Was out driving today in light snow and light rain I was on I-294 in Chicagoland with DRCC engaged at 65 mph. The car in front of me was doing 60 mph and therefore so was I. I had the distance setting at default (furthest). The car immediately in front of me left the lane so DRCC sped up to 65 mph to close the gap to the next car. Instead of eventually matching the leading vehicle my car accelerated to 65 mph and if I did not intervene would have rear ended (I felt it would at least) so I disengaged DRCC and let the vehicle gap increase. I reengaged DRCC and it tracked the leading car as expected UNTIL it too left the lane and the above scenario repeated itself. I felt the car would hit the leading car. i disengaged and reengaged DRCC and it again tracked the leading car as expected. When that car left the lane I paid attention to the DRCC graphic on the MID and noticed the graphic of the leading car was blinking rapidly on and off right up to the point I once again had to intervene to prevent a rear end accident. I'm guessing the blinking car icon/graphic is an indication it was confused (due to snow/rain?) but I think it should just have disengaged or flashed a message that it has lost or doesn't have a good lock on the vehicle it's following. Anyone else have an experience like this? J
Snow/ice buildup on the radar and other sensors or cameras will effect these systems. Pretty sure its mentioned in the manual and recommended that you not use them in weather.
It sounds like it was right on the edge of seeing and not seeing the other cars due to stuff on the front of your car and stuff in the air in front of your car. It might be that in that situation, the system isn't programmed well enough to make a solid decision to disengage.
I've also noticed that snow/ice and heavy rain cause the DRCC to not function well. Not really a surprise for a radar based system. It happens to all of us. Think of how your visual acuity decreases in 'weather.'
Any driver safety instructor and probably any cop will tell you to NOT use CC in adverse weather and or heavy traffic conditions. As stated earlier, pretty sure the manual says the same thing. Doesn't it just seem like a common sense type of thing to not use it in those weather conditions?
Except the precipitation was very light IMO. The auto wipers barely cycled even on the highest setting. So what I think is the DRCC should not be used in ANY precipitation. I can do that.
When I was a computer programmer; in another life, we used to say - " a computer does what you tell it to do; NOT what you want it to do". If that makes senses to y'all.
Mine also doesn't work great even in light rain. My Mercedes worked flawlessly, unless snow built up on the sensor. Which happened pretty much every time I drove while it was snowing.
They could be different frequencies. The mm band Toyota uses does lose effectiveness with water droplets in the air. Mercedes could simply be using more than one sensor.
Cruise control should never be used in any inclement weather once pavement becomes fully wet. Any dynamic system that relays on radar is likely to be even more problematic, as even before pavement gets wet, it can be confused by raindrops and/or snowflakes.
It's wierd, if there is a fair amount of mist coming off the car in front of you the sensor is pretty much blind on the Prime. My 2014 Mazda3 wasn't afflicted by this issue. But in all reality you shouldn't be using the cruise control in the rain or snow anyways.
Different companies can be using different technology to attain the same goal. Toyota is using mm band radar and Subaru cameras for example.
Mazda is also us Mazda apparently uses a nearly similar tech. It could be how the visual is coming across though.
Could be a different wavelength, sensor placement, or even the use of multiple sensors over just one.
2020 RAV4 seems decent in rain and fog. I suppose I should be more careful though. Had some fog in the Appalachian mountains last week and it seemed obvious the pick-up trucks going faster than me must have had the radar on too.
