"Driver-Only Air-Conditioner Mode"?

S-Flow mode, described on page 489 (7 inch) and page 500 (11.6 inch). Operates automatically if it detects that there is no one in the passenger seat. Even with someone in the passenger seat it gives priority to the front seats. While carrying passengers in the rear you may want to turn it off since it doesn't detect rear seat passengers.

Page 500




Page 505

 

Yes, the system will direct air to only the seats being used.

It's a feature mentioned by Toyota when first revealed and had went unmentioned since. Most reviewers aren't thorough enough to notice.

 

It seems strange to have a car with an IQ higher than the owner's.

 

I've noticed that I can fool the occupied passenger seat sensor by raising whatever is on the seat for a moment. This has come up when the car whines that a seat-bet is not fastened for a package in the seat.

 

Actually after reading the instructions again it seems that it does detect rear seat passengers, at least indirectly. If one of the rear passenger doors is opened then S-Flow is automatically turned off. Not sure if the timing matters, i.e. does it matter if the rear doors are opened before or after startup, or before the driver gets in, etc. Probably just something simple like if a rear passenger door is opened within a certain period of time prior to startup, or anytime after startup, S-Flow will be turned off.

And I wonder what the name means. I'm guessing Smart-Flow

 

Dang, it IS smarter than we are!

The paper says they estimate a 4% decrease in annual fuel consumption. Certainly not a trivial amount.

 

I know this is a decent bump but I have some information that may be interesting.

This morning I opened my rear door to get something out of the car and then went back inside. Did not start it. 10 hours later I went in and started it to drive S-Flow was turned off.

I do not think there is a time limit, if the rear doors are opened at any time, the next time you start the car it will be off. Basically I think if the seatbelt indicators show up, S-Flow will be disabled.


HOWEVER, I think there is a time delay if you manually override it. I turned sflow back on manually while in the car and went about my business. I turned the car off and opened the rear door and closed it and started the car again. S-flow was still on! I repeated this a few times and S-Flow stayed on.

I then left and came back a day later, opened the rear door and then started the car and s-flow was off now.

I think that if you overrode the default S-Flow setting at any point in time, it will not be automatically changed again until at least 12 hours later.

I’ve seen the reverse happen too. I explicitly turned Sflow more off, and then the next few times I started the car it was off, until I started it the next morning where it was automatically on again.

 

It's odd that it says this:
However, air will always be blown from the side outlet of the front passenger seat.

Does that mean the far right dashboard vent? When I use the S-Mode in my Gen4, I never notice any difference in air flow. All the top vents blow air. So I usually just leave the S-Flow off.

And the poor passengers in the back seat. The only AC vents for them are under the front seats. I've tried all the settings, and very little air ever comes out of those vents. (I use High/Low vent selector). I was hoping it would also help cool the hybrid battery, too.