Gentlemen — let’s cool our jets, shall we? We’re all, ultimately, after the same thing here.
To answer @dutch’s question a bit more: yes, Hill Start Assist is a new technology that first made its GM debut on the Sonic. It is making its way across all of GM’s other vehicles (along with those of other manufacturers), including the Camaro and the 2014 Silverado — as @CraigInIndy mentioned. However, I don’t think the 2014 Corvette will have it.
To me, the way the technology works is pretty cool. Here’s some more details about it:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2011/08/how-does-hill-hold-assist-work-on-the-2012-chevy-sonic-video/
With that said, I completely understand the concern you’re expressing, as I’ve stalled a Camaro with Hill Hold Assist once before. That was my first coming into contact with the technology, and it’s rather annoying (at first) — especially for someone who has grown up driving cars with manual transmissions, and has learned to manually mitigate starting up on an incline. Either way, it would be nice if Chevy offered a way to disable the feature altogether — especially on a performance car like the Camaro.
That said, I do have a question. To my knowledge, Hill Start Assist is activated by automatically applying the brakes for a couple of seconds when these conditions exist:
1. The brake is depressed
2. The clutch is in and a gear is selected
3. The vehicle is facing an incline steep enough
My question is this: when the driver applies the throttle, do the brakes automatically release, or do they hold on for the full 2 seconds to complete the “cycle”? Would be nice to know. It
