[Gadget_guy]

Noticed while driving with cruise control, a left turn signal will initiate a downshift. (EDIT TO ADD: must be in HDA mode too) Can anyone confirm the software logic with this? What permissives must be met?
I know your set speed needs to be above your current speed (a slower car in front of you) by how much, I don't know. I think at least a couple MPH.

I guess I find it pretty handy, but it also can be a little jarring in busy traffic as I will often put my turn signal on to get into passing lane between cars before the close on my left side again and the car passing the slow car in front of me is not out of the way yet, so palli will downshift as I cross into the passing lane and get ready to jump on the gas, but then see the car in front of me again (moving slightly faster than the car I was passing) now that we are in the left lane and often shift up again as we get around that slow car.

Still handy and just pretty good thought on building software logic for these advanced cars.

 

[blutob2]

Noticed while driving with cruise control, a left turn signal will initiate a downshift. Can anyone confirm the software logic with this? What permissives must be met?
I know your set speed needs to be above your current speed (a slower car in front of you) by how much, I don't know. I think at least a couple MPH.

I guess I find it pretty handy, but it also can be a little jarring in busy traffic as I will often put my turn signal on to get into passing lane between cars before the close on my left side again and the car passing the slow car in front of me is not out of the way yet, so palli will downshift as I cross into the passing lane and get ready to jump on the gas, but then see the car in front of me again (moving slightly faster than the car I was passing) now that we are in the left lane and often shift up again as we get around that slow car.

Still handy and just pretty good thought on building software logic for these advanced cars.

Hmmm, never noticed it. You sure it's not coincidental with you approaching a car from the rear and the Smart Cruise kicking in? Not sure what you're distance to vehicle setting is but I keep mine at 1, so the shortest notification. But this still all depends on how fast you're approaching that car. Also realize if you try and converge into a vehicle in the other lane, and Pali detects it in the blind spot, then it will brake on the outside tires to get you back into your lane. But that doesn't quite sound like what you're experiencing.

Anyways I would definitely try this again on the open road because honestly I haven't noticed it at all.

 

[Gadget_guy]

I have played with this for a fair number of miles. (Probably annoyed people wondering what I am doing)

It's for sure software that is doing a downshift when following a car and below the set cruise control speed. Only left turn signal.

I have done it with and without cars around me, I mean it's handy a good bit of the time.

 

[blutob2]

I have played with this for a fair number of miles. (Probably annoyed people wondering what I am doing)

It's for sure software that is doing a downshift when following a car and below the set cruise control speed. Only left turn signal.

I have done it with and without cars around me, I mean it's handy a good bit of the time.

I tried this morning and zero downshift for me, RPM stays constant. And to be honest, not sure why it would be handy? I mean cruise is on, it should maintain that speed. If it's slower than set due to the smart cruise then it will accel as required.

 

[Gadget_guy]

I was trying it more today around town and it was not downshifting, so I wonder if it needs to be in HDA?

 

[blutob2]

I was trying it more today around town and it was not downshifting, so I wonder if it needs to be in HDA?

Maybe but I still don't recall it doing it then either. HDA is really only available on the interstates so I just don't see how it would be tied to that but who knows.

 

[st2006]

I dont recall doing it. In fact I actually didnt fell comofortable shifting lanes in 80 mph while on SCC mode. So I gently brake (or cancel) and take control. LOL

 

[Jay F]

What's happening is the car is already slowed down more than the cruise control setting e.g. the car in front of you is doing 65, the Palisade slows down to 65 but the cruise is at 70. When you move to the left, the Palisade doesn't sense a car in front any longer and tries to get back up to CC speed as quickly as possible, thus requiring the downshift. Nothing to worry about.

 

[blutob2]

What's happening is the car is already slowed down more than the cruise control setting e.g. the car in front of you is doing 65, the Palisade slows down to 65 but the cruise is at 70. When you move to the left, the Palisade doesn't sense a car in front any longer and tries to get back up to CC speed as quickly as possible, thus requiring the downshift. Nothing to worry about.

I completely agree and tried to state the same thing but his 2nd post mentions no cars around him.

 

[Jay F]

I completely agree and tried to state the same thing but his 2nd post mentions no cars around him.

I don't completely agree with him saying no cars were around. Maybe he's hitting the paddle shifter when using the turn signal. I've done that once or twice.

 

[Gadget_guy]

Disagree. The car downshifts while I am in my lane following a car. It sees the car in front of me, it does NOT see there are no cars because I have NOT moved out of my lane yet. So it's not doing it because there is no longer a car in front of the sensor. It downshifts while I am following the car in my lane. I am not touching the paddle shifters. It didn't happen while around town and cruise was set at like 45 and I was going 35 following a car, so maybe it's just highway speeds?

 

[Drewski]

What's happening is the car is already slowed down more than the cruise control setting e.g. the car in front of you is doing 65, the Palisade slows down to 65 but the cruise is at 70. When you move to the left, the Palisade doesn't sense a car in front any longer and tries to get back up to CC speed as quickly as possible, thus requiring the downshift. Nothing to worry about.

I was surprised the first time I used this feature on the highway, just how far ahead the closest car was. That setting is adjustable with the button next to the “cancel” button on the steering wheel. I quickly adjusted it to the 3rd or closest distance setting. That works pretty well here, south of Indy, but I wouldn’t be able to use it back in Chicago where traffic abhors an empty space, and as long as a car can fit into that space, it will get filled.

 

[Eric2203]

Disagree. The car downshifts while I am in my lane following a car. It sees the car in front of me, it does NOT see there are no cars because I have NOT moved out of my lane yet. So it's not doing it because there is no longer a car in front of the sensor. It downshifts while I am following the car in my lane. I am not touching the paddle shifters. It didn't happen while around town and cruise was set at like 45 and I was going 35 following a car, so maybe it's just highway speeds?

Well the car can downshift if needed (to use engine braking for example, or if it's slowing down enough). It's possible that you were coming up fast enough on another car that it needed to do that. And you happened to hit the turn signal right as it was downshifting, perhaps?

 

[Popeye]

Did you fat finger and hit the downshift paddle when turning on the turn signal?

 

[Gadget_guy]

OK, had to post a video, quality is poor as sun was in my screen and I moved my hand too much, and I had to convert to .gif to upload here.

In this, you will notice:

• NO I did not touch the paddle shifter (stays in D whole time)
• HDA on, I am like 15 below due to traffic.
• I didn't touch gas at all.
• I didn't move from the lane at all - car was in front of me whole time.

I have done this a few dozen times and can tell you for sure that in HDA with cruise set, left turn will initiate downshift (watch tach)

• When NOT in HDA, it does not happen
• When using right turn signal it does not happen
• When at set speed it does not happen
• If car is not in front of you it does not happen

I have other videos, but with file size and type limitations I just posted this one.

 

[blutob2]

OK, had to post a video, quality is poor as sun was in my screen and I moved my hand too much, and I had to convert to .gif to upload here.

In this, you will notice:

• NO I did not touch the paddle shifter (stays in D whole time)
• HDA on, I am like 15 below due to traffic.
• I didn't touch gas at all.
• I didn't move from the lane at all - car was in front of me whole time.

I have done this a few dozen times and can tell you for sure that in HDA with cruise set, left turn will initiate downshift (watch tach)

• When NOT in HDA, it does not happen
• When using right turn signal it does not happen
• When at set speed it does not happen
• If car is not in front of you it does not happen

I have other videos, but with file size and type limitations I just posted this one.

Yeah thought this was explained above. The issue is you have your cruise set to 75 however you are only doing 56 when you turn on the blinker. You have a vehicle in front of you as indicated by the center display and your vehicle to vehicle distance looks to be set to the farthest distance, most conservative. So as soon as you move into the next lane and your FCA determines you are clear in front, then your car is accelerating. And since you're 19mph slower than set speed, it's going to be more aggressive in acceleration.

So this has nothing to do with your blinker and connection to downshifting, it's just because you are going 19 mph slower than what you actually have your cruise set at. HDA does not matter either, that's just a function of the interstate and Auto speed adjustment. In fact you can see "AUTO" which means since you're on the interstate or an approved road then the cruise will auto set the posted speed limit. You can increase/decrease and it stays in HDA but AUTO will disappear. However since you see AUTO that means the posted speed limit is 75 and that's what your car will do and will auto adjust if the limit changes. You could be on any road with cruise set and it would act exactly the same way. Now if you were doing exactly 75 then your car would NOT downshift. All it's doing is now accelerating to 75 because that's what you have set. I would recommend decreasing the distance to 1 (the shortest vehicle to vehicle distance). I find anything more than 1 slows you down WELL prior. But maybe I'm more aggressive.

 

[Mickey]

There is another setting for adjusting how aggressive the vehicle is to get back to the set speed. See
Adjusting the Sensitivity of Smart Cruise Control on page 5-129 of the owner's manual.

 

[blutob2]

There is another setting for adjusting how aggressive the vehicle is to get back to the set speed. See
Adjusting the Sensitivity of Smart Cruise Control on page 5-129 of the owner's manual.

Yeah I don't think that's the acceleration back to cruise speed. I don't interpret it that way anyways but will mess around with it. In my mind, once the Pali no longer sees a car in front, then it will accelerate back to cruise speed. Question, does that depend on drive mode selected? Would Eco accelerate less aggressive than Comfort?

 

[Eric2203]

Yeah I don't think that's the acceleration back to cruise speed. I don't interpret it that way anyways but will mess around with it. In my mind, once the Pali no longer sees a car in front, then it will accelerate back to cruise speed. Question, does that depend on drive mode selected? Would Eco accelerate less aggressive than Comfort?

I don't think so, but I haven't tried with every mode. I can tell you that whenever you activate the Smart Cruise Control, Smart mode gets greyed out. You can see it in the cluster. Makes sense, since the car is now controlling the acceleration. I haven't tried SCC while in other modes besides Smart.

 

[Gadget_guy]

The only thing is you folks keep saying this accelerates when there is no car in front of me. I get that, but here I am talking about and clearly I am NOT moving from the lane. The car in front of me never vanishes from being in front of me, it is always still at the same place. Neither of us move. As soon as I put turn signal on, it downshifts to get to accelerate, but only because it thinks there will not be a car in front of me soon.