Feature Review: Adaptive Cruise Control and Blind Spot Detection

My Subaru BRZ was in the shop for its last bit of work on the driver side wind noise issue as well as the 30,000 mile service so the dealership gave me a loaner. This time with EyeSight and all the fancy driver assistance technologies. This review is not about the Outback itself though, but rather just about my experience with the driver assistance technologies (for a full review of a less fancily equipped 2016 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited click here).


Adaptive Cruise Control:
I tested this both on the road and highway. It worked well. You just set your speed and it will maintain it. You also get a fancier dash display and can set your following distance. The display has a model of the car's rear end and the rear end of a car in front of it when detected and it will show brake lights on your model when it is applying the brakes.
It seems like a nice feature to have on long road trips. On the non-highway road I set it to 45 and it stayed with traffic which was well under that speed. It slowed down to a near stop in traffic but not completely, according to Subaru's website it should come to a complete stop, but as this was a rental and I am liable for damage I did not want to test it quite that far. But, my trust issues aside, it slowed the car from 40 mph to under 5 mph with no input from me in traffic.
The fun came when I had hit resume when traffic started moving again. it accelerated appropriately for the traffic conditions, which between the lights, only got to about 25 mph, and the car accelerated moderately with traffic and started to brake as traffic slowed down. When I moved into an unoccupied right turn lane though the car seeing the lane as empty and having the adaptive cruise control set for 45 mph made swift work of getting up to 45 mph (which means I had to brake for the right turn). My fault for having hit resume knowing I was going to make a turn soon, but my friend who recently bought a fully loaded Subaru Outback with this system said I should change lanes with the system set to about 15 mph over traffic flow into a relatively empty lane and see what happens. Suffice to say, the system will do a solid job of using the car's engine to pass or overtake when it detects a lane is free and clear.
On the highway the system again performed as it should slowing down a bit when a vehicle entered my lane ahead of me in order to maintain my chosen following distance.

Blind Spot Detection:
The blind spot detection functioned as a little light on both the passenger and driver side mirrors. In heavy traffic it was almost always on as there was a constant stream of cars to the left. Interesting it is very much blind spot detection only. As the indicator for a vehicle in the blind spot would turn off once the vehicle was visible outside the driver side window (for vehicles on the left).
I will be a little nit picky here, but, if this is really going to be a complete driving aid I think it would be better if the blind spot indicator remained on until the lane on a given side of the vehicle is unoccupied and you could move your vehicle into it, kind of like instrumentation based driving. Or I would prefer a 360 composite camera view showing me what is on all side of the vehicle.
As is, yes, the system tells you when something is in your blind spot but only when in your blind spot.
I did not test the purported Lane Change Assist aspect.

Lastly, I did get beeped at and have the instrument cluster show me a flashing lane line by the Lane Departure Warning system (though the vehicle did nothing to correct me, thankfully) while I crossed a dashed lane line on an on-ramp that was narrowing from two lanes to one.

The IIHS also did a rating on multiple vehicles and is now including ratings for crash avoidance for vehicles that claim they have it as seen here.

I have mixed feelings about the technology reviewed here.
On the one hand they are saving lives, which is a good thing. They tend to only be on vehicles that have an automatic transmission, which makes me a little sad, but I understand that implementation with a clutch could be difficult. As for the Adaptive Cruise Control and Blind Spot Detection I feel like they could enhance my overall driving experience.
But on roads with lots of distracted drivers these systems can add extra mulligans and additional saves for people who are otherwise not paying appropriate attention while driving what is often 3,000+ pounds of death and destruction if not managed correctly. My worry is that increased reliance on such technology will result in even worse drivers and since not all systems are created equal, but perception and sales pitches will often be that they "prevent accidents" we will people lulled into a false sense of security.
What I am really getting at here is that full autonomy may be a good thing from a safety perspective but partial automation may result in even more distracted driving. Ultimately though, I am really a fan of highly alert and responsible manual driving and if you want to do other things while you commute please, for the sake of everyone else, ride a bus or train (and if you do not have access to one, advocate for it).