Cruise Control does not disengage under light pressure

There is another thread regarding the position of the brake switch that supposedly controls the brake rear lights and the cruise control switch. If you have trouble finding it, I can do it for you.
If the switch is set too distant, you need to brake more to have the cruise control disengage. The brakes start working from the first pressure, based on my experience, independently of what the switch does. I have also driven cars in the US as rentals and I have found all sorts of reactions - those that disengaged with the lightest touch (too much) and those that required more pressure - I find the setting on my Prius fine. But then, I tend to disengage the CC quite in advance and with the lever, rather than waiting to be too close to the preceding car before braking and expect that CC will disengage in time....
Otherwise you simply have to disengage "immediately" with the lever, by bringing it towards you.

 

When RCC is "on" my brake pedal feels much stiffer. It does take some movement to disengage the computer. IMO this is not a defect.

I have not (& don't intend to) used the standard CC.

 

It is the way this car operates. Just push a little harder and it will disengage.

 

I read somewhere here on Priuschat that for at least on one person's 2010, the new flash of the ECU software helped this described problem significantly. I have noticed the same thing the OP states. Haven't taken my car to have the new software flashed in per the recall, but I will be curious to know if that helps after I do it. If not, I suspect it's a brake switch adjustment at the pedal as pakitt describes. I have noticed a definite lag between engaging my brake and when the brake lights actually come on.

 

This is normal on the Gen III. If you want it to disengage earlier, you can adjust the switch position on the brake arm bracket.

Tom

 

Tom, fyi, my Gen III was delivered in June and does cancel Cruise with very light brake application. It may have been checked at the dealer PDI and adjusted (Southeast Toyota) but I don't know. The PDI sheet indicates a check of cruise in the drive test but there's no notation of any correction.

 

It is not how it is suppose to be, it's adjusted wrong. Mine was so far out the brakes would actually start to lug the engine down before the CC would disengage.

It seems quite a few Gen3 cars left the factory with this problem. Fortunately it is easy to adjust. All you need is a phillips screwdriver to get the left side under dash panel off. The switch is a big green thing that turns 90 degrees to unlock, then pull it up a notch or two and twist 90 degrees to relock. If you park the car where you can see the brake lights reflected by a window or something you can easily check it before and after.

I took mine to the dealer also, they drove it around the block at 25 MPH, came back and said, "we checked it all out and it looks fine to us". They also told me that they couldn't adjust it because then the brake light would stay on all the time. If for some reason you can't do it yourself you may have to explain to the dealer's "service department" that, yes it can be adjusted easily. You may even need to tell them how to do it.

 

Yes it is the actuator that needs adjusting. Use of a screwdriver is needed if you can't reach the actuator by hand. I did it without any tools. Just took a couple of attempts to get it right.
Just do this adjustment! It will also get your brake lights to come on as soon as you touch the brake pedal, which it should anyway.