Tailgater bait?

I know this is not unusual anywhere, but so many drivers now seem so aggressive. They speed up to red lights, glare at me in my little gas-sipping car and then peel out as soon as the light turns green. In a 70 mph speed zone the vast majority of the traffic is going 10-15 mph over. I'm leaving to take a trip covering 10 states on Friday, and I am so not looking forward to driving in NYC. Wish me luck!

Edit: Just noticed this is posted in the Prius V forum. smh . I don't know how to navigate these threads, sorry.

 

Ah yes, the “Mist Me By That Much” defense

 

It used to not be that way. I believe the trend correlated with the appearance in the mid to late 80's of blissfully ignorant slow drivers sitting in the fast lane... ...the advent of "brain dead and on cruise control".

 

This needs to be emblazoned onto, or even stamped into every Prius hatch in several languages, including Braille for those who like to tailgate really closely.

 

While the front bumper should carry (in reverse lettering, for viewing in car ahead’s rear view mirror):

“I’m not speeding, I’m qualifying.”

 

Too subtle for your average coal roller.

 

I bought a 2010 Prius in the fall of 2009. I still have it and have done all the maintenance myself. I have never had a problem that required me to take it to a garage, but I should get some of the recalls taken care of sometime. That is an economical little car. I clunkered a 14 year old Tahoe that I bought new in 1995 when I bought it. Once I bought the Prius I did notice people tailgating me more. On one occasion, driving on an empty 2 lane road, an SUV came up behind and hung what seemed to be 8-10 feet off my bumper. I was driving my usual 58 in a 55 speed. He tailed me for 10 or 12 miles and had several opportunities to pass. I slowed down in a passing zone and he still did not pass on an empty road. Then I slowed down to about 20 miles an hour and pulled over a little, but no dice. As I came back up to speed he pulled out to pass, but by this time I was angry and stomped on it, and I knew he would have to let off as we approached a sharp turn. He did and the road ended at a T with a stop sign. So I sat and waited, maybe a minute and a half. He never got out of his car. I finally turned left and he turned right. No bird flips or ugly faces from me. Or him for that matter.
Road rage is never a good thing and has no place on a highway, but anyone can be susceptible. Pick-up trucks seemed to be a primary culprit tailgating me and I presumed they figured I was a left-wing liberal driving a Prius, and I figured they were red-necks. I have never put a sticker on a car but I am an NRA member and decided to try it, putting one on the back window and one on the side. Tailgating has been reduced considerably! My advice is to join the NRA and use the stickers on your Prius. Or if you are the daring type you can slam on your brakes when that rabbit jumps out in front of you. The ticket will be called "following too closely to stop". Now if someone tailgates me I figure it is an NRA hater and I ignore it. The point is driving can be dangerous enough in this day of Ipods and texting. We don't need psychopaths on the highways too.

 

I suspect that the main reason vehicles sometimes follow unusually closely behind our Prius is that it loses more speed that necessary when ascending hills when on cruise control. I suspect that the cruise control is programmed to work this way to save fuel but I sometimes "help" it by pressing the accelerator pedal to keep speed constant. Ours has the adaptive cruise control so I don't know if the regular cruise control does the same thing.

I'm increasing noticing the effects of the adaptive cruise control of other vehicles as it becomes more common. Some drivers of vehicles with adaptive cruise control don't pay enough attention and close in on and then follow slower moving vehicles instead of passing them. At some point the drivers "wake up" and then pass the slower moving vehicles. This happened over and over during a 200 mile drive on an interstate highway last Friday. The driver of an obviously new Acura MDX apparently had his standard adaptive cruise control speed set a few MPH higher than mine. We passed each other over and over as his MDX automatically slowed when approaching the rear of slower moving large trucks. I passed him and then he woke up and passed both the trucks and me.

 

Most of the 'adaptive cruise control' I've experienced is junk for technology's sake.

Junk technology plus inattentive drivers is a very dangerous combination.

 

It's really odd how different people can perceive the same things so differently.
I think that adaptive cruise is one of the BEST technological advances that has been made in a decade or more.
Most people I know LOVE it.
What exactly is your complaint ??

 

I’ve only experienced it in a couple of rentals, but so far I like it. I like regular cruise control too.

I think much of the key to successfully using any cruise control is in realizing that it gives your toes a break, but you still have to remain properly engaged in driving. So enjoy the foot freedom but realize that’s all it is.

 

Yeah, it's no imagination. There are a lot of PRIUS haters out there. For a while, I thought it was the way I drive, but when I drive our Pathfinder exactly the same way as I drive PRIUS, I almost never see big pick-ups and SUVs tailgating me.

Sad, but it's true.

 

Automatic lane changing similar to what Tesla Autopilot and Mercedes Drive Pilot can do will likely be showing up on Toyota vehicles fairly soon. That feature to a large degree eliminates the "accordion" effect from drivers not paying enough attention when using adaptive cruise control.

I absolutely love adaptive cruise control - it's the reason we bought our current vehicles. Once one learns to toggle through the following distance intervals, it's possible to drive and pass on multi-lane highways with rare if any use of brake or accelerator pedal without ever cancelling cruise control. I'm especially looking forward to having vehicles with all-speed cruise control which operates all the way down to zero mph. It makes creeping along in bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go traffic seem almost pleasant.

I assume that I am not the only one who has noticed that the Prius brand is back being only one vehicle with the regular Prius and Prius Prime being essentially the same except for different front and rear bumpers and lights and somewhat different mechanicals. I don't envision the Prius nameplate being discontinued (yet) but it's not of the importance it once was now that there are hybrid versions of the Corolla, RAV4, Camry, Avalon and Highlander and with a rumored hybrid Sienna coming in the 2021 model year.

 

"Automatic lane changing similar to what Tesla Autopilot and Mercedes Drive Pilot can do will likely be showing up on Toyota vehicles fairly soon. That feature to a large degree eliminates the "accordion" effect from drivers not paying enough attention when using adaptive cruise control."​

Substitutes weaving for accordion motion.

Not sure that's gonna be a 'plus', especially when more vehicles decide to 'play'.

 

I was just reading about an unintended consequence of autonomous vehicles - a sharp reduction in organ donors. I'm sure there will always be at least some organ donors as long as motorcycles are on the road.

Although crashes involving Teslas on Autopilot seem to be big news when they happen, it's also been in the news that there have been so few crashes of Model 3's that it has not been possible to develop relevant crash statistics for them. I guess we need them to crash more frequently.

 

Wait for it.

 

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I absolutely agree with that......as it applies to most of the "self driving" technology being developed.
If you want a "self driving" vehicle, take a train or bus.

 

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication standards are being developed in North America and other parts of the world. Here's a link to an NHTSA web page about it: Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication | NHTSA

Unfortunately, trains and buses (or airlines) don't service most of the places we travel to.

 

Equipped vehicles only. A small minority for years, a minority for decades.

"Vehicles equipped with appropriate software (or safety applications) can use the messages from surrounding vehicles to determine potential crash threats as they develop."​

Plus, there are always delays and unintended consequences.

How about we focus right now, instead, on 100% of the inexperienced, inattentive, erratic and aggressive drivers?

 

The reason we can't was explained by Ron White:

Three of the times I've been rear-ended were by people who were obviously using their cell phones - two times by people talking on their phones. The last, most serious, incident was by someone holding his phone at the top of his steering wheel while texting. I had been stopped at a traffic light for around 30 seconds before the impact. One of the two other incidents was by a handicapped woman using a handheld phone while driving a hand controlled car. She was unable to get out of her car to inspect the damage since her wheelchair wouldn't work in the snow. The most recent although minor incident was when a driver speeding in a work zone sideswiped me and tore off my driver side exterior mirror.

There's not enough police presence anywhere to stop all the foolish behavior. A high percentage of people in the U.S. are against photo radar so they don't want basic rule enforcement.

I think technology is our best hope and it seems to already be having an impact - pun intended. The manager of a Lexus dealer collision repair facility told me a while back that they were noticing a reduction in vehicles coming in with severe front end damage and that an increasing percentage vehicles having Pre-Collision System (automatic emergency braking) was seen to be the reason. I would expect this reduction to continue to grow now that a high percentage of new vehicles including all made by Toyota have standard automatic emergency braking.

I'm positive that PCS saved me from a high speed crash in 2014 while driving our Sienna when a stopped or slow moving vehicle pulled in front of me while I was driving about 60 mph ... PCS nailed the brakes with full panic stop force before I even got my foot off the gas pedal. I still missed crashing by what seemed like a fraction of an inch but at least I did avoid it. It was still a painful situation due to PCS wrenching my seat belt so tight that my chest hurt the rest of the day.