So every morning as I back out of my driveway I notice that the brakes are incredibly "tight". Another way to put it is that they keep "pulsing" with little to no pressure on the brake pedal. After 3 weeks of driving the car, I just assumed that when I first start the car the brakes are incredibly sensitive. Once I get to the street and put it in drive then it brakes "as expected". Yesterday as I was backing out of my driveway the car just suddenly stopped while I was still about half-way down the driveway, about 20 feet from the street. There was nothing behind me and both my wife and i were stunned (we were like WTF did I hit?!!). Nothing was behind us at all and nobody had crossed our path.

I will mention that our driveway is uneven because there are roots forcing some of the concrete up and I've used asphault to makes those transitions easier to drive over. Could the car be sensing the 2" difference between concrete blocks and thinking its "something", or could the light-on-dark contrast of the concrete and asphalt be triggering the auto braking? Any ideas? Also what's up with the super-sensitive braking first thing?

Thanks all!

Did the auto break notification come up on the center display?

 

Yes it did.

 

Agree auto breaking is scary as ****, you feel you’re hitting an aircraft carrier.
One thing you can do is trying to backup into a parking lot that has bushes and see how it reacts to that scenario.
Your sensors could also need to be readjusted.

 

Agree auto breaking is scary as ****, you feel you’re hitting an aircraft carrier.
One thing you can do is trying to backup into a parking lot that has bushes and see how it reacts to that scenario.
Your sensors could also need to be readjusted.

Thanks! Yes, it was scary... I thought WTF did I just hit and was looking around and what do ya know... nothing there! Very twilight zone!!
If my sensors need to be adjusted, I take it thats a trip to the dealer?

 

Is the drive way on an incline? The auto brake definitely picks up on that sometimes and will think its about to hit something and hit the brakes. Had that happen before in my drive way.

 

No.. its flat... very (very) slight decline, but I wonder between the shadows, the contrasting light concrete with black asphalt, etc is triggering it.

 

So every morning as I back out of my driveway...
Thanks all!

So following up on this. For the last two days I've been pulling out front-first and I'm not getting that jarring stop-start with the brakes (although they do still feel very sensitive) and no alerts or warnings. Again this is pulling out front-first, not backing out. Could that (again) point to the back sensors needing some kind of adjustment like b-mtrd wrote above?
Thanks!

 

Yes, definitely something work with the rear sensors and in my experience, potentially specifically the cross-traffic alert sensors. The CTA sensors don't just look for objects directly behind you but also for objects coming from the sides and I've had a lot of false positives with bushes etc around the sides of my driveway. When we lived on a busy street trying to reverse to the curb to wait for an opening was almost impossible as it would repeatedly hit the emergency brake as I tried to inch toward the street.

In your case I would see if you can try to replicate it off your driveway (parking lot, etc) and then take it to a dealer. Maybe an adjustment could resolve.

 

I've found when backing into my garage, if i keep my foot on the break and roll in slowly no issue, If i come a little too fast the system engages with an immediate all stop.

 

I have an S60 and have noticed the rear cross traffic alert can be overly sensitive to cars passing really far behind. You said nothing was crossing your path- does that mean no cars were driving past your driveway while you were backing down? The reason I ask is because when I first got the car it would do this every time I was backing into my usual spot at work. The row of parking spots was right along the road, but separated by an ~8’ grassy strip and a sidewalk and if cars were driving by while I was backing into the spot the rear cross traffic would go off and slam on the brakes. It was really jarring. Now I just pull head-in when I park there, but it was pretty confusing the first couple times.


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2019 S60 T6 Inscription w/ Advanced & Climate

 

I have an S60 and have noticed the rear cross traffic alert can be overly sensitive to cars passing really far behind. You said nothing was crossing your path- does that mean no cars were driving past your driveway while you were backing down? The reason I ask is because when I first got the car it would do this every time I was backing into my usual spot at work. The row of parking spots was right along the road, but separated by an ~8’ grassy strip and a sidewalk and if cars were driving by while I was backing into the spot the rear cross traffic would go off and slam on the brakes. It was really jarring. Now I just pull head-in when I park there, but it was pretty confusing the first couple times.


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2019 S60 T6 Inscription w/ Advanced & Climate

Yeah...nothing in the street, no critters, no.... nothing. The last few days I've just been pulling out straight and so far, so good.

 

We've only had ours for a short time and backing out of the garage even with the 360 is slow because we're so scared to hit anything with this new baby. I'm looking over my shoulder, checking the camera and mirrors and suddenly BAM! I definitely hit something and that only something was our other new car. F#*%! So I get out, look at both cars and nothing. Plenty of space still and while relieved, I was a little worried that something else may have gone wrong. So reading this and others stories makes me feel much better, but still hate that feeling...lol

 

I noticed that when I am reversing into a lot in between two cars and the space is a bit tight, it will trigger the auto brake easily when I am half way in. However, it didn't happen if i am reversing into a lot on my own with no cars next to me (or even that is one car next to me is also fine, only happened when i am parking in between cars). So I think as what has mentioned above, the rear crossing sensors (sensors that sense the side of the car) was the cause of the problem.

 

I've had this happen (auto brake) a couple of times and it scared the crap out of me both times. So now I just disable it when backing out of the garage. When the camera comes up after shifting into reverse, just tap the screen anywhere and then tap "Rear Auto Break" at the bottom right and select disable. FYI, I turn off both rear auto brake and the parking sensors when going through the car wash.