Automatic Braking Feature

the first one

 

Which 2023 Prius do you own?

 

Doesn't the gen4 have automatic braking?

Not all cars with auto braking have it on rear.

I have never seen automatic braking or AEB refer to the parking brake.

 

I don’t, how about you?

 

It works well.
After my test drive was parking and there were some bushes in front of me and as I was getting ready to brake, the car stopped. I looked at the salesman and we both said, auto brakes work!

 

• It is not radar.
• It is sonar (ultrasound).
• It will brake automatically if your front or rear bumpers are about to hit an object.
• Parking sensors need to be turned on.
• Parking assist does not need to be turned on.
• On Gen 4, ultrasound is only available on Limited.
• On Gen 5, so far, ultrasound is available on all models, including LE and SE, even if it does not show as an option on the window sticker. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

 

So there is no side detection on 2023?

 

Yes, there is. There are sensors on both the front and rear sides. However, there are no sensors in the middle sides, but then the car is not designed to be able to move sideways.

 

As a pedestrian earlier this year, I had a parking lot encounter with a Tesla that needed a middle or better rear side sensor.

I was walking across the parking lot behind it as it seemed to be turning to pull forward into a parking space, when it suddenly stopped, reverse lights came on, I froze, and it it started reversing into a different space in the other row. Turning sharply with its front wheel now aimed aim at me, I was readying to punch the driver window when he finally stopped, turned my way, look startled at a human standing within arm's reach, and asked if he could help me. He didn't realize that I had been standing stationary there the entire time he was backing up, where I'd have been knocked over by his front quarter panel and run over by his front wheel.

He had to have seen me next to my car, waiting to cross the lot, when he initially rolled past me. But didn't register a human who would be at risk when he changed directions.

 

Yeah, you need to be a defensive pedestrian as well as a defensive driver and anticipate foolish behavior.

RCTA on my Gen 4 detects walking pedestrians. BSM detects bicycles. The ultrasonic parking sensors only work within about a couple of feet from the sensor. Gen 5 has front radars as well and has FCTA and safe-exit features.

Toyota is really good at packing all available safety features. Tesla seems to be more interested in quasi-automated-driving than safety features.

 

Thank you….moving sideways is not something I’m interested in doing. : )

 

There are twelve ultrasonic parking sensors—one on either side of each corner, two on the front, and two on the rear.

I like parking close to the parking-structure columns at the university so that I am away from the car next to me, and the ultrasonic parking sensors help a lot. We also get a significant parking discount and unrestricted-zone parking for plug-in vehicles.

On my 2020 Prius Prime XLE I had, I relied on the reverse camera alone, as it didn't have parking sensors like on my 2021 Limited, which you shouldn't because it is highly misleading for the corners, and I ended up hitting one of the corners of my rear bumper. The ultrasonic parking sensors would have prevented that.

 

I don't think anything changed from Gen 4 to Gen 5 with regard to parking sensors—same twelve ultrasonic sensors and mapping scheme have carried on to Gen 5.

However, looking at the owner's manual, the path estimation is only mentioned for "intuitive parking assist object-warning function (vehicles with advanced park);" so, perhaps models without the advanced-park package with side-mirror cameras do not have the path-estimation feature enabled.

 

My understanding is that the parking sensor can be turned on/off but not adjusted for sensitivity or volume of warning, and that if turned off the auto braking that comes with this feature is also turned off? Is this correct? I find the parking sensor is overly sensitive - for example, for my charging cable to reach I need to pull in close to my house and it screams at me every time I do this, also screams virtually every time I park. So if my understanding is correct, I guess my options are to turn off the parking sensors (and auto braking) or to just live with it. My preference would be to leave the braking on but turn the warning off, so that if I truly was going to hit something front or rear it would brake, but not warn me every time I get close (which is every day I drive the car). Anyone with thoughts on this, appreciated!

 

Hopefully there is a solution. I’m really surprised there isn’t a way to control the volume. That must be super annoying.

 

You can get an extension cord like I did to charge mine where I live. Have an older home but the plugs are in the front part of the garage and the 24 foot power cord is not quite long enough. It's also nice to have when traveling in case you need it.

 

So I checked into this and believe you can turn down the volume. I'm still checking but think you can also turn off the intuitive parking assist sensors, but leave on the auto braking at slow speed (which is a different feature). I've not decided yet if I'l turn it off, have started by turning in down.