General Motors has been at the forefront of integrating active safety technology into its vehicles. Outside of Adaptive Cruise Control, which we will profile in a separate column, the most prominent active safety tech is (arguably) Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and the new Lane Keep Assist (LKA) features. The former made its debut as an option on some 2014 model year GM vehicles in conjunction with GM’s Safety Alert Seat, while the latter has become available in select models and trim levels (or option packages) on 2015 model year Cadillacs such as the 2015 ATS, 2015 CTS, and 2015 XTS.
What, exactly, do Lane Departure Warning and Lane Keep Assist do, and how do they work? Let’s find out.
Lane Departure Warning
The goal of the Lane Departure Warning feature is to help avoid crashes resulting from unintentional lane departures. The system provides a warning (either via a sound, a pulse in the Safety Alert Seat, or an indicator in the instrument cluster) if the vehicle is crossing a detected lane marking without using a turn signal in the lane departure direction.
Lane Keep Assist
Similar to Lane Departure Warning, the goal of Lane Keep Assist is to help avoid crashes due to unintentional lane departures. But whereas Lane Departure Warning solely provides a warning, Lane Keep Assist may actually assist staying in a lane by gently turning the steering wheel if the vehicle approaches a detected lane marking without using a turn signal in the lane departure direction. Lane Keep Assist may also provide a Lane Departure Warning system alert as the lane marking is crossed.
The system will not assist or provide a Lane Departure Warning alert if it detects that you are actively steering. It’s possible to override Lane Keep Assist simply by turning the steering wheel.
How It Works
Lane Keep Assist uses a camera sensor to detect lane markings between speeds of 60 km/h (37 mph) and 180 km/h (112 mph). The camera sensor is located on the windshield ahead of the rearview mirror.
Enabling & Disabling
To activate or deactivate Lane Keep Assist on Cadillac vehicles, press the “A” to the left of the steering wheel.
When on, A is green if LKA is available to assist and provide LDW alerts. It may assist by gently turning the steering wheel and displaying A as amber if the vehicle approaches a detected lane marking without using a turn signal in that direction. It may also provide an LDW alert by flashing A in an amber color as the lane marking is crossed. Additionally, there will be three beeps, or the driver seat will pulse three times, on the right or left, depending on the lane departure direction.
Not Autonomous
The Lane Keep Assist system does not continuously steer the vehicle.
If the system does not detect active driver steering, the vehicle will provide an alert and chime. To dismiss, simply move the steering wheel.
Possible Issues
If the Lane Keep Assist system is not functioning properly when lane markings are clearly visible, cleaning the windshield may help.
In addition, Lane Keep Assist assistance and/or Lane Departure Warning alerts may occur due to certain road conditions, such as tar marks, shadows, cracks in the road, temporary or construction lane markings, or other road imperfections. This is normal system operation, and the vehicle does not need to be serviced if you experience these issues. GM recommends turning Lake Keep Assist off if these conditions continue.
Keep in mind that Lane Keep Assist is not infallible, and may not keep the vehicle in the lane or give a Lane Departure Warning alert, even if a lane marking is detected.
According to GM, Lane Keep Assist and Lane Departure Warning systems may not:
- Provide an alert or enough steering assist to avoid a lane departure or crash
- Detect lane markings under poor weather or visibility conditions, or if the windshield or headlamps are blocked by dirt, snow, or ice, if they are not in proper condition, or if the sun shines directly into the camera.
- Detect road edges
- Detect lanes on winding or hilly roads
And if Lane Keep Assist only detects lane markings on one side of the road, it will only assist or provide a Lane Departure Warning alert when approaching the lane on the side where it has detected a lane marking.
Lastly, GM says that using Lane Keep Assist while towing a trailer or on slippery roads could cause loss of control of the vehicle and a crash. Turn the system off.
When the LKA or LDW systems don’t work properly, the system performance may be affected by:
- A close vehicle ahead
- Sudden lighting changes, such as when driving through tunnels or direct sunlight on the camera sensor
- Banked roads
- Roads with poor lane markings, such as two-lane roads
Given the various nuances with the LKA and LDW features, we’d say that it’s always a good idea to keep the windshield, headlamps, and camera sensors clean and in good condition, and avoid using Lane Keep Assist in bad weather conditions, or on bad roads.
Comments
Why is lane keep assist not available on AWD models? Is it a technical issue?
Windshield is showing an orange car to car with a star in between like a crash has occurred? What is this and will it go away?
2016- escalade esv
This is why there is so many bad drivers these days. Enough with the “assistant” driving. People are too dumb now
How about a 5 day old Silverado LTZ with both LDW and LKA, plus Collision Avoidance and NOT ONE of them are working! Spent 5 hours at the dealership today and was told “We can’t fix it because the SYSTEM isn’t telling us anything is wrong”. After of course the Tech had taken 2 test drives, and confirmed that NOTHING was turning on. The switch for LKA is on (in the console) as well as the parking assist, and the collision avoidance is set to maximum range in the DIC. Yet because it isn’t “acting up while it’s working” (as I was told)…. “we can’t fix it”.
Tony, your dealership has a way of escalating these issues to GM for a field service rep or someone from corporate in order to take care of it, whether that’s by means of replacing components or otherwise. Do you know whether the dealership has escalated the issue to GM?
Same here on a 7days Suburban LTZ…
Lights on stop working…
Same issue here. 2016 Silverado High Country with 2200 miles..yes 2200, and I can’t use any of these systems including adaptive cruise control because the front camera needs service. What gives?
I also have a High Country with LKA that doesn’t work; was told that it “may” provide audible or hepatic warning. Great, I may avoid a collision. Why did I pay for a vehicle that doesn’t perform as advertised. My 2016 Cadillac performed flawlessly; why can’t these techs talk and use a system that works. My friend also had a High Country but traded it in on a Ford that actually performed as advertised. GM Tech Support leaves the dealership hanging out to dry with ambiguous support. I would LOVE to discuss this with someone who is empowered to fix this flaw. My situation makes it unlikely that I will buy GM again.
My favorite safety feature on my 2015 CTX was vid seat alert. I cannot believe my 2019 XT5 with lane assist did away with the vibrating seat. For me that took away a great safety feature.
Alex,
No… the dealership never escalated the issue. They had another truck a High Country in the day I took mine in the first time with the same issue. That one though had thrown a code related to the system. Mine had a power steering code (electric steering) that the tech HOPED would be the issue. Nope, no joy.
Based on what I’d been reading, especially on GM-Trucks.com (forum member there) I’d seen that one fix was to replace the windshield camera, which I suggested. Dealership declined that as they said it needed to SAY the camera was bad. Now that was July 14th.
Since then I’ve had GM Customer Support monitoring my posts and communicating with me via PM on that forum. It was THEM that contacted the dealerships Service Manager with my concerns. Took them over a week to come up with something to do with the High Country. I’m told that was to disconnect, then reconnect the various components related to the Advanced Driver Alert Package, in effect, doing a “logic reboot/relearn”.
While Customer Support was dealing with the dealership, the dealership wasn’t dealing with me! I made 4 trips to check in and see when, where,, what was going on. After getting the other truck back on the road they were waiting to see if it was going to actually work before calling me in.
As of yesterday I was *FINALLY* able to take it in. Went by there today to pick up a couple things I’d left in the truck and spoke with the tech for a while. Guess what? He’s ordered a CAMERA for it. Well DUH… seems that’s what I said all along!!!!!
I’m just thankful that GM Customer Support monitors GM-Trucks.com and reached out to me. Once I get this repair behind me, it’ll be time to have a SERIOUS discussion with the dealership owner and service manager in regards to how their young, slow, and totally inept service writer handles not just my, but from what I’m told, quite a few situations. “He’s a good kid” you’ll hear folks say, but his ability to communicate, (in a job that is 95% communication skill oriented) is sorely lacking. Love the dealership, but this guy has got to go.
Guess we’ll find out (hopefully tomorrow afternoon) if they get it fixed, and it actually works (for the FIRST TIME).
At least the Equinox LTZ loaner I’m driving has a working Lane Warning and Collision Warning system. 😉
Even the Canyon loaner my wife is driving the system works on as well. 🙂
Beyond that there is another problem that is a 100% engineering fail. That is the wireless charging pad in the full size trucks. When you have a design that’s easily 3 years old on a 2016 truck with a 2016 phone (Samsung S7 Edge) and that phone will not charge,, THAT is an engineering fail. That phone, as well as many others with built-in charging doesn’t charge, as well as barely even fits the tray (some don’t fit the tray at all).
Problem fixed?
New camera seemed to fix the system. Or at least the LKA.
Have yet to come into a situation where the Collision Avoidance has kicked in (haptic seat or beep), but at least now have the green (and yellow) vehicle(s) in the DIC.
The Equinox would beep like crazy even if someone changed lanes in front of me on the expressway (and they were too close). Maybe the Silverado will, like when I’m already a foot into their trunk. (rolleyes)
LKA however is working like it’s supposed to.
Wireless charging however is a completely different matter.
I HAVE A 2016 YUKON WITH WIRELESS CHARGING. ID DIDN’T WORK LIKE IT SHOULD, BUT IF I SET MY S8 ON THE REAR PAD AND THE TOP OF THE PHONE IN THE CRADDLE IT WORKS 80% OF THE TIME.
Just took my 2016 LTZ realtree edition in with same problem. The got it to work now none of the warnings I.E. seat buzzer or beeps. All that works is the little indicators on dash. Fix one thing break another. Already had to lemon law one guess this will be number two. Seems if they don’t know what the problem is they always say ” it’s a nuisance problem and that is normal.” Things like clunk in rear drive train when moving and engine knocks. Over 50,000 for a truck and they have no clue how to fix it.
I DONT UNDERSTAND LANE KEEP ASSIST,SHOULD IT WORK TO KEEP YOU SAFE,IF SO I DONT GET IT,ONLY WAY MY WORKS IS DRIVING WITH NO HANDS,SEAT SHOULD VIBRATE WHEN YELLOW WARNING COMES ON RIGHT?
Brand new 2018 Envision – I will sometimes will get the yellow indicator light for lane departure, with no other audible or seat alert. Not useful at all. Also have a Subaru Crosstrek and the LDW and LKA work far better than the far more expensive Envision. Getting highly annoyed – those features were one of the main reasons for going with the Buick over much less expensive models.
New systems are very bad. Our other vehicle is a 2019 Hyundai Tuscon and it is way better then our 2020 GMC Terrain.
GM’s 2016 Lane Departure and Forward Collision Warning Systems were perfect.
Fast-forward to the 2018 models… Wow… talking about taking something that worked nicely and utterly screwing it all up…
I moved from a 2016 Yukon Denali to a 2018 Yukon Denali and it actually feels UNSAFE.
Some genius engineering group decided that Lane Departure should no longer vibrate (when signal is NOT in use).
They also changed the sensitivity settings of the Forward Collision…
Had I know they made these changes, that would have 100% influenced my decision to get the new Denali.
I hope they get back to their senses and provide a firmware/software update that can re-set these systems and actually render them useful.
I have a 2014 Buick Enclave that the side avoidance and all the other features that this module operates has failed. It had started to do that over a year ago but dealer could not find anything wrong with the unit so we just left it until now and it needs to be replaced and they want over 1,000. $ to fix same. I have been told that this unit is being replaced by the hundreds so there must be a real problem here. The car is now out of warranty so GM will not pay for it. Maybe some one else has had same problem?
I just bought a 2019 GMC Sierra Denali for nearly $65,000 with all these features and only some of them work. Took it back to the Dealer with less than 100 miles on it and after two hours, they updated the software which made it worse. As in now other features are not working. Told me to bring it back later and leave it for a week!!! NOT HAPPY!!!
In my 2015 Suburban the seat vibrated when you would get too close to the edge of the highway or the center line. The new 2019 suburban only has the amber light and will go off if you continue to cross the center line while driving. I hate that the seat does not vibrate. It will be dangerous to try to keep looking for the green lights when in center of land and amber light that doesn’t stay lit. Is they any way to get the seat to vibrate like it use to. Thanks,
The 2019 Suburban still offers the Safety Alert Seat (the vibrating seat). It’s optional on the LS trim level (part of the Enhanced Driver Alert Package) and standard on LT and Premier. Either you didn’t get the package, or you have it disabled in the settings.
After over 30 years owning Toyota’s (no problems!) in 2016 I bought a Cadillac SRX because I didn’t like the looks of the Toyota brand. Love the Cadillac except with 20,000 miles I’ve had a few problems. Yesterday, I complained that the lane departure wasn’t working properly. no seat buzz on the left side and vague on the right side. The mechanic said everything was normal.
After asking to have someone else test it I got the same answer. WRONG!! I tried several time on my way home and it didn’t work. This is my Last GMC auto!!!
We have lane departure assist in our 2016 Chevy Tahoe. We tow a boat back and forth from Florida to NJ. Why is GM recommending turning this system off while towing? How could it possibly cause a crash?
i bought a 2018 xts base model.lane departure or blind side monitor was not an option.I DO SOOOO REGRET HAVING BOUGHT THE BASE INSTEAD OF LUXERY MODEL……
question is, can either of these options be retrofitted or some how be added?
sure would appreciate an e mail
thank you
peter
I own a 2017 Tahoe Premier that used to have the vibrate seat with the lane departure assist. We took the Tahoe to the dealer for a recall for increased brake pedal effort, and after we picked it up the seat pulse no longer worked, and the lane departure did not work. Took it in to the dealer and they replaced the camera, but the vibrate still not working. They now have told us we never had the pulse seat option, and they can not fix it. Really! A $70,000 special ordered Tahoe Premier and they can not make the sear vibrate? Plus they said we never had that package. Help!
We have a 2020 Terrain, since day one the lane departure warning rarely works and blind side has no alert only light on side view mirror. Have brought it back to dealer several times but they say system is working normally and new vehicles do not work like previous years. Why would GM make these systems less efficient?
Went to install some recovery/tow hooks on my 2020 Tahoe RST Premier and noticed that there is a Lane Departure/Distance control module mounted in the same spot where the driver side hook should be mounted. Can this module be relocated so I can install recovery/tow hook?
Same issue with a 2019 Suburban Premier. Still trying to figure out how to relocate de driver side Lane Departure/Distance control module in order to install the tow/recovery hook
gm mechs are poorly trained on the electronics even IF they absorb all that is offered to them by GM…. it’s just a hit or miss sort of deal and if your dealer doesn’t fix the problem don’t fall into the trap of thinking that none CAN address it
I have 2021 Chevy Tahoe Lt with Lane Keep Asst is it supposed to work in curves, because mine goes off . The light goes off in the dash and it does not try to keep you in the lane. Thanks for your help.