Race car's automatic braking system sensors caused Cavendish crash, Abu Dhabi Tour organisers admit

A little OT, but there's an ad on tv at the moment: kid keeps falling over/crashing/getting injured/breaking things all through childhood; his father reluctantly gets in a new car with his now grown-up accident prone child, who proceeds to drives at speed and nearly runs someone over except that the car has whizzy semi-automatic braking with sensors which saves the pedestrian's life.  Is it me, or the message of that advert not exactly as positive as the car company thinks?  That bloke clearly shouldn't have ever passed their driving test...

Bonus points to the first cyclist on the roads in a city who can suddenly swerve from bike lane infront of a new car and cause it to brake suddenly and have a chain of tailgaters run into each other... I can just imagine how that one will come out in the tabloids

The 'punishment stop/brake' has now been computerised! The future is.......??

I've driven in loads of race convoys and the golden rule is that you always turn off all the auto shite. Self dipping headlights, auto / rain sensing wipers, any form of auto start/stop...

Pain in the arse on a lot of modern cars. I drove one that kept flashing up reminders that lane change sensors were turned off. The car was getting confused because I was often driving across two lanes or on the wrong side of the road and the car didn't like it at all.

AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking)
https://www.euroncap.com/en/vehicle-safety/the-rewards-explained/autonom...

Mercedes Benz version CPA (Collision Prevention Assist)
http://media.daimler.com/marsMediaSite/en/instance/video/COLLISION-PREVE...

From the footage it's hard to see what triggered it as nothing appeared to be in front of the car when it happened. Perhaps the latest versions are also sensitive to objects close to the sides as well, the motorcycle outriders where close to the side of the car at the time.

I think Cav needs stabilisers, he’s been falling off a lot lately

The article has been fixed now and balance restored to the universe.

My work here is done. 

No Crampy, it was not the ABS that activated, it was the automatic brake system that activated, when the car 'saw' the bikes close in front. This won't be the last time semi-autonomous vehicles cause problems for cyclists.

it was dumb of the car driver not to disable the system, something which can be done (at the moment) with semi-autonomous systems, but not ABS brakes.

ABS stands for anti-lock braking system, normally. The headline is a wee bit confusing.