Lane Departure Warning

I just drove a 2017 Avalon 1,200 miles. LDA/SA on that car behaved largely the same as it does on my Prime. Perhaps SA is slightly stronger but not by much. Detection and activation were similar in that it would usually let you deviate a few feet over the lane marker before SA would correct and wind or road crown could effectively overcome the correction.

 

... which currently happens over 100 times per day. (That is the overall traffic carnage, not just for this particular scenario. But the vast bulk of it results from driver error or misconduct.)

Staying in lane has been an essential responsibility of the driver ever since multi-lane roads were created. You'll have an extremely steep challenge in attempting to re-define that it is now the car's responsibility, so that the driver can direct his-her attention elsewhere, before true autonomous vehicles are even available.

 

My guess would be that they scaled LKA back to LDW exactly because they perceived any system that reduces the need for driver attention upon the road to be dangerous.

 

and possible lawsuits, when the car "provide assistance" and when the driver depend totally on such "assistance", it will be the car's fault if accident happens and thus the liability is on the car manufacturer.

 

Well, to clarify, I’m not saying that I necessarily *agree* with Toyota downgrading LKA into LDW/SA; just guessing that that was their reasoning.

I personally am not sure which is best, all things considered, not having owned a car that has a lane-centering function, although I have test-driven Tesla Autopilot. I tell myself that, if I had that feature, I would never let myself take my eyes off the road, but I’m not sure I believe it.

I also concur that the center-mounted touchscreen takes our eyes off the road, although, for me at least, my 2009’s controls do so equally much: Even though they’re physical buttons, I at least still can’t operate them tactilely.

But either way, keeping my eyes on the road is ultimately my problem as a driver, in my view. If I can’t adequately do so, fiddling with the touchscreen, I know I need to wait until the driving situation allows it.

Indeed. It might indeed be a case of lawyers winning over engineers. Then again, if I had a not-100%-flawless lane-centering function, would I keep my eyes on the road adequately? I’d know that I need to do so all the time, but would I? I tell myself “of course I would!” but *really* now, would I?

 

Toyota got rid of LKA in all their cars, as far as I can tell. Perhaps there was trouble with the technology.

It's recently been replaced with Lane Tracing Assist.

 

I never found LKA to be all that good. Sure it's better than LDW, but I found that it too often lost sight of a lane marker, it also often did bad things when you had construction zones that had badly confused things with new lanes and poorly covered up old lane markers (this happens a lot in the NJ/NY area). I did use it (better something than nothing) but it wasn't a great system. The new one doesn't do much better for lane detection, albeit it's a "bit" better, but at least it doesn't beep every time it loses the lane... that was freaking annoying!

 

And I still firmly believe the class action lawsuit you believe is called for, will be an extremely steep legal challenge.

 

That’s curious. I’ve found that LDW generally does a reliable job of warning me when I creep toward or across lane markings. That may just be luck on my part in terms of the particular roads I drive on; I don’t know. It quite rarely gives me a false positive, and fairly-rarely false negatives. (“False positive” meaning telling me that I’m departing my lane when I’m not, and “false negative” meaning failing to warn me when I really am departing from my lane.)

I presume you’re referring to the “Steering Assist” feature. On my Prime at least, I concur that it doesn’t do much. (I have LDW set to high sensitivity, BTW.) It does steer me back into my lane if the lane is (at that point) fairly straight, and I’m drifting gradually toward the lane lines. Under those circumstances, it steers me back into my lane, at or slightly before I would have crossed into the adjacent lane. Beyond those limited underlying circumstances though, I haven’t seen “Steering Assist” do much at all.

A while back, I test-drove a gen-2 Volt, and its equivalent function steered much more aggressively (which would be good in this case).


iPad ? Pro

 

I think you are ignoring the fact that LDA doesn't work that well. It's unreliable. I'd even say it's a defect in the vehicle that isn't being acknowledged by Toyota.


iPhone ? Pro

 

It works just about exactly as they advertised it would.

 

No. I can go over the line and get no warning way too often. The assist function can hardly be felt (when it works) as well. Maybe Botts dots on California roads confuse it, don't know. Anyone else in California having trouble with LDA working properly?

 

My LDA always warns me, including when I am purposely going over the line -- taking an exit lane, taking a cloverleaf too tightly or loosely, etc -- and I often feel oddness in the wheel when it's apparently pushing back. It also warns me when I remove my hands from the wheel, so I have not been able to see how well it does with zero input.

So I don't understand when people says it gives no warning. Have you turned down the sensitivity, or turned it off (button on the steering wheel)? Not being condescending, just totally puzzled.

 

I just drove from Denver to Vegas to Anaheim to San Diego to Yuma to Flagstaff to Page and on back to Colorado, and noticed no difference in LDA performance anywhere, day or night.

Your lack of imagination and inside knowledge doesn't mean no such reason exists. Software development, testing, and maintenance are far from free.

Yeah...mine warns me too often.

 

I absolutely agree, except that the Steering-Assistance part only barely works under extremely limited circumstances, to the point of being borderline useless. The LDW though, at least on my P.Prime on the roads I drive, works quite well, and exactly as advertised.

Just checking: Are you using your turn signals?