I'm only 4 days away from my one month anniversary of owning the car... and I was almost in a bad pileup on the freeway this morning! I had just got on in heavy traffic and maneuvered over to the fast lane. The person in the third lane decided to flash there lights at me and follows very closely (right on my bumper) over to the fast lane. The flow of traffic was only about 40 to 45 MPH. My mistake was starting to fiddle with the cruise control settings. I looked up... and every car in front of mine, was on the breaks hard (coming to a stop). I hit my breaks very hard & fast... and swerved left into the emergency lane. The dumb person behind me (following too close) hit her breaks hard... she misses me... then swerves into the lane to her right (otherwise she would have rear-ended the car in front of me. 1. The Gen 4 Prius has exceptional breaks! This all happened so fast that the "BREAK" warning on the dash never came up. It was all me on the breaks! 2. Important lesson learned. Never again will I try and turn on the cruise control in that kind of slow, heavy stop-n-go traffic. I will always wait for a more normal traffic flow (above 50 MPH) before setting the CC. Quite a few cars in front of me (that had also swerved to the left), stayed parked in the emergency lane. They seemed very shaken up... but I couldn't detect if any contact had been made. The whole thing was too close for comfort. It scared the bejeezus out of me! Important lesson learned! Wheeeew
Well, not to be snarky...but it's automobile brakes...and That's the "breaks" of the game. Yep, the problem is you took your eyes off the road. Even at 40-45 mph, which we have been "spoiled" into thinking is slow, things can happen fast, and life threatening situations can easily develop. Thankfully it sounds like disaster averted.
Glad you're okay and that your Prius handled and braked well today. I thought I was the only one who says "bejeezus"
In my opinion, heavy stop and go is the BEST time for the DRCC. That being said, you have to operate the car safely. I don't even look at the stalk. Click the button to turn it on. Pull down to set. Click up or down to increase or decrease the set speed. The MID shows all the necessary information. Pull forward to cancel. Or, if you cancelled already, pull up to resume. But, the DRCC excels in stop and go traffic. So much nicer than constantly having to accelerate and brake manually.
Even though some critics lambaste the CC stalk, it is intuitive and can be operated without sight. CC on the steering wheel requires you to look or memorise the position of the buttons. Sometimes, they can be a bit of a stretch with the thumb. With the stalk, I can usually reach it with my pinky and use it to pull forward (cancel). Or, I shuffle my hand down and operate the stalk with my middle and fourth finger.
I agree, that's why I went for it in heavy stop-n-go traffic... but I think it was just bad timing on my part. To clarify, I wasn't looking down at the stalk... I just glanced (for a second) at the screen to see the message (and the speed). I find it intuitive as well. Plus it operates (basically) the same way as the CC stalk on my other Toyota. That same event would have happened - even if I hadn't glanced away. Three cars in front of me, were all hitting the brakes hard. Two of them swerved left into the emergency lane. Everyone (including me) was following too close. The person behind me, would have hit the car in front of me, if they hadn't changed lanes (to the right) while hitting the breaks. She surely would not have stopped behind the car in from of me... she would have hit it or worse me! But luckily, nobody got hurt or hit.
Aww - you should have left it to it's own devices, then you could have told us how well the automatic emergency braking system works! (Joke!)
Lesson learned never again should i be driving in the left lane. Joking aside, glad nothing came of it. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Even with drcc it is scary. I wish the camera could tell the system, hey its slowing pretty quickly ahead, so the car would start deceleration a little sooner. It does a great job, but is scary at times. I've learned to just pull the stalk to cancel and then push it up to resume when I have slowed a bit. I do the same as I approach my exit ramp and then just resume with the stalk when on the new road. The stalk has become second nature to me very quickly. I generally keep the drcc on for three highways and about 25 miles on my morning commute, which normally includes some stop and go, or at least slow moving sections. J
Funny, today I had to make that same drive. When I got on, the traffic is pretty much at a standstill. So I waited a bit, until it was safe... then engaged the DRCC. Worked perfectly the whole ride there and back! This time, I didn't do anything stupid... like trying to engage it too soon... too close... to other cars. Stop-N-Go traffic... I LOVE YOU! Bring it on! DRCC makes it so much less stressful.
