eyesight reviews

[foxrider68]

Originally Posted by Latigo

But I'm sure none of us text and drive, right?

No that would be dangerous, now how do I play movies on my NAV? Popcorn and a movie after a long day at work sound great!

[hadouken]

Going to agree with pretty much everything that has already been said. I've had it for about a month (~1200 miles) and think it's worth the cost since I was in the market for a Limited with moon roof anyway. The nav was definitely not on my wishlist, but I have enjoyed using it a lot, especially when it was automatically taking into account current traffic.

I put my sunglasses in the tray in front of the shifter now (with my phone) instead of up in the overhead stash which my previous car had. It was a slight bother at first but now I really don't mind, especially since I don't want to be storing all kinds of crap in that little cubby to the point where it's unusable anyway - so it just holds my phone & sunglasses. The passenger's sunglasses go in the console storage if they want them.

But enough about sunglasses storage!

I love EyeSight, mainly the safety aspect. Knowing that it will brake optimally for me to avoid a rear-end collision is really great, since I've had a few close calls before due to distractions. When I hop in my wife's car I get nervous every time I'm slowing down in traffic because I know it's up to me to stop the car in time! I leave all the safety features on, the collision warning pops up occasionally, for example when a car pulls across in front without much room or when I'm hurtling towards some freeway barrels on a forked road. It's never triggered emergency braking though, it easily detects that the object is moving out of the way or that I'm steering around the barrels and won't collide.

I like that the cameras are mounted in the cabin instead of on the bumper to minimize damage to the system. I got the hard/foldy sunshade from my dealer, while it doesn't fit as snugly as it would without EyeSight, it still works and is a long way (~3 inches) from actually touching the lens thanks to the deep recessing of the lenses.

I've used the adaptive cruise control around town & on the freeway. The manual suggests that it should only be used on limited-access roads (freeways) and I'm inclined to agree, since it doesn't see as far ahead as I usually can in traffic (ie. brake lights from the 2nd & 3rd vehicles ahead). I also had a scare using it around town while approaching traffic stopped at a light. It seemed to ignore the stopped vehicle ahead until it was within the ~2 second following distance and after the Outback eventually started braking on its own I hit the brakes pretty hard to stop in time -- I think the collision avoidance might have kicked in that time as I had a flashback of the fact that it can't guarantee collision avoidance if the speed difference is less than about 19 mph. Doing 45 mph with adaptive cruise control behind a stopped vehicle is a BAD IDEA - it's still cruise control. For the highway though it's marvelous. Combined with the lane departure warning it makes freeway driving a lot less mentally taxing.

I also agree that sometimes it brakes a bit harder than I would when first seeing traffic slowdown. It's probably just a result of me being able to see the traffic ahead, and it hasn't been uncomfortable. If you're following a vehicle at some distance and somebody pulls in front of you while accelerating away from you, EyeSight won't freak out and slam on the brakes just because they're within the following distance - it recognizes that they'll soon be outside the following distance and continues at your existing speed until the gap widens back to your desired setting.

Since I also got the Nav as a result of EyeSight a few comments on it: You can tell the nav what your MPG estimates are for city & highway driving and they will be taken into account for route planning. I usually use the "green" navigation method which chooses the lowest fuel consuming option of various quick alternatives. The nav UI is pretty good and voice navigation is convenient, if a little slow (mainly when it loads the list of cities). The on-screen displays for lane selection & exit lanes are really good so you can get in the correct lane well in advance, if that information is available. The turn-by-turn voice prompts don't give you much time to prepare, so you need to keep an eye on the "next turn" indicator and maybe have a rough idea of the overall route (which is easy with the "overview" option -- add it to the quick menu!). The 3D map display is great though, you can see a long way down the illustrated road to see what's coming up. I haven't used any other in-car navs before, only Android phone Navigation, and the Outback's navigation is overall as good as Android phone nav.

Collision avoidance systems result in about a 20% decrease in collision claims and 50% decrease in bodily injury liability. If the insurance company passes on those savings to you (and I expect they do), the EyeSight will pay for itself over the life of the vehicle.

tl;dr: Recommended.

[mpnret]

Originally Posted by foxrider68

Eyesight is not really meant to be used in stop and go traffic, I've used it to but it was more so just for fun.

But it is nice when you are not paying attention and stopped traffic begins to move and EyeSight tells you.

[Latigo]

Originally Posted by foxrider68

No that would be dangerous, now how do I play movies on my NAV? Popcorn and a movie after a long day at work sound great!

That optional two prong outlet was meant for popcorn machines! There is literally no other reason for it to exist!

[basketballfan]

Great post Hadouken. Just a couple of more points. I do stay alert when using Eyesight. So, I will occasionally adjust the adaptive cruise control speed lower before the system kicks in. I try to anticipate the speed of the general flow of traffic.

I also read in the manual that you should cover the eyesight with cellophane and rubber bands to keep the window spray used in car washes from hitting the lens. It is a good idea but I had several car washes and haven't done it yet. I think it is just as good just to tell the attendant to spray the rag instead of the glass.

I know there are a lot of accessories to deal with the sunglass situation.

I love Eyesight.

[foxrider68]

Originally Posted by mpnret

But it is nice when you are not paying attention and stopped traffic begins to move and EyeSight tells you.

Yes that is nice but it will do that even if you're not using the adaptive cruise control.

[foxrider68]

I would love it if someone ever finds a hack that shows on the nav what eyesight is seeing and thinking.

[basketballfan]

Great post Hadouken. Just a couple of more points. I do stay alert when using Eyesight. So, I will occasionally adjust the adaptive cruise control speed lower before the system kicks in. I try to anticipate the speed of the general flow of traffic.

I also read in the manual that you should cover the eyesight with cellophane and rubber bands to keep the window spray used in car washes from hitting the lens. It is a good idea but I had several car washes and haven't done it yet. I think it is just as good just to tell the attendant to spray the rag instead of the glass.

I know there are a lot of accessories to deal with the sunglass situation.

I love Eyesight.

[Tom28]

Originally Posted by foxrider68

I would love it if someone ever finds a hack that shows on the nav what eyesight is seeing and thinking.

There has to be a way. Did you note the blurb in the owners manual that images from Eyesight could be made available to anyone requesting them (by court order) in the event your vehicle is in a crash?

[bajanut]

I would love to find a way to have the video from the eyesight displayed with it's detections shown on the nav screen, like the video in the promo videos.