It's a real question... brought on by some salesman who told me the Prius learns your driving habits and runs accordingly. According to what I was told, If you drive like a Grandma, the Electronic Control Unit (or one of the other 13 computers) learns your habit and then gives appropriate performance. But if you drive like Mario Andretti, the Prius is programmed for heavy acceleration and gives better accelerating performance. From a technical standpoint, I can see this happening because the ECU would merely record various operating and control parameters, store the parameter values in a table and after repeated uses, remap them as normal accelerating parameters for this car, trying to give the driver what he/she wants. (This is not fact, unless someone can confirm it.) Or is the Prius like a standard computerized car, which takes in various variables and quickly decides the output it needs and make the adjustment on the fly. No ongoing parameter tables necessary? Anyone? ZC1
If this is true, this is an undocumented feature. I have not been able to find mention of this in the 2004 New Car Features Manual or the tech training documents.
My wife and I must really have our Prius confused then because I try to wring out as many mpgs as possible a she has a lead foot.
Nope, no training by use of accelerator, brakes, or steering. Normal automatics in ICE powered cars will change transmission shifting baselines according to driver input. This is the only "learned behavior" that the user can control. This is evident when performing an TCM or ECM reset or disconnecting the battery. Prius doesn't have any trans shifts, so no learned control. The ECU will adapt to wear and vacuum leaks, to keep the engine running smoothly as it ages. Disconnect the battery on a 100k domestic car and see how poorly it will run when cold. It will take 10 miles or so and a few starts to relearn proper fuel trim.
It learns what you want from the engine instantly, put your foot to the floor on the loud pedal and it learns you want to accelerate hard, press gently on the right pedal and it learns you want to accelerate slow. Mine seems to have learnt it is near home after it goes up the hill at 80km/h because once I get to the top of the hill and the battery it all topped up it hardly runs the engine from there to my home.
ZC1, your question is very similar to one I posted a while back. The postings here are essentially parallel to those I got, with the possible exception being that the earlier responses were more detailed. As I see it, the Prius doesn't really "learn," it does record a whole lot of stuff for possible later use when conditions warrant. Here's the earlier thread: http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-technical-discussion/45271-how-what-does-prius-cpu-s-learn.html Don't be mistaken, I haven't the slightest idea what a "fuel map" is. Enjoy!
Sounds like science fiction. I haven't found anywhere any evidence of technology being applied in a Prius. Is it possible? From the technical point of view it's possible. For example, Microsoft handwriting recognition feature is capable of learning from your handwriting but if multiple users are using the same profile instead of an improvement in the recognition process you will get exactly the contrary. And that's the scenario that already somebody described here in this thread. In very few occasions our Prius are driven by just one driver so to implement such technology in it we need profiles/accounts and I don't see this anywhere in my Prius or any other Prius yet.
There are reports of people seeing a decrease in mpg's after the disconnection of the 12V battery, which after some time, will return back to normal. So there is a learning which happens over maybe a couple of hours or less. But not much is known about it. I think the learning is more about fuel type, ambient conditions, and best emissions control, as a guess.
It would be more realistic to say that the reported calculated MPG value is lower and after few hours, once the historical values is gathered the calculated values get more realistic. That's all.
No not a couple of hours, it was more like a month in my case. I think mine needed several full tanks of petrol before the displayed MPG reached it's final accuracy.
How about the rumour that the Prius Navigation was capable of learning your repeat directional preferences (oh alright - preferred routes) after repeatedly trying to force you down it's chosen routes? Is that another Prius II myth? ;-)
I've found that if you ignore her instructions for a few turns she does the typical female thing, and does not speak to you for a hour. John (Britprius)
