DRCC emergency stop at 70mph

Never gonna happen. It's Toyota, not Tesla. I have never heard of Toyota ever done any kind of software updates to enhance a feature that it already has, especially driver assist features. As DRCC trickle down to lower trim levels and more affordable, it is reaching the general population. Tesla's Autopilot is on the news a lot in recent years. People are getting the wrong ideas of what the Toyota's version can and can't do. Joe Blow thinks that the Toyota's DRCC can brake by itself, it must be able to drive like a Tesla's Autopilot. WRONG!
People in the early days have been dead set against autonomous braking ever since the DRCC and PCS came out in the Prius in 2009. Go read one of the early threads about PCS and you'll see many people said that they would never own a car that can brake by itself because they want total control of their car, not some computer.
Times have changed. Elon Musk have sold the general public that his Autopilot is a feature to die for err, must have. Now people want it but can't afford the Tesla with Autopilot. The alternative is to buy a cheaper car with similar feature thinking that it'll do the same.

 

Yea, I know it isn't gonna happen. Maybe I was hoping someone at Toyota will read this and get inspiration for an Autopilot-like update. People are getting the wrong idea about Autopilot. They're taking their hands off the wheel and sleeping in their cars (I posted a link below)! Tesla should name Autopilot something different so people don't think it's an air plane and the pilot can walk away.

 

There's been a system in place for 100 years that allows the owner to ride in the car without having to drive it. It's called Chauffeur. It's relatively expensive so usually employed only by the wealthy.

 

Maybe, but anyone with a TESLA who signs the statement saying they know it's Beta and need to stay alert as it's only assisting them drive - should well know what it's NOT capable of. The vast majority of owners are using it as intended.

The PRIUS Manual has 5½ pages of warnings that it's "assisting", "no capability", "only intended", "may differ", "limitations", "may cause ... death" etc.

 

That system doesn't work because the chauffeur took my spot plus for the price of hiring one for a year equals the cost of a Prius.

 

Entune is radio app update and only updateable if your radio is already Entune capable. I'd be impressed if Toyota can update my radio to add Entune functionality. One can say that the map data is updateable too but again it resides in the radio. It has nothing to do with the function of the car.

 

Spot on. College courses free at your dealer with a masters degree on Hybrid operation.

 

Depends on which dealer you bought your car from. Some dealers have customer appreciation event once a month for new owners. They offer dinner, drinks and vehicle education/demonstation. You can ask anything about the car you just bought and about other Toyotas too.

 

Physics. Radar and even laser based distancing is line of sight. Getting the car to see "through" or around the vehicle directly in front of you will require a much different placement and set of sensors. The video camera and pattern recognition can help with things, but start thinking of a pair of cameras for 3D vision before you rely on them for computing distance.

I think the Prius does an amazing job with the sensors it has, and without the huge equipment package mounted on the top of Google's autonomous test vehicles. I think we have a tendency, since computers can do things so quickly and accurately, to believe that most aspects of advanced technology should be super-human.

Keep the display on the lane departure and DRCC screen the next time you use it and pay some attention to when it says it detects the car in front of you. It's a lot more limited than your own vision.

Would you aim for a brick wall at 70mph and expect the car to stop itself? Because stopped traffic ahead is essentially the same as a wall. The DRCC expectations are that it will slow down when approaching slower traffic that's still moving at a reasonable speed (such that the difference, delta, between the two vehicle speeds is much less than 70mph). Once it has adjusted to follow a slower vehicle, sure it will take you all the way to zero, but let's be reasonable in our expectations.

 

Wow! That car in front snuck over last Minuit...

Would the same happen with the Gen 4's DRCC?

 

The more you drive with DRCC, the more fault you will find. For example, it can't follow the car in front of you when handling curves. Here's a scenario, you're traveling on a 4 lane highway with 6% grade incline, in lane #1 (lane closest to the center divider) with DRCC set at 70mph with 3 bar following distance following a car that's traveling at 65mph so you're also doing 65mph. Both of you are approaching a left curve where in order to take the curve, you have to turn your steering wheel almost 1/4 way to the left (about 80 degrees.) At the same time, both of you are approaching a semi that's doing 35mph in order to take the steep 6% grade. As the car in front of you passes the semi, the DRCC radar jumps the lock from the car in front of you to the lock on the semi which is doing 35MPH. The Prius will slam on its brakes to the speed of the semi. As the highway straightens out, it unlocks the semi and the Prius speeds up like a bat out of hell til it catches up to the car that was originally in front of you.
I know this because I take the highway all the time and have this exact thing happened many times. Now, I just take the curve manually when approaching this curve.
I've read someone also said that it picks up steel road cover plates and slams on the brakes as the car approaches the steel plates.

 

Does the DRCC take into account any cars tailgating you before it slams on its brakes? I.e. When one would normally use eavasive manuver to not rear end the car in front but DRCC simply slams on brakes causing a pile up?

I am so torn to buy a 3T Tomm or a regular three...

3T has the DRCC right? All touring's do I thought?