Prius in deep (15cm+) loose snow (Results)

ABS almost always increases stopping distance in most cars, if not all. However, for *most* people that just hit the panic button, it's shorter. I learned this as a mechanic back in 1988 when I went off to college and got edumacated in ABS.

Most people deny it as do most car mags but it is true. You end up with very short controlled skids which would normally make you think of shorter stopping but thats not the case.

I for one, hate ABS, especially the Prius's as it has a lag and is to aggressive. You hit a short bump on dry roads and there is a moment of no brakes, even after the software update. It's freaky to experience though I have yet to have an accident because of it. I figure a 1 second delay and yes, I can reproduce it.

The distinct advantage of ABS is not the stopping power but that it lets you STEER the car to avoid the accident. Thus ABS is important for the majority of drivers!

I do realize that I sound cocky, but this is what I was taught and physically trained on.

IMHO, GM and the other Bosch ABS systems are superior to that of the Prius. I have not spent enough time in other Toyota's to make a blanket statement. Still, I dislike ABS and wish I could always disable it.

 

Is their a video?

 

No, it's not a 1 second delay, not after application of SSC-A0B. Bwilson4web did document the behavior before application of the fix at http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...78685-offer-document-brake-pause-problem.html. It was ~800 milliseconds.

I can't find his post of after the fix was applied, but http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...rakes-did-not-fix-problem-10.html#post1122760 says that the pause was gone. Unfortunately, he appears to be no longer participating on PC.

Yep to the advantage you mention. Without ABS, someone has to do threshold braking to the point before wheel lockup while trying to steer. Also, there are a bunch of cases where ABS can do things that are physically impossible w/o ABS, such as maintaining control when braking while one side of the car is on a slicker surface than the other.

 

In this area we normally will get one snow storm each week during winter. These will often give us 15 to 20cm, and normally result in the undercarriages of vehicles dragging and packing down the fluff.

The Prius is new to us, so we will just see what happens