DRCC emergency stop at 70mph

No it doesn't. DRCC only tracks what's in front of you, not the sides or the rear. It only tries to save you from fault. It's not perfect but I would still get it b/c it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Remember, DRCC also comes with PCS. PCS already saved me from 2 at fault accidents.

 

What's PCS? Too many acronyms... I know what PCP is never heard of PCS?

 

Pre-Collision System. It's always on and reduces the impact speed if you fail to brake after it warns you of imminent frontal collision.

 

My use of the word "amazing" isn't in comparison to DRCC equivalents of other manufacturers. I am quite impressed with what Toyota (with all of their lawyers given the litigious US market) has managed to deliver in a mass market vehicle, at this price point, with the functionality and safety value it provides. It does this using one millimeter-wave radar mounted low in the nose, a forward looking single-lens camera, wheel speed sensors, perhaps a steering angle sensor, and software.

I write software for a living, but nothing with life-safety implications. That, plus the realization of just how limited the external inputs are, is my benchmark.

There's no meaningful difference in illumination speed compared to human reaction time.

 

Lamp rise time for LEDs is something like 166ms faster, which is not insignificant, I grant you. However, when it comes to actual crash avoidance the NHTSA doesn't agree, and finds it inconclusive.

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/811712

 

It doesn't matter about LED VS incandescent brake lights as almost all the recently sold cars' center brake lights are LED.

 

I'm more interested in the long-term effects of this shift, rather than the probabilities associated with any single (potential) accident event. For instance, I imagine that LEDs are less prone to burning out; or if an element does fail hopefully it doesn't take the entire cluster out. In the end does that mean there will be fewer vehicles with inoperable brake lights? I hope so.

LEDs or not, the manufacturer can still help or hinder visibility and redundancy. Brake lights should involve more than one element, each, so we're not dependent upon a single LED in each position. The 2004-05 Prius was an example where Toyota "smoked" the plastic around the brake lights to blend with the lower rear hatch window. Did that hinder visibility? They switched to clear plastic for 2006, supposedly due to internal heating in the smoked version causing some plastic to melt (and possibly block light output).

 

The manual has a number of scenarios where it will do "odd" things, but when I drive with it I keep a bit of a picture in my mind of where it's likely to be looking - tighter bends, I've taken manually and then handed over, particularly if I'm on 3 bar distance - 1 bar distance is less likely to have that semi scenario.

Overall, I love having it - it was a YES pre-requisite with whatever car I bought this time. And yes, it's probably phase 2 of what will be an ongoing improvement regime.

 

Doesn't line up with my recollection of my '05. It sure seemed like the cover was not clear for the topmost section. But I'll take your word for it, as it's been two years since I last had it. I'll take a closer look the next time I walk past an '04-05.

Whether the darkened look was because of the surrounding plastic or a darkened/smoked cover would indeed make a difference in how much it interfered with brake light visibility.

I'm disappointed to learn that we're back down to a single point of failure in the brake lights of Gen4. Here's hoping the MTBF is high enough. With a second element at least there'd still be something, if only 50% of the lumens, if one of the two went out. Lots of drivers around here have failed bulbs in one or two of the three light positions.

 

1 bar is also the most dangerous setting as OP has proven. I never set my at 1 bar because at 3 bars coming up a slow traffic or a traffic jam, it brakes pretty hard. I'd imagine at 1 bar it'd brake even harder or worst yet, it cancels out and left you with even less safe braking distance.

 

What would that measure? Is the vehicle type, age, speed, following distance, or other-driver behavior in any way under the Prius's control in that situation?

My perception is that getting rear ended while avoiding an imminent frontal collision is still better than not doing everything possible -- including braking as hard and fast as you can -- to avoid slamming into the front obstacle at a higher speed. The direction of travel is the primary concern. If PCS slams on the brakes then, in many/most cases, the driver already wasn't driving defensively enough. To then be more concerned about whether the driver behind you will be able to stop is to focus on the wrong thing.

None of the systems prevent swerving to the side to avoid both, if safe to do so.

 

No - it would be impossible to cover every permutation of that scenario - as others have said, the person behind you needs to be more careful. Mine slowed down (under DRCC) a bit abruptly the other day, I had a glance at the car behind which I knew was a bit too close - he kept a good distance after that.

There are more and more cars on the road with both AEB as well as DRCC - I had a VW Golf I was following the other day which had DRCC, and someone slipped in front of him into the gap, the Golf slowed quite abruptly, as did Samantha - until I overtook them, that's when I noticed his RADAR thingy in his grille.

 

I was astounded at the utter ignorance of the sales people at the dealerships I visited. 2 out of 3 dealerships were so uninformed/educated about the Gen 4 that I had one salesman tell me the advanced tech package only came on the Prius V. I suggested to one guy that he join the Priuschat forum so he could learn about the Prius. I read nearly 200 pages of the Owner's Manual that I downloaded, watched a few videos and joined Priuschat of course. I ended up buying from a lady who had owned every Prius since Gen 1 and had her own Gen 4. She really knew her stuff.

 

I encountered so many ignorant (to Prius) salesmen - about 10 across 6 dealerships (I didn't encounter any ladies in TOYOTA dealerships, only Volvo and Mazda).

When my local dealership had a Prius in stock, I rang and said to the receptionist "Do you have a salesman who KNOWS Prius? If so, put me through to him - and if he turns out to know nothing like the other 10 salesmen I've spoken to, I'll be walking straight out". She said, just wait for a moment and I'll be back - and put me onto a salesman who had been a TOYOTA mechanic for quite a few years and gone into sales after damaging his wrist - he knew Prius well. The car had arrived on the Friday (their first), and I drove it on the Monday, and he'd obviously researched it, as he knew the buttons, setup, the improvements over the old model etc well. I bought it.