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Honda Elevate: Highway driving experience with ADAS

I would say that there is a reasonable benefit of using the Adaptive Cruise Control on 6-lane expressways.

BHPian ashokabs recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I recently travelled from Delhi to Dehradun in my Honda Elevate ZX MT. I am writing about some behaviour of the vehicle which might help a potential buyer make a more informed decision. The trip was for 4 days. My wife and I were the passengers. There was a medium-sized and one small suitcase. Of course, there was my golf set. My friend insisted that I play a couple of rounds with him.

I was driving throughout the journey. I filled up the tank till the pump cut off. This is my normal routine as I don’t like fuel spilling over. The tyre pressure was the only other check I made prior to the journey. The Elevate has so far done approx. 4800 km between end Mar 24 when purchased and till 9th Nov. We don’t do much driving in Delhi.

Departure from our residence was scheduled for 7am on Nov 8th. We left pretty much on time and there was not much traffic in Delhi or on the Meerut Expressway. Our route was via Haridwar as this does not have congested cities where delays can occur. It is slightly longer but avoids going through small towns.

On the Meerut expressway which is a wide 6-lane highway, there was little traffic. I tried out the Adaptive Cruise Control adjusting the speed for 85 km/hr even though the speed limit was 100 km/hr. The typical situation here is that no one follows the rules. Trucks can be in any of the lanes and so can slower vehicles. The general method employed for speedy driving is to overtake from whichever side has room. This resulted in the cars moving in a ‘Brownian’ like motion. If you remember your Physical Chemistry Brownian Motion is the random movement of molecules in liquids or gases. This is an exact description of the highway.

This creates a problem for Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). If you are behind a car being driven at 85 km/hr and it suddenly goes into another lane you might find the car ahead of you at only 75 km/hr. So, you also swerve into what looks like a faster lane. This is repeated endlessly. Yes, there is some benefit of ACC as for some stretches it relieves the stress on your feet. However, driving at the speed limit is almost impossible unless you take charge from ACC and drive manually.

One can get stretches of 5 km where you can follow patiently behind someone. Otherwise, you are compelled to bow your head to Brownian Motion. The other problem is that if you have to overtake trucks you have to swerve to – preferably the right lane – and increase your speed manually. If you depend on ACC to increase your speed the car coming behind you in the lane will get bugged as you gain speed. Then you can latch on to another car and back to ACC.

Lane Keep Assist (LKA) works well all the time and is a boon if you are chatting or feeling a bit drowsy. However, I would insist that if you are drowsy just pull into a layby or petrol pump and sleep it off for 15 or 20 mins.

The real fun starts when you are driving on a 2 or 4-lane highway. Here the scooters, cyclists and a variety of other vehicles are permitted. Each time motorcyclist(s) or similar small two-wheelers appear in the adjacent lane nearer to your side the car often slows down dramatically to forestall a collision. This depends on the proximity of the smaller vehicle. This can be dangerous if the vehicle behind is tailgating you. Tailgating is not uncommon on Indian roads.

The Collision Mitigation System (CMS) is very sensitive to people driving close to your lane. ACC can be used for shorter stretches on the 4 lane highways but not at all on the two-lane highways.

Still, I did not switch the CMS off. However, I was very aware of taking control as soon as the orange light on the dashboard would light up. It does make driving a bit of a chore but I felt on balance if it could save me from a collision even once it is worth it.

On balance, I would say that there is a reasonable benefit of using ACC on the 6 lane Expressways and it can reduce your fatigue quite a bit. On the MT since one is usually in 5th gear most of the time there is an efficiency hit probably when the car accelerates sharply.

The Elevate's driver seat and front passenger seat are very comfortable, at least for a person of my height 1.69M. The gear lever is ergonomically placed though I would have preferred shorter throws. The clutch is reasonably light and the brakes are really good. One has to shift up quickly from first to third and then speed up and change straight to 5th gear. There is little point in going through 4th gear unless one is going to accelerate sharply. My normal practise is to upshift at around 2000 to 2200 rpm. This gives decent acceleration and decent mileage.

I have no idea if the ACC helps improve mileage in the chaotic conditions on the road. I could have completed the (outward and return) journey of around 600 km on a full tank. However, I took on 10 L enroute to avoid going too low in the tank. The car accelerates well through the gears and one can go upto 3000 rpm without much of a hit on the efficiency. My average speed during the outward journey which took almost 6 hours was 47 km/hr and on the return journey in 5.5 hours it was 49.5 km/hr.

The suspension is good and we did not feel uncomfortable on any stretch of the journey. We had the music up loud to drown out the noise of the wind, tyres and the engine.

Summarizing

I would say that if you can travel on Expressways and 4-lane National Highways the ADAS has decent utility. However, if you are going to drive on 2 lane roads then the ACC is not so useful. On 4-lane highways and Expressways, LKA is very helpful. The CMB is a safety backup that needs some alertness on the part of the driver to disengage it by touching the brake pedal and taking manual control.

I have the MT and it was not strenuous as mostly one could drive in 4/5th gear on smaller highways and in 5/6th gear on Expressways.

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