Last Fall, we rented an XC90 in Germany for a few days. Diesel, of course. It was nice a quiet, lots of torque, and really smooth.

The XC90 had smart cruise control and lane keeping assist. I have a habit of only using CC on limited access highways, the Autobahn in this case. As you probably know, the left lane is for passing and the 'slower' cars keep to the right lane.

I set the cruise to 140Km/h (86mph) and stayed in the right lane most of the time. The adaptive CC would slow me down, very gently, when we came up on other traffic usually doing 120Km/h(75mph). As soon as I put on the left turn signal and changed lanes, the CC increased the speed back to 140Km. Note: I looked in the rearview mirror as much as I looked out the windshield.

The real surprise was the lane keeping assist. The road does make a few nice curves. During one of these, I turned toward the right edge. The XC90 steering wheel fought back! Hard!! It wouldn't let me 'cut' the corner. The next curve, I let the car steer itself. Wow, that was nice. Remember, this is at 86mph, not particularly fast on the Autobahn where the left lane junkies cruise at 100mph+.

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped at the local Volvo dealer and asked about the American version of the XC90. It has 'rush hour' lane keeping assist, but is limited to 30mph??? "What about 75mph?" "Maybe for 2018."

So it just dawned on me. Our Interstate systems are not like the Autobahn, at all. Drivers here put their CC at the speed limit and live in the left lane. Others in the right lane will suddenly go to the left lane while passing at 1 mph faster than the car 1/4 mile down the road. Passing on the right, while dangerous, is the only way to navigate the Interstate. No one ever looks in their rear view mirrors. So, having lane keeping assist in the USA is mostly mute due to the terrible driving habits we have.

Will autonomous driving ever work in the USA, or will we have to wait for the Acura advertisement to become reality? (where the computer makes the left lane car move over to the right, an April fool's joke)

--
Keeping it running is better than buying new