I've read on another forum that the computer "adapts" to ones driving habits over a several hundred mile period. There's nothing about this in the manual. Can anyone enlighten me about this? What specifically is the adaption? What if more than one person drives the car, is there a compromise adaption? Thanks in advance.
Most modern engine control systems "learn" over a period of time. Most of them adapt to the characteristics of an individual engine. Some adapt to the driver's characteristics too. I'm not aware that the Prius does any driver adaptation, since the tuning is optimized for low emissions and efficiency. The Gen III allows the driver to choose preset tunings by using the mode buttons. Tom
Most of the learning mode discussion I've seen relates to transmissions and shift points. Engine operation is tied so much now to emissions and economy on all cars that there's not much leeway other than optimizing for fuel octane.
Pretty common for "other" vehicles, I'm sure the Prius ECU has "tap" cells as well. For example the car through feedback from the O2 sensors will "learn" what pulse width of the injectors get's the correct fuel ratio. Yes the O2 sensors will trim the values to correct for optimum ratio, but in most vehicles this "trim" info is kept, and there are several point of data kept, hence different tap cells. The computer by starting with the trim data that yielded the correct ratio the last time will require less "trim" this time. Eventually it get's to where there is very little "trimming" going on because the computer is sending the correct pulse width to start with. Similar for transmissions etc. for other vehicles, if your always driving aggressively, the ECU will delay shift points and increase fluid pressure to accomidate for an aggressive driving style, drive easy and it will over time start shifting earlier and smoother. My truck for example monitors every transmission shift for slippage and will adjust fluid pressure until the desired amount of slippage is maintained. That used to require periodic mechanical adjustment, but not anymore. I'm sure there is quite a bit of "learning" in the Prius, just don't know exactly what is learned.
