There are traditionalists among us who think any type of driver's aid will do more harm than good, because people will begin to rely upon them exclusively, and that will cause more accidents than they will prevent. I believe a car company should address those concerns by allowing the driver to turn off all driver aids if they prefer. However, to satisfy the desires of those of us who want the latest in technological improvements, a wise manufacturer would make them available on all their cars (perhaps optionally at additional cost). To remove something that was previously available and given accolades by many who used it is just plain foolish, especially when insurance data shows that it may have helped reduce the overall accident rate.
Actually, I've never driven one either. Before buying my Gen 4, I saw on this forum that several people who had Gen 3 cars with the Advanced Technology Package were unhappy with the performance of LDW with SA on the Gen 4 car, so I was trying to find a Gen 3 car with ATP, but there seemed to be very few for sale. I bought the Gen 4 with eyes wide open, but I would like to have had the opportunity to try LKA.
@Michael Ge I agree. The 2018 Camry has two different types of Dynamic Radar Cruise Control - High speed and all speed (sometimes known as full speed or all range). High speed is similar to the Gen 3 and older radar cruise control - it only works above 25 mph like traditional cruise control. All speed/Full speed DRCC will bring the car down to 0mph and you can restart it with a tap up on the stalk (or press RES in the case of the Camry since they got rid of the CC stalk in the 2018 Camry) or tap the accelerator. Lower trim level (e.g. LE) get the high speed DRCC and higher trim level (e.g. XLE) get the all speed DRCC. They all fall under TSS-P. However, I think Toyota is explicit in the brochure about which trim level gets which DRCC. However, between models, it's not explicit (e.g. 2017 Prius gets all speed DRCC but 2017 RAV4 gets high speed DRCC but neither are explicitly mentioned in the brochure and both have TSS-P). In the Gen 3, only if the lane markings are available (not faded orr covered in snow) and only works above 50 mph. It would not always strictly follow the lane as this video show (sometimes it stays within the line, sometimes it crosses the line. Again, it's meant as an assist function)
I have both a gen 3 advanced and a prime advanced. The prime's LDW certainly has less feedback than the gen 3, but honestly, I never found the gen 3's lka to be all that worthwhile. It was ok on long trips, but it simply turned off way to often due to loss of lane markers (or what it could detect as lane markers) for my liking, and it was quite poor at going around corners. often it would deviate far from the lane when taking a turn before it decided to "keep you centered". I also found the gen 3's lka to be rather annoying with all the beeping it did (it would beep every single time it lost site of the lane markers and self-disabled). that's all fine and dandy, but it did this so many times that if you're switching on-off driving duties with someone else and they're trying to nap you'd wake them up constantly with all the damn beeping... so off it went. I find the lane detection to be quite a bit improved on the prime (there are still some places that it will miss-detect (one right near my house actually which I hit every day (interestingly enough, it on this particular piece of road if I go slightly over the center line to avoid a pot-hole it will miss detect and tell me the passenger side is deviating)). If I could have just a bit more center keeping with the better detection on the prime i'd be happy, but if I had a choice between the two I would personally take the primes better detection rather than the gen 3's greater feedback. Now... if there was a way to turn off the damn mfd pop-up that tells you it's been disabled because you're going to slow once for each time you've activated the system and dropped below the speed limit i'd be happy. that and the drcc's pop-up every time it gains lock on a leading vehicle. my two most hated mfd pop-ups.
[QUOTE=" If I could have just a bit more center keeping with the better detection on the prime i'd be happy, but if I had a choice between the two I would personally take the primes better detection rather than the gen 3's greater feedback. [/QUOTE] Ok, but improved technology probably explains the better detection. I wouldn't think it would be necessary to remove the greater feedback to take advantage of the better technology. Why is Toyota only giving us half a loaf when we could have had the whole thing?
You guys will probably like Lane Trace Assist that's coming down the pipeline. It will not only use the lane markings but can track the vehicle ahead (yup.. moving towards autonomy). By tracking the vehicle ahead, it can follow the lane even if the lane markings are covered. Turning of LDW should remove the pop-up for the "LDW doesn't work below 50km/h".
Looks like Jukin Media is a tad snobbish! BTW, I have LKA on my Niro. I was at first startled when it kicked in, but now I find it quite helpful. Sunday on a dead time on the local 210, I had LKA engaged, and lightly lifted my hands from the wheel, and damned if it didn't track the curve nicely, and as we exited the curve it straightened out with the road. I was impressed, however I would never trust it mile after mile unattended! I will have to make a video to reproduce this, but let's try!
NO, LKA is NOT AutoPilot!! Think of it as LDW w/ST that actually works without bouncing you around. Your hands MUST remain on the wheel. LKA GENTLY guides you down the center of the lane, you don't have to cross over the line to be bounced back. The reason that LDW is so annoying is that the Prime steering is so sensitive that you must actively correct the position of the car constantly, due to road crown, wind, a passing truck, 'turning your head to look at the passing flying saucer' (No, LeeJay, I'm not being littoral), or any of a thousand reasons your car wants to drift from the exact center of the lane. LKA solved this brilliantly. I had it for almost 8 years and loved it. Like I said, I'd love to have words with the actual human being who made the decision to remove it.
Those two statements look like opposites. If it can guide you down the center of the lane, it's basically autopilot. I don't find that at all with my Prime. Except in extreme crosswinds, it tracks so well it requires very little effort - less than any car I've ever owned. So little that having LDA/SA engaged generally does nothing because I never get close to the lane markers.
Autopilot is when you call your Tesla and it drives itself to where you are. LKA is easily overcome with very slight steering effort, and, in 2010, it dropped out enough (with 2 beeps) that you paid attention. I'm sure that lane recognition would be better now. Not to mention (he said, mentioning it) you didn't HAVE to turn it on. It was best on long drives.
I wasn't asking about autopilot, just lane following which would be like autopilot just on the highway, especially combined with adaptive cruise control. Airplane autopilots have many modes from simple heading hold to navigation to the addition of auto-throttle to full-up auto-land. What I'm essentially asking is if LKA (Lane Keep Assist) could be combined with adaptive cruise on the highway so that the car would simply follow the lane you're in hands-off including speed changes if someone slower is in your lane.
Yes, but you must keep your hands on the wheel. Reduces driver fatigue by 80% on long trips. (my estimate) It does not watch cars in adjacent lanes, just keeps you in yours. Hands off is not an option.
There seems to be some question on the description that Toyota has put on the lane departure warning or assist or whatever they call it this week. I spoke with a couple of people at Toyota and their explanation is as follows: Lane Departure Warning with steering assist is the term used currently by Toyota to describe its attempt to keep their vehicles in one lane on the highway. This term is the description that Toyota uses on all their vehicles as part of the Toyota Safety Suite of driver assist safety functions. The Toyota Safety Suite is standard equipment in all Toyota vehicles sold in the US. The Toyota marketing and engineering description and feature summary states that all Toyota vehicles offer the Toyota Safety Suite (TSS) in all models of all vehicles sold by Toyota. There should be no difference in operation or functionality in any Toyota model. Based on this description from Toyota the Toyota Lane Departure Warning with Steering Assist would be expected to function the same on all models of the Toyota line. In the Prius Prime Advanced the system does not function the same as it does in any other Toyota model. The vehicle can and does cross the lane markings and I for one and the Toyota Filed Technical Specialist that rode with me stated that this system in the Prius Prime does not function as advertised nor described. Neither of us were able to get multiple examples of the Prius Prime to "bounce off the white line nor be nudged toward the center of the lane" in a manner that kept the vehicle in its own lane. This occurred not in only one example of the Prius Prime but in multiple examples manufactured at different times. I hope this clarifies the Lane Keep Assist, or Lane Departure Warning with Steering Assist, whatever name Toyota has used on this feature in the past. This system was not deliberately engineered to operate differently on the Pius Prime than on any other Toyota model. You can certainly conjecture in your own mind why it does operate differently...
I personally have experienced my P.Prime Advanced preventing me from going into an adjacent lane, but it has only **very limited** effect/value. Toyota’s YouTube videos described it as working only on “relatively straight roads,” adding that it makes “small [steering] corrections” for “a short period of time.” That’s exactly what I’ve seen it do. So, in short, I’ve found the “steering assist” feature to *occasionally* be *slightly* helpful. Now lane-departure warnings, however, I have found to be very functional, and usually helpful. iPhone ? Pro
Since the LDA (EDIT: for Lee Jay) appears to have a good sense of where the car is and where the lane edge is, you gotta wonder what the issue is preventing the steering assist from doing that little bit more to actually be effective. Seems like they got the hard part right, then fell short on the easier part...But I am likely not appreciating the complexity of the system...