WilliamJake

Fantastic input, everyone! Huge help, much appreciated.

SniffyTofu

I personally went without the DA, its not a big necessity for me more of a extra luxury on top. I've always unchecked that option. Though I do think its great for long drives and such, but if your in traffic all the time like me, or only go out to party at night. that DA will never really be needed lol.

Comson Chen

I have DA on mine. The feeling is mixed... I like the active lane keep feature. Not 100% happy with the Stop and Go or AAC. Here are the reasons: Stop and Go only works if the car only stops for less than couple of seconds. It doesn't automatically drive again, if your car stops longer than that. It is probably a safety feature. Just annoying. 2. The AAC can be scary sometimes. It brakes very hard from time.to time. Like you slam on the brake with full force. Sometimes, it doesn't slow down until it is really close to the car in front of you. 3. In traffic situation, occasionally it would accelerate really hard to move 5 ft and then follow with a hard brake. Personally, I feel like it would wear off the brakes faster. I will post a video review later.

saxplayer

A video review showing mixed situation would be awesome! higher traffic vs lower traffic volume etc. sweet!

S5xyBack

Looking forward to your video. I've heard mixed things about the ACC and traffic jam assist and decided to forgo it back when I ordered the car, but now I'm wondering if I'll regret it because it does seem useful, at least the idea of it that is.

dereitz

Just to put my voice in...

I personally think that DAP is fantastic on the Interstate/Highway and I use the entire time I actually drive on the Interstate.

I use it "pretty often" on the normal roads around the city. I am still learning to trust it. I find that sometimes it brakes very hard (as another commenter indicated) and it makes me worry that someone behind me will eventually hit me. However, I believe both acceleration and braking are controlled somewhat by the drive mode you have selected (Comfort, Auto, Dynamic, Individual), so it will also vary based upon that.

What's interesting is that while I use the lane assist, I personally am not a huge fan of it so far. The lane assist and I don't agree quite often. It pulls hard on certain intersections where there is absolutely no reason for it. For me, lane assist is "cool" but certainly an option I could have lived without.

Anyway, hope that helps you out with your decision!

S5xyBack

Does it brake very hard for no apparent reason, or mostly when you're approaching a slow or stationary vehicle (eg. later than you would've braked had you been driving)? Have you found that comfort mode helps with the abrupt braking?

Fdvigna

I think it is a combination of driving mode and the distance adjustment. You can increase or decrease the space between your vehicle and the one in front of you. Another factor that influences is the adaptive function... vehicle is moving ahead of you then breaking tends to be smooth...vehicle in front of you is already stopped and you move into its lane, then it may break hard. I have a B9 Allroad for 4 months w/ DAP and I'm still mastering all the nuances... its definitely one of the best features in the car.

scoopman

I have an S3 with the previous gen of DAP features, but these descriptions sound similar.

TL;DR: I love DAP stuff, it's very useful .... but the judgement on the settings and when to deploy it is up to you as a smart driver. This is not a self-driving car in any situations, but DAP helps reduce the workload on you as a driver and helps you be safer in maintaining proper distance to dumbass drivers in front of you.

Here's what I learned in living with this in 3 years, responding to the numbered comments of the OP:

1. Stop n Go: It is true that it doesn't start up if over a couple of seconds. But this is actually good, because it's important for you as a driver to judge the context if the car in front is inching forward a little, say an impatient driver at a light, or if traffic is moving. These cars can't really be smooth with this yet without a later gen of sensors and software. In Europe the delay is set to much higher, so it starts back up itself more often, and I believe you can change this with VCS programming (go look at the A4 OBD threads for this). Note you actually want this to approximate what a human would do as much as possible, because dumbass drivers texting behind you are not paying attention and could ram you if your car starts and stops in a way unpredictable to them (see below).

2. So the AAC rate of accel and braking is adjustable, but not well documented or explained in the controls. There are two factors here: one is the distance maintained to the car in front of you (which is adjustable by the driver on the stalk). The distance is important because, depending on the traffic situation, leaving this to be too far will invite cars in dense traffic to cut you off; too close will cause your car to potentially brake unnaturally for those behind you while maintaining the precise distance. Even more importantly is what I call the "rate of speed gain/loss" setting, which is mislabelled on the S3 (and it sounds like the B9 has the same way of setting this). In the S3, going to the Drive Select settings for "Individual" mode has a ACC setting with "Dynamic, Individual, Comfort" as choices. This setting is active and applied for ACC in the S3 REGARDLESS of what Drive Select mode is active. So, for example, if you have the Individual setting ACC mode set to Comfort, but you're in Dynamic Mode in the car, the ACC will operate in Comfort mode. I've found that Dynamic is the craziest setting for ACC, it will speed up and brake at a rate that is normal for a robot car, but crazy unnerving unless you have no one behind you. If the driver behind you is posting to Instagram on the hot B9 S5 in front of them, they will eat your bumper before they can apply the right vignette filter to their pic. I leave my ACC in Comfort, which I've found is the best compromise between automation and the comfort of my passengers and myself.

3. I think what you are referring to is mostly affected by my #2 above. One question I have (my S5SB is still not in my paws yet) is whether the "Traffic Jam Assist" specific mode in the B9s do anything differently when needing to control throttle in traffic, or if the "Traffic Jam Assist" is only adding in steering input to the system's throttle control.

Bottom line, DAP is very helpful, but it isn't a self-driving car with autopilot, and you need to experiment (after making sure no one is following you too closely!) in different traffic situations with different ACC settings to learn when -- and WHEN NOT -- to deploy it.