I was driving with one finger on the steering wheel. The 2014 Acura RLX that I was barely controlling remained centered in its lane, even around a slight bend in the road, as if guided by an invisible force. I turned to my wife: "Look, no hands!" She smiled—and winced. She wasn't sharing my appreciation of the Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS) that makes the Acura RLX one of the most intelligent cars on the road.
The new lane-keeping approach: steering not braking
Lane-keeping isn't really a new feature: Mercedes-Benz and Infiniti already offer an intervention system that puts you back in the lane. However, these earlier systems corrected you, usually by applying slight side braking.
Along with the 2013 Audi S6, the 2014 Infiniti Q50, and the Mercedes-Benz S550 and C-Class, the 2014 Acura RLX is one of the first cars to use electronically controlled steering that can maintain lane centering. (It's also available in the 2014 Acura MDX.) Acura's LKAS uses a camera mounted above the rear-view mirror to watch the lane markings on the road, and adjusts the steering to maintain a center position in the lane. You turn it on by pressing two buttons on the steering wheel, and it operates at highway speeds of 45 to 90 mph. (The Mercedes-Benz S550's system works at speeds from 0 to 124 mph.)
Acura's LKAS is a helpful aid for everyday driving at present, and it offers a tantalizing glimpse at how close we're getting to a car that can steer itself. Although self-driving or autonomous cars remain many years away, many of the basic technologies required for these vehicles have been available for a while. "Lane assist is absolutely another step towards fully autonomous driving," Ed Kim, vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific, told TechHive.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon