Safety Sense Failures

I looks like what got you was was the "pedestrian under 3.2 feet tall" limitation. These collision avoidance systems are a work in progress, and over time, will be able to deal with more and more situations. Real-time recognition of these collision situations is an incredibly complex problem for an automated system, that not so long ago were in the realm of sci-fi. It is something that is real easy for humans, but is very difficult for computers.

 

Agreed wholeheartedly! Where can people generally find such advisors for Prius?
I understand Tesla has some knowledgeable advisors for their vehicles.
I had trouble convincing my local salesman that Trim Two Prius was available with interior colors other than black!!

 

If the work is performed my a Toyota approved provider, such as a dealer or a dealer-approved facility then the sensor warranty should not be affected IMHO.

 

If the car cannot be returned to its pre-collision functionality, shouldn't insurance then declare the car as totaled? Toyota was able to build & test the car initially so they should know what parts are needed to restore this functionality.
It appears that the effectiveness of the new car warranty has diminished too.

 

Think of TSS-P and other driver assistance systems as beneficial on a statistical basis: equipped vehicles, as a class, will hopefully be involved in fewer and less severe collisions, even if there are also many scenarios in which the systems are not effective, due to technological limitations or design trade-offs, including the need to keep the cost reasonable and limit the risk of inadvertent activation.

I agree that automakers could do more to help buyers understand this reality, but I also don’t believe that Toyota has overstated the capabilities of its products. On the Toyota Safety Sense website, for example, the Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection feature is described as being “designed to reduce the likelihood of colliding with a preceding car or pedestrian.” (No mention of animals, debris, or structures.) Similarly, the Prius Prime brochure (PDF) uses phrases like “in certain situations” and “under certain circumstances” when explaining the TSS-P features. The idea that TSS-P doesn’t work under all conditions is communicated in Toyota’s marketing materials, not only in fine-print disclaimers or the Owner’s Manual.

I think so, too. Toyota’s Repair Manual for the Prius Prime (available by subscription to techinfo.toyota.com) includes detailed procedures for replacing the forward recognition camera, millimeter wave radar sensor assembly, and ultrasonic sensors. These procedures cover not only the removal and installation of the parts, but also the necessary adjustment and field calibration techniques. By using these procedures, along with spare parts, special service tools, and the Toyota Techstream diagnostic system, all generally available from Toyota, repair facilities should be able to restore the functionality of the TSS-P systems.

I’m not surprised that Toyota wouldn’t guarantee this; as far as I know, no automaker offers a warranty that collision damage will be repairable, or that repairs will be satisfactory. Like most automakers, Toyota doesn’t operate repair facilities, and even for repairs made at authorized dealers, Toyota has little or no day-to-day control over the skill or care with which the work is done, especially if an insurance company has limited the acceptable repair materials or methods for cost reasons. If the repairs are incomplete or faulty, a remedy might come from the insurance policy or a warranty made by the repair facility.

 

Some drivers expect way too much, and rely way too much on those safety features. For me personally, I just don't trust them. I don't want them, and don't feel that I need them. I would never trust that radar cruise to brake and accelerate for me. I know a lot of you guys love it, it's not for me.

Twenty thousand dollars to fix that Prius????!?!! (Maybe I better get collision insurance! ) I would just trade it in on a new car. It will never be the same.

 

Safety features, from any company, now or at anytime in the future, will never be 100%.
They are now in their infancy though. So it is critical to read the information carefully.

Safety features such as this will lower the rates of accidents if used properly.
Right now, companies would cause more accidents if the safety features returned lots of false positives, so these features almost always are a driver assistance package and rarely will act on their own unless the information they gather is 99.9% conclusive.

 

That makes you one of very many consumers whose expectations have gotten well ahead of the available technology. Self-driving cars, those capable of responding well to nearly all possible hazards (i.e. substantially better than humans), won't be available until at least 2020.

Today's systems are really driver assist system. They still have plenty of holes and inadequacies, and are not ready to take over the prime responsibility of driving.

You were expecting Level 3 or 4 performance. Your Prime is merely Level 1, possibly getting close to Level 2:
Driverless cars: the differences between the levels of self-driving cars | WIRED UK
Updated: Autonomous driving levels 0 to 5: Understanding the differences - TechRepublic

The overall market is simply not there yet. We are still in a teething phase, on the path to fully autonomous cars. Feedback from these new partially-autonomous cars is very important to helping develop and refine the next generations. If people insist on all or nothing, with no intermediate steps, then it will delay availability of the 'all' product for a very long time.

I hope that your company can make a big contribution towards this development process.

And I hope your experience with this incident is not wasted. Please help push along the critical importance of managing customer expectations, and help keep those expectations from getting ahead of the available technical reality.

 

Let me start by stating: sorry to hear about your car. That's gotta feel [your favorite expletive here] since it's your first trip driving the thing. I'd seriously consider trading it on another new one.

That said, please allow me to do a bit of proselytizing to everyone regarding all these driver assistance systems because I (very sadly) see so much asshattery in the Tesla community (and would be saddened to see more of such here):

It is my opinion that EVERYONE SHOULD DRIVE THEIR CAR ASSUMING THEY DON'T HAVE ANY KIND OF ASSISTANCE BECAUSE THEY PROBABLY WILL FAIL WHEN YOU NEED THEM THE MOST.

 

Fred Flintstone, is that you?

 

That is why these things are still merely 'driver assistance' systems, and not yet 'autonomous car' systems.

 

Was it good eatin ? A prius prime tenderized piece of boar meat must have been great !

The airbag sensors are all around the engine compartment, and should go off if sufficiently disturbed.
If enough airbag sensors trigger, the insurance company will automatically total the car.
That type of impact that does that will generally result in a seat belt bruise, from collar bone to waist.
I hope that you are OK !

How heavy was the boar ? How fast was the car ?

jp

 

Years ago I saw "what was left" of a full size 18 wheeler. It had hit a hog that got loose and wandered out on the highway. The truck and trailer were completely destroyed like I'd never seen. Hogs/pigs have a very low center of gravity and tend to roll underneath whatever hits them and it acts like a multiple impact wreck. You were very lucky to survive this accident. Kudos to the car.

It may not have detected deer, cattle, or horses either. Hitting one of those breaks the legs and they come through the windshield. We've had several of those here over the years on I-40.

Sorry about the wreak, but you survived.