I love my 2016 Prius! I wouldn’t trade it for anything, except a Prius Prime Despite that, there are two things that I would like to see fixed. The first thing is DRCC. Even when set at the most “cavalier” of the three distance settings (shortest distance with the vehicle in front), the system slows the car down way too much when approaching the vehicle in front. This wastes gas and wears the brakes. Although DRCC works fine in light traffic and slow traffic, it’s another story when traffic is heavy and speeds are higher (such as close to the speed limit) : The car is always slowing down and other cars will cut in ahead, causing DRCC to slow down some more. Sure, you can step on the pedal to override DRCC, but then what’s the point of DRCC if you have to do that? I know Toyota made DRCC this way to maximize safety. Like all car manufacturers, they are very afraid of being sued. That being said, drivers should be able to adjust DRCC’s sensitivity, albeit with a warning that the selected setting is unsafe at higher driving speeds. The second thing is that there is no trunk light.
I absolutely love the DRCC as is, even in traffic. If cars want to cut in front of you, they may really need to get in your lane, why not just let them? Your car will back off. You can turn off the dynamic part if you chose, or not use it at all, but I bet you wouldn't be as safe -- there's a reason more safe is good.
What a dense comment. STOP TAILGATING. It would appear that YOU are a hazard on the highway. Is it not possible to turn the automatic part OFF and just have classic manual cruise control ??
This is absolutely, positively true. It has been proven over and over with sophisticated studies and mathematical models........that except for bottle necks caused by actual accidents, traffic jams are CAUSED by speeding.....as defined by going faster than the average speed of the vehicles around you. You can actually arrive at your destination sooner by slowing down. And if you think maybe that slow vehicles might be a significant factor, it has been proven over and over that they ARE NOT. BUT even knowing all of this, I still can NOT suppress the rage I get when I leave a little space in front and some Axxhole pulls out of my lane right behind me......and zips BACK in my lane right in front of me. GRRRRRR. Some days I wish I still had that old beater TANK of a pickup truck. It was fun to drive. I won't come right out and say why.
I don't have a Toyota with DRCC but our OutBack with Eyesight shows brake lights on a car icon in the driver's display when the car actually uses the brakes to adjust speeds. It uses engine braking (no lights) as much as possible. When I do see those lights, I usually would be braking too if I were regulating the speeds. Could these 1.0 systems be smoother and more efficient? Yes and I'm sure version 2.0+ will be. Can't wait till they utilize GPS too!
Mine has a boot light - it's not good, but it's there. There were posts on PriusChat about upgrading the bulb to LED. The DRCC works well in my estimation. I'd love every car on the road to have it - there wouldn't be useless gaps left in heavy traffic by lazy drivers who won't speed up to fill them. I doubt that it wears the brakes - most of what it does is using regenerative braking which can be quite abrupt before bringing in the brake pads. As for petrol use - good driving should keep the gap in front fairly uniform, and there's not going to be any other way of doing it other than with the accelerator (or let DRCC do it for you). There are some times in heavy traffic where I'll use the accelerator to close a gap - that's part of driving - you can see things which the RADAR and camera can't. It's level 1 (out of 5 levels) of autonomy. BUT - I generally drive in ECO, but as the traffic thickens, I go to NORMAL and to PWR mode. The Handbook gives heaps of warnings - that this is an assist mechanism, not a driving mechanism - check out this section and what follows: I have only driven one other DRCC car which I thought was jerkier than PRIUS. Oh, and another which cut out at 30km/hr - which is really frustrating. But Journalists who have driven multi-cars have commented that it works well, better than some other.
As two of us pointed out already......closing those gaps accomplishes NOTHING USEFUL and actually tends to slow the overall flow of traffic. That is assuming, of course, that the "gap" is only a few car lengths and not a quarter of a mile. The gaps NEED to be there to keep vehicles from coming to a complete stop more than is necessary. They also NEED to be there to allow lane changes smoothly when somebody needs to get off at an exit or to merge ON at an entrance. But like a LOT of other things, human actions are governed more by emotion than by logic. We are still really just animals.
Maybe the "Right" wheel well? See my post #2 above. Or maybe it should be "Passenger" wheel well to eliminate all ambiguity?
Change the trunk light out with an lcd of your color choice. Drink less coffee or take fewer medications, don’t tailgate while using cruise control.
It may be on the right in the Prime, but the OP has a Prius Three, and the light is on the left. I'll give you "Passenger" wheel well, though...
I've Velcro'd one of those battery, twin-LED throw -switch lights on to the rhs of the trunk opposite the factory fitted lamp. Ironically, since firing mg it I've not needed to use it even once!!! Incidentally, my Prius is a UK Business Edition and not a 3, but that option wasn't available when i registered.
Cruise is intended for mostly open expressways. If there's enough traffic that people are cutting in all the time, we probably shouldn't be using cruise. (and Toyota is crystal clear about this in their manual) It's just that since it's adaptive, it's very tempting to use it when we shouldn't. I like it when it's not wide-open, but mostly open, and occasionally, I approach the car in front of me because I'm cruising at 78 and he's cruising at 75. It slows down a bit and I don't even notice. Unless I'm going hundreds of miles, it doesn't really make a difference in my arrival time. I'm not going to get into judging criticizing others' driving habits, like some of you characters are. My 2018 has a trunk light, but it's not a nice overhead one; just a dinky one in the left side of the trunk. It's only moderately useful.
I kind of like that generous gap. When I hit slow congestion on highways, I have a bad urge to creep up too close to the preceding car; the DRCC obviously doesn't do that so I just patiently roll along at a safe distance instead. Also, since having it, I've become re-habituated to driving at a safe(r) following distance even when I'm not using it. I have noticed that if someone I'm following exits a roadway at an unusual ramp or an at-grade junction, the DRCC hesitates to accelerate back up to the set speed for several seconds. I assume it's programmed to do that in case it accidentally loses sight of a car that's still there so that it doesn't accelerate into the back of it.
Yeah - this is one of those instances where it is often better to apply the accelerator when someone is leaving the motorway, as sometimes the DRCC can have a nasty habit of braking, when you're continuing in lane. Judicious use of the accelerator to smooth out some of these "bumps" helps not annoy people behind you. Once you let go, DRCC just takes over again.
What a great video. He espouses many of the techniques that I use. Many of these also serve to maximize gas mileage as well as flow of traffic.
