Are you sure they got triggered by the bridge posts? These systems tend to exclude any non moving objects. I've driven several cars with emergency braking installed and it never reacted to a static object, even if I was headed for it. The only time I found it can mis-trigger is for cyclists that you'd be able to pass easily.
Yes, 100% sure. Bridge posts come within 8" of the car and when you approach the bridge the return of the two (steel) posts is enough to trigger the radar based collision detector. Pretty dumb really, if there is nothing in front of the car and you're going forward you can't possibly collide with it and hard braking in a situation like that is much more dangerous than simply rolling through. I figure with the cars' GPS and a list of exceptions they could fix that sort of thing in a band-aid style fashion but they were not interested. I'm not going to wait to see what other edge cases aren't covered.
There are two kinds, one based on radar and one based on stereo camera. The radar systems have to ignore static items or they’ll detect overhead road signs as hazards and brake erratically. This is why Teslas run into static obstacles. The camera systems OTOH can handle static items.
Our 2017 Suzuki Kei car has a stereo camera system and it will brake if you’re about to run into a car stopped at a red light.
