Lane Assist Trying To Kill Me!

[norfoftheborda]

I have had my MG4 EV for approximately 4 weeks (2,000 miles and counting!) and my lane assist is most definitely trying to kill me!

Leaving it in emergency lane assist is asking for an accident, the car reacts so violently that you can quite easily end up in a different lane, or off the road entirely.

The lane keep assist is not much better, the sensitivity of the movement the car makes is not as violent, but it has been known to start to wander into a different lane.

In my meagre opinion MG need to recall and programme (or send an update) to tone down the sharpness of the emergency lane assist!!

 

[siteguru]

There's already been an update that was supposed to do just that - has yours not been applied? I'm not sure which bulletin applied for this - one of the following: AS-22-TB053, TB059, TB061.

 

[Rolfe]

To be fair, I find the LKA disconcerting and unhelpful. I don't think I'd go so far as to say it's trying to kill me. So I think our compatriot of the OP has a definite issue with this.

 

[timeades]

Lane Assists get moaned about across the board be it ICE or EV a simple search will show the issue goes across all brands, here are just a few examples
Honda Civic
ID 3
Kia
General Redit moan
Hyundai

 

[Lucky5]

I can’t be 100% sure as they didn’t tell me any of the updates applied to my car that have solved the lack of power at low charge and scheduled charging probs but I swear my LKA in emergency keeping mode is now even less intrusive than it was before.

I picked up my car late March and it was ok to the point I have not turned it off at all. It did a slight tug occasionally but not drastic like some are experiencing. Now I have hardly heard a peep from it with just an occasional gentle nudge so perhaps updates have been released.

 

[FiferMG4]

I picked up my car late March and it was ok to the point I have not turned it off at all. It did a slight tug occasionally but not drastic like some are experiencing. Now I have hardly heard a peep from it with just an occasional gentle nudge so perhaps updates have been released.

That’s been my experience as well.

It might be worth asking your dealer to make sure you have had the update applied as Siteguru has mentioned.

 

[Surfdog]

I agree, LKA is extremely dangerous. Its already been established on other threads that for some reason the Trophy has the most severe LKA. To an extent it depends on the type of roads you use. I'm mostly A and B class rural roads. Without exaggeration I will declare the car is pretty much undriveable with it on and down right dangerous. It has steered me towards oncoming traffic and prevented me from turning into corners. It also appears there may have been some sort of demonstrator mode software used for prospectus purchasers and journalists taking it for test drives.

 

[Rolfe]

I had my test drive in a Trophy, but it wasn't a demonstrator model, it was "the boss's own car". The LKA felt about the same as it does on my own SE, although I can't say I had a lot of experience. It only went off during the test drive when I turned on to a motorway slip road without indicating (because there was nothing behind me), and after a feeling of "I don't want to do that!" it relented and let me take the slip road.

I had had quite enough of it on my own car by half way through the joyride I did on the day after taking delivery. I parked up in a layby in Moffat and studied how to make damn sure it was off. I might leave it on when I head south on the M74/M6 next week, just to give it another chance.

 

[Surfdog]

I had two half hour test drives in an SE where it was put through its paces on rural roads. LKA never activated once. My Trophy activates it about every minute, that's if I forget to turn it off which is a right pain. It's a waste of time complaining to the dealer. I've been intending on writing to MG in UK and sending a copy of the letter to all the journalists who gave it car if the year awards. Pity, as I have little else to moan about the car (apart from the equally dangerous FCA which is turned off each drive at same time as LKA). Hopefully I'll compose a letter in next few days.

 

[Rolfe]

I leave the FCA on because it hasn't done anything scary to me. Three times it has beeped a warning when it thought I should have taken action sooner (once when coming up behind a stationary car waiting to turn right, and twice when driving on the same side as a parked vehicle and not pulling out as fast as the MG4 wanted me to). I don't think it applied the brakes any of these times, and certainly not the third time. If it starts doing unexpected emergency stops, it's going off too.

I always turn off the speed limit camera, because it's wrong as often as it's right. It's annoying anyway, but when it spends miles and miles telling you you should be doing less than 40, when it's a 60 limit, because it saw a sign intended for HGVs, you've had enough. At least I had.

 

[RichardC]

I had two half hour test drives in an SE where it was put through its paces on rural roads. LKA never activated once. My Trophy activates it about every minute, that's if I forget to turn it off which is a right pain. It's a waste of time complaining to the dealer. I've been intending on writing to MG in UK and sending a copy of the letter to all the journalists who gave it car if the year awards. Pity, as I have little else to moan about the car (apart from the equally dangerous FCA which is turned off each drive at same time as LKA). Hopefully I'll compose a letter in next few days.

I have to turn it off as I find it very off putting. To remind me I have set my welcome message to “Switch off Lane Keep Aassist”

 

[Rolfe]

I don't really need a reminder now. I just do it. And if I see that wee icon in white rather than yellow, I do it again.

 

[okohll]

For what it's worth, I've just submitted a note to Euro NCAP re their contact form

Contact | Euro NCAP

The Euro NCAP office can be contacted on this page, using the webform available on this page. A subscription form is also available to receive our newsletter.

www.euroncap.com

referencing this forum - thanks to useful comments from @northoftheborda, @Rolfe and many others. Unlikely to have much effect on its own I guess, but perhaps if many people do the same?

Text below:
---
Hello,

The MG4 has emergency lane keep assist (|LKA), which is a safety measure and contributes to it's NCAP 5 star rating.

However, due to it's unreliability, this is misleading, in my experience and that of many others, both amongst the public and press*.

I have found the LKA often activates unnecessarily. Many have also reported things like 'it has steered me towards oncoming traffic and prevented me from turning into corners'.

The car's manual states 'The lane assist system does not always recognise the lane lines. Sometimes poor road surfaces, certain road structures or objects may be mistaken for lane lines. When such situations occur, the lane assist system must be immediately turned off.'

However, its not possible to immediately turn it off - it takes three presses on the touch screen, from the home screen
1) 'car' button - a small button
2) 'lka' radio button - a small button
3) 'confirm' button

To do this safely in 'poor' conditions would most likely require stopping the car. Furthermore when turned off, it silently turns back on again in certain conditions, like putting the car into Drive mode.

In summary, Euro NCAP is rewarding a feature which seems to reduce safety rather than increase it. Please consider this a vote towards reviewing your testing processes to prevent that.

Best regards
[my name]
MG4 owner

*Refs:
1) Lane Assist Trying To Kill Me!
2) Lane Keep Assist feature
3) MG Motor 4 EV review | Autocar - 'Even entry-level SE models get adaptive cruise control with lane following as standard, but they’re very poor'

 

[Rolfe]

Well done.

 

[JDMB]

Evening all. First post here. Picked up my Trophy yesterday and did an airport run very early this morning along the motorway. Forgot to turn off LKA. The drive was so nervy with the car moving all over the lane and turning the wheel quite aggressively at one point. It really made me feel like the car was out of control.

I did ask my dealer if all the applicable updates had been applied as part of PDI to which he answered yes, but I then noticed that the Infotainment system was R30. I informed him there was a higher revision which he said he’d speak to the team about, so I’m not overly confident that any other updates have been applied.

 

[Rolfe]

Welcome JDMB!

Where are you finding that information about the revision no? I was told on 13th April when I collected my car that all the most recent software had been downloaded on to it earlier that day, and I haven't seen any reason to complain, but it would be nice to know.

My LKA didn't feel as aggressive as what you describe. I never really felt it was going to do anything actively dangerous. Ditto the one in the Trophy I had for my test drive. My problem with it is that it unnerves me. It seems to be trying to prevent me from doing things that are perfectly safe, or scold me for doing things that are perfectly safe, and that unsettles me and affects my driving. I feel it makes me a less safe driver because of this - partly because when the wheel pulls the car of its own accord my reflexes immediately try to compensate for this by pulling in a way that might not necessarily be productive under the circumstances.

I really don't think I want to try to get used to this. When I had it on I was constantly on the nerves for this pull of the wheel. This was driving on the A701 between Romanno Bridge and Moffat. Maybe it's a good idea on the motorway if you're driving tired, but having said that, driving tired on the motorway is a very bad idea in the first place. (I remember once a couple of years ago suddenly getting very tired on the M74. The friend who was with me said, are you all right? I said no I wasn't and my main priority was to get off this motorway and have a coffee and hand the car keys to her. I'd have turned it on then if I'd had it!)

But normally? It's a horrible feeling, having the steering move of its own accord when you're completely in control of the car and know what you're doing.

 

[JDMB]

Hi @Rolfe ,

From memory, if you swipe from right to left on the infotainment screen, there’s a bunch of icons that appear. Select Settings and under System I think it is, and the one of the options will be the Infotainment version. The last 3 characters starting with R will be the firmware version. I think the SE versions have a different version number to the Trophy, something like R16, so it’s best to take a look on this forum to see what that version is.

As I pondered in my original post, if this isn’t up to the latest version, it’s more than likely the other updates haven’t been done, so in light of my experience with LKA, I’ll be contacting the dealer about actually getting these done and to tell me what they’ve updated from and to.

Like you said, the LKA trying to correct the car is unnerving. I had one quite violent pull on a dark motorway as I was going past a car, and, as you again mentioned, the reflexes and instinct to control the car may lead to a very dangerous situation.

What I will say though is that the car is lovely to drive and I think it’ll serve me well for many years. I have solar and a battery too so I’m looking forward to powering it with no or little cost too.

 

[Rolfe]

Thanks, I'll take a look.

My new next door neighbours have a Tesla and a roof covered in solar panels. But at my time of life I think, how much electriticy could I simply buy for what that lot cost? At the moment I'm managing fine on a granny charger to a power point in the garage, and the village charge-point which has rapid charging only 5 minutes walk away at a marginally cheaper price than my domestic tariff. There's also another neighbour with a wall box who has said, any time you're short of a charge just ask. But I don't see any reason I'd have to unless I was in a tearing hurry and the public charge-point had gone offline.

The car is lovely to drive indeed and I'm massively looking forward to pointing its nose for points south on Tuesday.

 

[Ian Key]

I did ask my dealer if all the applicable updates had been applied as part of PDI to which he answered yes, but I then noticed that the Infotainment system was R30. I informed him there was a higher revision which he said he’d speak to the team about, so I’m not overly confident that any other updates have been applied.

Unless you have a problem with the infotainment don't rush to get it updated as there have been problems reported with R33. Mine is still on R24 but it works so I'm in no rush to get it updated.

 

[Derek25]

Am I the only one who doesn't find this an issue? Mine is set to low sensitivity (it's a Trophy) and I never turn it off. All I ever get is a gentle pull and vibration