Regen brake lights....

If you push on the brake pedal, the brakes lights come on, if you don't, they don't.

So far as I know that is how it works on every car on the highway today.

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Yep. IIRC, there was a thread on PC some time ago about how to adjust the brake light switch so the lights came on at the amount of pedal depression you wanted them to.

I would rather not have them come on until the friction brakes are on. Regen doesn't slow the car anymore than gearing down on a normal car so no need for brake lights when only using regen. When the brake lights are on for long periods of time using regen in the mountains it makes the driver look like a flatlander.

 

All normal cars actively slow down in cruise control by using engine braking. It's the same as lifting your foot off the gas. The Prius lacks a normal transmission, so it freewheels instead of spinning the engine, therefor no engine braking.

To make it behave more like a normal car, the Prius simulates engine braking by using regenerative braking. The net result is the same, even if the internal actions differ.

Tom

 

Good try Tom... but I still can't figure out what folks are confused about here!

 

Not sure if Prius model year matters, but on my HyCam, the brake light don't come on when I am gently riding the brakes, and the CHG/ECO/PWR meter dips fairly far down into "CHG". How it behaves seems to depend on traveling speed as well. I want to think that the brake lights only comes on when the disc brakes are engaged, but I have no idea whether that is the case.

 

Maybe your sensor needs to be adjusted?

I agree it's hard to tell when the brake lights actually come on. I regularly trust mine by backing up in front of a building with large glass doors or light colored walls. I'm paranoid after owning a GenII with their propensity for burning out tail light bulbs.

 

Dang. I actually had my brakes working this way on my 2004 years ago. I had the car in for some sort of a service campaign / recall and on the drive home noticed that the brake lights would not come on until the brake was depressed about an inch or so.

Had I know there was some value I might not have it taken back in for adjustment back to "normal".

The fact that they were able to make some sort of adjustment may mean it is possible to get the lights to work the way you want them to.

 

Ok, maybe it's a Canadian/American thing (probably more of a mountains vs no mountains thing) but I'm telling you many cars here do not brake as hard as the Prius. No car I've ever owned has braked this hard to maintain speed, and it's not engine breaking because the charge bar on the HSI fills up (at least until it's full, then you hear engine breaking kicking in)

It's really quite annoying in the Prius because I have to push on the throttle to avoid slowing down and having all those people I just passed zip right by my again because their cruise control isn't braking as hard.

 

I could be churlish and point out that car manuals tell you not to use cruise control in hilly areas.

 

And what about shifting to "B"; does that switch on the brake lights?

 

Only (and always) when you press the brake pedal, honest.

(if you shifted a 'normal automatic to L, you would not get brake lights, either. It works JUST like any other car)

 

BINGO ! Hit the nail smack dab on the head !!

 

I am not sure why you would waste energy like that, most of us prefer good gas mileage. The computers will protect the battery.

Hitting the brakes on 'normal' cars = 100% energy waste
Hitting the brakes on a Prius = 70% energy waste
NOT hitting the brakes = 0% energy waste

 

Did you read the many posts that state the brake lights DON'T come on unless you are pressing the brake pedal?

 

Like Jimbo said, never brake for the sole purpose of charging batts.

 

Foot of the gas pedal in my Gen II is way more aggressive braking than foot of the gas pedal in my Saturn SL2 automatic.

The saturn has a 4 gear transmission and going downhill its going to be in 3rd or 4th gear. In 4th gear it's nearly freewheeling (almost no engine braking), in 3rd the engine braking is still noticably less than the Prius.

The only way I could make the Saturn slow on a downhill like the Prius does is to ride the brakes pretty hard (more so than I would consider doing). The only reason I let the Prius regen so much is it charges the battery. On the Saturn there isn't a significant benefit to engine braking and the designers obviously minimized that effect.

I'd second the notion that brake light signaling of some kind should be employed on the Prius when regen braking is active.

Many cars slow down when foot is off the gas due to rolling resistance and poor airflow. It's not all engine/transmission related. Other than a square nosed pickup I can't remember the last car I drove that had engine braking that rivaled a Prius.

 

Foot-off slowing characteristics vary widely from one vehicle to another. Many automatics exhibit very little engine braking, while it can be very pronounced with many manual transmission vehicles. Engine braking can make the tires chirp on my Jeep.

Toyota engineers picked a middle ground for emulating engine braking, which makes sense since they want it to feel familiar for the widest possible group of potential owners.

But then it would by non-standard. Why would you want one vehicle to signal in a manner differing from every other vehicle on the road?

All forms of drag slow an object not being propelled. For cars with directly coupled transmissions, engine drag remains the largest, but for freewheeling transmissions, obviously engine drag is not a factor.

Tom

 

Braking is braking...regen style or not your brake lights are gonna come on, no brake pedel no lights.