2017 Audi A4 driver assistance review

The 2017 Audi A4 has an all-new suite of advanced driver assistance systems, joining Volvo, Honda, Ford and others in making semi-autonomous safety features available in cars we can buy today.

Activating the adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping systems isn’t intuitive; there’s a second stalk under the turn signal stalk where the driver can control these features. But once they’re on, all the most important information is displayed in the full-color heads-up display. Most HUDs show the speed, but the A4 also shows the speed limit (and if it’s a school zone), the lane-keeping assist guidelines and the adaptive cruise control (ACC) and traffic jam assist activity — and even a little shoe to warn you when your foot is too heavy on the gas pedal.

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The ACC works best if you can set it to the speed limit and then let the sensors take care of acceleration and deceleration, all the way to 0 mph. In traffic, the display shows several little green car figures, and the ACC can be restarted by pressing on the accelerator for a second. A little lever on the ACC stalk lets you adjust your following distance.

The A4’s lane-keeping assist works as well as any other I’ve tried, which means it’s mostly okay. It can wander a bit in the lane, which always makes me wonder if people think I’m tipsy or just a terrible driver. It seems that the A4 can quickly recognize when it’s not doing a very good job, and will chime and give a text warning that the driver needs to take control of the steering.

Watch the video above to learn more.

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