Got the 39.6 update last night and got to take it for a drive in morning traffic. Used AP on surface streets and freeways almost 100% of the time for almost 40 miles. Very impressed!
I was mainly focusing on the new lane change capability to work with the blind spot monitoring. I purposefully tried to initiate a lane change while adjacent to another car in the lane I indicated I wanted to change into. I tried this while travelling at the same speed as the adjacent car, going faster than the adjacent car, and going slower than the adjacent car. I'd say that ALC prefers to slow down and then change lanes behind the other car instead of overtaking and then changing lanes. It did overtake a couple times and then change lanes but I think those were where I was already slightly in front of the other car or already going faster. Interestingly, every time it did overtake the other car and just prior to changing lanes, my car slowed down the match the speed of the other car and then changed lanes. This was slightly tense because I am changing lanes in front of another car and I'm slowing down. From their perspective it must have looked like a faster car passing them, then slowing down and merging in front of them, and then speeding up again.
I don't think this is a case of my car speeding up to overtake and exceeding my preset TACC speed and then slowing down. I was already traveling faster than the adjacent car and there were no other cars in front of me in either lane. Also, another time was in heavier traffic going much slower than the TACC set speed, the car changed lanes and slowed again just as the lane change was taking place. There were also a couple instances where the lane change aborted for no apparent reason. One time it started a lane change, then decided not to change lanes and then re-decided to actually change lanes. I'm sure the other car thought I was drunk or something.
Overall, the blind spot detection is great and how it now works with ALC is pretty magical. Can't wait for DON to be released.
