I'm glad it's as annoying to you as it is to me. Marching band is a very good analogy for what it SHOULD be. Following distance doesn't make a difference even on 1 - even though it's meant to be an (arbitrary) time scale. No, I just think they have very conservative take-offs intentionally to avoid lots of jerky stop start in case the car in front is creeping slightly. Either way, once the car in front has clearly gone ahead, there's still a deathly pause and painfully slow acceleration - which is weird because at other times I feel significantly more acceleration. It's like it's permanently on chill mode. Personally I wish it'd respect the driving mode and accelerate accordingly...