Coolest, less obvious new feature

VERY interesting! I've read ALL 607 pages of the Owners Manual and 330 pages of the Navigation Manual, and I don't recollect reading that in either! That is REALLY COOL to know...THANKS!

My wife and I are awaiting our Blue Ribbon Metalic V w/ AT, which should be here within the next 10 days, and facts like these make the anticipation even harder.

David (aka Blind Guy)

 

No, the cruise display is not part of the nav. When you turn the cruise on a cruise box replaces the hybrid drive info. The cruise box shows two lines with cross bars in between. The number of cross bars indicates the distance setting for following vehicles that is selected. There are three settings for distance and 100 feet is the default. The display will show radar ready until you set the speed. The box shows a vehicle icon when another vehicle is within 400 feet. The same box is used to show the lane keep assist. The display changes to wider verticle lines when the LKA is detecting the lane markers and a LKA icon appears in the upper left corner of the cruise box. The set point and the box disapear when the cruise is turned off.

 

If you switch to the normal cruise control (constant speed cc) do you still have the cruise box?

 

This is on the Multi-Information Display (MID). When you turn on the cruise control, this display magically appears, replacing the current display. It appears to follow the Hybrid System Indicator in the display order. This display is used for both the Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC) and the Lane-Keeping Assist (LKA). The attached picture shows the display with the DRCC and LKA turned on (but not currently active). Also, when the DRCC is turned on, the DRCC light on the far side of the dashboard lights up.

The Cruise Control display is shown as long as the DRCC or LKA is turned on. The set speed indicator, which is in the upper right side of the display, is shown when the DRCC is active (i.e. there is a set speed and the DRCC is controlling the speed of the car). Also, when there is a set speed and the DRCC is controlling the speed of the car, the SET light on the far right side of the dashboard lights up. (Unfortunately, it is very difficult for me to take a picture of the display when I am actually driving the car.

If the cruise control is cancelled, either by using the brakes or by pulling the stalk towards you, the set speed indicator is removed from the screen and the SET light is turned off. However, the cruise control display is still shown.

When you momentarily push the cruise control lever up or down, the speed indicator in the MID is updated to indicate the current set speed, regardless of the speed of the car. For example, if you are travelling at 50 MPH and set the cruise control, the speedometer and the speed indicator both indicate 50 MPH. If you increase the cruise control speed by pushing the lever up several times, the set speed indicator will increase, 1 MPH for every press of the lever. When the traffic ahead increases speed, the DRCC will automatically increase the speed of the car up to the set speed. Also, if you had the cruise control set at a certain speed (e.g. 65 MPH) and had to cancel cruise control (i.e. you had to brake), when you resume cruise control the set speed indicator will go back to the previously set speed, regardless of how fast you are currently travelling.

This is the most useful cruise control I have ever had!

 

Thank you SO MUCH for this excellent explanation.

Hope you will take a look at my DRCC Help thread, you give great answers...

Again thanks so much

David (aka Blind Guy)

 

If you hold the lever up or down, it will increase/decrease your set speed by 5 MPH increments.

I agree, this is absolutely the most useful cruise control I've used, too. There's an article on page 52 in the August 2009 issue of Wired Magazine describing Ford's testing of a similar cruise control.

I told my salesman that a test drive of the car does not do the DRCC justice. You need to drive a while with it to truly appreciate how it totally redefines what Cruise Control really feels like.

Stu

 

If you hold it down long enough you'll take the set speed so low it will turn off the CC!

I really like this cruise control, and I use it all the time!

 

I'm not certain if it has been made clear elsewhere, but this cruise control also has another nice feature: To the far right there are indicator lights not only for having the ACC "On" but also for when the ACC is "Set" to a specific speed.

This is a particularly nice feature, because you are able to replace the cruise control screen on the MID with other information. When this happens, you may even forget the cruise control is set to a particular speed.

 

Thanks for the good explanations, the owner's manual doesn't go into much detail. I still have a couple of questions:

1. From what I see there is no way to monitor the battery SOC with the ACC on, is this correct?

2. Can I select an MID display other than the "Radar Display Box" when the ACC is on?

3. If I use the normal (non-radar) cruise control do I still have the "Radar Display Box"?

Sorry about what must seem to be dumb questions but I have never seen a Prius V and most likely will not untill mine arrives.

 

Once you have activated the DRCC you can press the Disp button on the steering wheel to get back to the Hybrid System Monitor display, which shows the battery SOC.

You can select any MID display by pressing the Disp button on the steering wheel. The only problem is that when the DRCC or LKA detects a change in state (e.g. a car enters or leaves the DRCC detection zone or the LKA stops or starts recognizing lane markers) the display is forced back to the radar display. You then have to hit the Disp button again to get back to the display you want. This can be quite annoying.

If you select conventional cruise control (i.e. press the cruise control lever forward for 1 second), the radar display disappears from the MID.

These are perfectly reasonable questions. The Prius V with ATP is so rare that my sales woman asked me to come back to the dealership after I learned about the car and show her the new features. Mine was the first Prius V they had seen.

I read most of the 600 page Owners Manual and the 300 page Navigation System Owners Manual. They describe mostly how to do things - not why you would want to or what side effects are caused by your actions. They do not describe the MID displays in any detail and don't explain how the MID displays relate to how you are using the car.

I used to work as a system programmer for IBM and spent a lot of time designing and implementing user interfaces. My assessment of the user interface (i.e. the MID) in the Prius is that it leaves much to be desired. They have done what Microsoft often does - the engineers designed an interface that makes sense to them but doesn't make much sense to an end user. For example, the bottom line of the MID sometimes contains all of the information for a trip meter (i.e. what meter is displayed, the distance travelled, the average fuel economy, and the average speed). However, for some displays it only contains the trip meter name and the distance travelled - the rest of the line is blank. User interfaces should be consistant and self-explanatory - the MID displays are neither.

 

That's exactly what I wanted to know IraS. As I told a priori in another thread I'm glad I chose to go with the ATP it will be worth the wait.

 

I totally agree with this. I think I would recommend playing with things first before reading the manual (well, just don't break anything). It's easier once you actually know the system somewhat. I tried reading the nav manual before touching the unit, but several parts left me scratching my head. They tell you how to do things but not really what they are, or why... They should put a note in there sort of like they do in textbooks, "Explanations of what these options actually do is left as an exercise for the reader."