Driving a computer for the first time. Tips?

I can stream anything I want, any time and at my own convenience.
No need for Sirius at all.

 

Wife texted me today, car read me the text. I answered, she acknowledged. It came naturally easy. It will take time for me to get comfortable, but the car has already helped me avoid a potential collision. For that single reason I can accept the new technology but at my own pace and with reservations. Getting comfortable with this and really liking it. The 5 cents a mile in fuel cost comes so easily I can be preemptive and have better situational awareness. Still hitting the on-off versus accelerate-resume on the cruise control but getting more trustful of the adaptive braking.
Scares me to think of trying to drive my Echo anymore, glad it's gone.

 

There's a button for setting the distance to the car ahead. It toggles between 4 settings.

 

The cruise will work down to 19 MPH, I think?
In that kind of traffic just let it creep with foot off the pedal?
Then if you stop the engine will shut off?
Not positive about this but worth a try.

 

The engine shutting off and on is barely detectable.

 

The speed can be set as low as 19MPH, but it will bring you to a complete stop if the car in front of you is stationary. The problem is that the cruise in the HEV can't start you up again. If you've come to a complete stop, you need to press the accelerator to start moving again.

As to the main stated problem of abrupt braking, I would also suggest adjusting the following length distance with the button on the steering wheel. If you're using one bar to keep traffic tight when its moving, try two bars when you get to a low speed jam and see if works more to your liking. Unfortunately, it seems like you(cool_prius) might have been better off with a PHEV which comes with Traffic Jam Assist. That's the safety system that's truly made for slow speed driving in traffic.

 

You can press the resume button on the wheel to start again when DRCC stops too. I use it occasionally, it functions fine but other drivers are too unpredictable relying only on just-in-time radar/lidar. Too many idiots changing lanes at the drop of the hat with, and DRCC does not handle that well. Around here, you need to anticipate if you have space in front of you, someone will try to put their car there.

Enjoy the built in nav while it lasts, because they want major money to continue that subscription after the first year, and just turn the giant screen into a advert if you don't pony up.

 

The Traffic Jam Assist requires a subscription to Toyota Connect, therefore it is useless on my Prius Prime. I’m not going to pay $19 per month for a poor quality gps and TJA - I did try it for one month and I found it inferior to Google Maps on Android auto.

The Dynamic radar cruise works great in Traffic. You can have it set at 70 mph and the car will still slow right down in traffic and crawl along provided you don’t come to a dead stop in which case you can use the accelerator to get it going again.

 

Unless the traffic jam assist kicks in. I still don't know what triggers it.

 

Google Maps monitors traffic just as well? Maybe Apple's Maps too, though I haven't given it much of a chance.

 

The low speed setting and stop and go traffic operation of DRCC is a relatively new ability. Before it was just at highway speeds. I only use it on freeways, where it is a big improvement over old CC. The traffic patterns I'd see then could make the old system a chore to use with constant adjusting.

 

At lower speeds, the DRCC is fantastic on single lane roads and I use it that way all the time. Then it doesn't matter so much if a bit of a gap develops for a short while, don't have to worry about people cutting in. In those situations, I'll set the cruise to 60 and let it drive me at whatever speed is in front, even if it is is like 25-30, etc. You have to set it to 3 or 4 distance bars though, otherwise when the car in front of you (or the car in front of the car in front of you, etc) slows down to turn, the DRCC will give you a harder brake than necessary.

Really any time I'm on a single lane road, fast or slow, I use the DRCC. But I find it great at single lane slow speeds, and a big improvement over gen 4.

 

I see it as a question of trip distance and bburden. My freeway trips are in the 9 to 10 hour range. DRCC and lane keeping help ease the fatigue on such long drives. For day to day use, I'm fine with just the passive ADAS safety features, but then I'm not dealing with heavy traffic or other situations that can add to the stress of driving.

 

Something I noticed is the lane assist on sharper turns tends to run over the line into oncoming traffic. On an otherwise fairly quiet 55 Mph road coming back from pickleball the turn is sharp enough to get it to do this while in the other direction it is not sharp enough (threshold). A little disconcerting to be going into oncoming traffic but understood that any system has a limit to it's ability to meet a demand. Better than running off the road and easily correctable.
Also in serious crosswinds I just get to the point where I turn if off, especially over 30 MPH and 90 degree deflection.

 

Maybe stay old school in the twisties. The systems “limits” will be cold comfort when you brush someone.

 

I took a trip on Saturday and used the cruise control for the first time. Is there a way to turn all assist off? It was making me crazy when it starts slowing when getting close to a car or going around a turn. Lane assist is off and the distance setting is max.

 

If you don't want the dynamic radar cruise control, then press the MODE button until you get the standard cruise control.

That should also lose the curve speed reduction, as I think that only works with the DRCC.

if you want to modify the curve speed reduction, that can be adjusted in the multi-information display (speedometer screen, not multimedia screen) under Vehicle Settings > DRCC/Speed Limiter between High/Mid/Low/Off.

(Don't know what the default is, and I'm now wondering what mine's set to, cos it's never bothered me).

 

We've had three Toyota's with the "smart" cruise control....automatically slows whenever a vehicle in front of me slows down....great feature.

But my 2014 Tundra doesn't do that....I have to be careful I don't set it and then ram into somebody! (Which wouldn't be hard to do here in Colorado....these crazy drivers are known to pass you then slow down once they get in front of you....REALLY annoying when I'm towing my camper!)