when will semi-autonomous driving come to prius?

I checked the lane keeping assist option a few days ago. I was going down a backroad with no traffic. I nudged the car to stray out of the lane to the left. After I had crossed the line, the car moved the steering wheel and brought me back into the lane. It's not something that I would ever rely on. I can see that actually crossing the line could create an accident. Or at least piss off another driver in the other lane.

 

Or get a "Sir, please blow in this breath test tube" from the local constabulary.

I tried it too - it does work, worked well with 2 solid lines, but a dotted line it got 2 out of 3. And it didn't work on a wet road the one time I tried it there. It was too slow to react, just an assistance/warning, unlike the Mercedes/VOLVO etc setups which are designed to actually DRIVE you in the lane.

 

Fortunately, that is the one safety feature that didn't attract me all that much. I like the ones when I go slow. I really don't want to back into something or someone. I have tested the sonar with some plastic buckets and at least one potential scrape that I've missed. Oh and the cruise control thing I use all the time.

 

I just hope all those radars and special systems don't cause people to become overly complacent while driving; or thinking they can be less attentive, and the car will correct their mistakes.

 

Well I can see that in about 10 years we will all be forced to be driven rather then drive our cars! That will be a sad day for those who enjoy driving!

 

The DRCC works really well...except when traveling at speed and not locked into a car in front of you and they are stopped. I usually disengage the cruise when coming to a stop anyway to econo drive the prius better and make full use of regen braking. The Lane Keep Assist, works, and works even better when traveling at highway speeds. In town or speeds below 50 MPH or so, it is more warning than an AID in driving. I am very interested in this prius being a more automated car as I work overnights and have a bit of a commute but however and I don't think it will be ready for prime time till like 10 years or so. I do think there will be self driving cars in the next several but toyota won't be the first to market I predict. There is a developer of the technology looking to automate cars across the board called comma AI, but I feel even they are years till product to market.

I did as a side note buy this specific car because of all the tech this car offered, the safety sense package, as well as great MPG's.

 

Not sure - they're all working on them. THE MOMENT one major manufacturer is approved for a new approved "assist", another follows really quickly with the rest in catch-up in hot pursuit. Otherwise, they know the market will follow THE LEADER, and they'll be left well behind. TOYOTA's systems in PRIUS are, in some ways ahead or at least tagging the logical price-point opposition (ie, not up with a S Class Benz), and I'm sure they're working on being with the front runners in 4 or 7 or 10 years when Autonomy is taken for granted.

Municipalities are keen to see it and are working to incorporate autonomy when it arrives - I read a while back a prediction that cars controlled to drive systematically rather than "on a whim" will travel 30% and even possibly 50% more smoothly and speedily on our roads.

 

Don't count on it. Toyota seems to be heading towards autonomous safety rather than autonomous driver assist.

 

Toyota have stated they are taking a slightly different approach, even through they are ultimately working towards fully autonomous cars at some point in the longer term.

The next step forward for Toyota is Guardian Angel tech, they are proceeding more cautiously than others. I'd switch to a Tesla or otherwise if you are keen to have access to emerging tech before anyone else.

"Guardian angel assistance. The driver would always be in control (although with all the driver assists engaged on an interstate, he or she might not be fully alert) and the car’s sensors would be alert for a sudden dangerous situation. It would determine whether full-pedal emergency braking (something ACC doesn’t do) is the proper course, evasive steering into the next lane, or possibly using the breakdown lane. The angel assist might be pulling in DSRC signals (dedicated short range communication) from cars just ahead to get advance notice of icy roads or sudden panic braking. It would only take control temporarily and then, when the danger passes, the driver would resume command."
Source: Toyota turns to ‘guardian angel’ self-driving cars | ExtremeTech

"Guardian angel technology would be able to learn over time, even picking up on user's driving habits so that it could spot trends that could lead to accidents and advise the driver to make corrections that would prevent a crash from occurring."

"For example, Pratt said, your car may someday warn you several times about a particularly dangerous driving habit you have before taking control of the wheel."
Source: A.I. guardian-angel vehicles will dominate auto industry, says Toyota exec | Computerworld

Whilst many of us look forward to technology helping to make driving safer for all of us, we can today use the ultimate technology each of us has (our brain) to perform very simple tasks that can prevent accidents today, not driving when drunk, pulling over for a rest when tired, not texting on the highway etc.

As we move towards, 'transport as a service', or 'mobility as a service', the way in which we conceive owning/leasing our OWN car is likely to change dramatically over the next 10-15 years, at least in Toyota's home market of Japan. Source: Toyota to build artificial intelligence-based driving systems in five years| Reuters

 

Yes, that's one of the ways - there will be a few different tactics by manufacturers. But, in the end, what we end up with will hopefully be consistency in our Autonomous Vehicles - lawmakers are busily trying to come up with some sort of infrastructure consistency to enable this - the "safety" tactic by TOYOTA will, as it improves become more and more like the "all out" tactic of TESLA - and will meet in some common ground probably paved by GM, FORD, VOLVO, Merc, BMW & AUDI, some of which (I forget which) have discussed consistency.

Poor PORSCHE will no longer have a market at all - "New Porsche boss, Oliver Blume, has stated emphatically that the sports car maker isn’t interested in self-driving cars" (CarsGuide 2016).