My Renault has an adaptive cruise control. In the first week of ownership I had it engaged on an 80 kph stretch. The main road bent to the right and there was a turn lane to the left about mid-bend to go onto a narrow side road. A vehicle turning left would be going very slow prior to turning off.
The adaptive sensors thought a car on the turn lane (going very slowly to turn left) was dead ahead and ‘we’ were closing rapidly. It braked smartly to reduce the rate of closure, although I was atop it quickly disconnecting the cruise and there were no negative outcomes. It greatly enhanced my understanding of the limitations of an adaptive cruise system.
AEB systems probably share the sensor and firmware technology with adaptive cruise and could thus make the same type of error. When I bought the car the salesman told me if I was going sufficiently fast in traffic (that was not very fast but the number escapes now) and closing on a car the AEB system and warning horn would be something I might not want to experience a second time. I have not experienced it once so that remains hearsay.
An issue I have always wondered about, especially with the law suits about sudden deceleration, AEB anomalies, and so on, is why vehicle control systems are not mandated to register in a log any time a safety feature engages, with the code that triggered it.
As I understand it the only failures recorded are operating failures of interest to a tech, not safety feature triggers. More logging would not be fail safe because an actuator could have a failure mode beyond the control system, but it would be a step up similarly to the airplane black box. Of course with enough resolve it could be made all but bullet proof…
