is exactly what the OP wants to avoid (not exactly in situations such as traffic stops but during short undefined periods such as stop go traffic with a stop time of a couple of seconds) but can not due to the lack of auto hold feature. Quoting a part of his post below.

This is truly not just a neglected feature, but also one that's highly misunderstood (going by the thread replies).

Auto-Hold: Long-press the brake pedal at a traffic light (in "D") and then take your foot off the brake pedal. The car will stay in place. When the light turns green, simply press the accelerator to drive away.

Creep / Crawl: Both are largely the same thing. Almost all ATs (except some AMTs) have it. Basically, with the gear position in "D", the car will move forward at a speed of 6 - 7 kmph without accelerator input. This is very useful in bumper-to-bumper traffic. When the car ahead of you moves slightly and stops again, you have to only take your foot off the brake pedal, and the creep / crawl function of the AT will move the car forward slowly (without any accelerator input).

Do note that crawl in the offroading world means something entirely different .

Cruise Control: Well-known feature needs no explanation.

That's hill-hold, buddy. Not auto-hold.

I can assure you autonomous driving is a pipedream in India, whether with Tesla or anyone else.

It always is. In 90% of the cars that I have driven, you have to manually engage auto-hold.

You could. But it defeats 20% of the purpose of an AT gearbox, that is to not row gears. If you have to shift to N / P at every traffic light from Nariman Point to Bandra, you just added 70 shifts (35 to N, and then 35 back to D).