Regarding VSC

Hey Bob, we're glad you are still alive too! I hope the incident didn't take too many years off your life. I was run off the road coming down from Haleakala on Maui by a tour bus coming up in my lane. If that one wide spot in the road hadn't been there, the rental car and I would have been careening down the side of the mountain. I can tell you it took some time for my heart to slow down!

I think your VSC concerns are unwarranted. The VSC is supposed to kick in when the vehicle senses that the car is not heading in the direction you are steering. For instance, if you are on a slick road and turn the wheel to follow the road but the rear decides to try and pass you, the VSC should kick in to fix the problem.

In your accident avoidance scenario, the wheels were turned and the car was following as planned. The VSC shouldn't do anything.

The traction control might have something to say about 2 wheels on the gravel and 2 on the pavement though.

 

VSC does not affect your steering of the car.

VSC simply keeps the wheels in a controlled contact with the ground. The result is that you go where you want to go. If you want to go over a cliff, VSC won't stop you. If you want to turn the steering wheel 180 degrees at 90MPH, VSC won't stop you. But it will work it's damndest to help keep YOU, the driver, in control so if you then choose to swing the wheel 180 degrees back the other way, you just might still have enough traction control to do it.


I heard in Europe, whenever a car is offered with any kind of VSC, buyers tend to overwhelmingly buy the car WITH the computer assistance. But in the USA, whenever a car is offered with the VSC, American's tend to shun it. Probably due to various misconceptions on how it works. Maybe it's a control thing.

 

Most of the time the VSC works seamlessly and you're not aware that it is working unless you catch the quick flash on the dash.

The other day I was in the middle of the intersection turning left. The road had some moisture and I had the drivers window open. There was a break in the oncoming traffic so I goosed it. I can't say that I actually heard the tires chirp, but I definitely felt the left rear brake engage for a moment.

Without VSC the results might have been messier!

 

Never had VSC act up when I didn't want it to, but it did come in handy the other day.

Driving up a narrow little road north of the city that kind of wraps itself around hills and cliffs... signs take you down to 15 to make it around them (many of these are just short of 180 turns), but you can usually make it quite safely at 30km or better. I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have, and didn't factor in the water on the ground. I didn't hit it hard, but I wasn't actively braking when I started my turn, and I felt very briefly like I was going to lose control of the back-end when I heard the "beep beep beep bepp beep", and everything was back under control, although there was at least enough out-of-control feeling to cause my gut to go hollow and an adrenaline rush afterwards.

As fate would have it... there was someone coming the other way at this moment, and had my tail done something I didn't want it to, it would have been bad.

So count me in as pro-VSC.

 

VSC Is actualy quite awesome. I have tested it on pavement and gravel.. er.. dirt roads. It does exactly what it is supposed to and what Prius04 described. The only time it becomes really noticable is when you fully skid. The system will start to beep. If your system beeps, hit the gas. It's telling you that you should be accellerating instead of sliding. Other than that, i have been able to hold course going about 40 miles an hour on a dirt road. It also handles soft dirt very well.

As for the original post. Do you remember your wheels squeeling at all when you turned out of the way? If so, the VSC would have kicked in. It does simply just help though. If anything you would have turned out of the way quicker.

 

Many years before they became common place in autos, military and commercial aircraft have had “antiskid†systems. Because of the speeds and energies involved, the consequence of locking up an aircraft tire for more than a fraction of a second is much more severe than locking up a car tire. The antiskid system is considered a flight essential component and must be in proper working order prior to an aircraft being released for flight.

Today’s aircraft antiskid are no longer just simple wheel lockup prevention devices, but have evolved into sophisticated systems which irregardless of aircraft, runway, pilot, or weather conditions helps safely stop an aircraft in the shortest possible distance. There are economic considerations too . . . insurance rates, and allowing a much larger than before aircraft to land on shorter runways.

This same technology has made its way into automobiles as VSC systems, and IMHO should also be considered “flight essential†equipment on Prii - especially considering the Prius is a light weight, very aerodynamic car on “skinny†tires and subject to crosswinds.

Airbags, seat belts, head rests, and crumple zones are after the fact protection!

 

To add to Patrick's point and owning a VSC less '04 pkg. #3; the electronic steering system of the Prius does diminish/eliminate the tactile feedback from the tires to the wheel. Had I realized I would have followed my wife's original advice and held out for a pkg. 7

Jon

 

Now the Prius'05 has become Car of the Year 2005 it gets some new attention here in Europe. A journalist of the dutch magazine Autovisie could testdrive it on an empty, very wet, runway in the northern part of France. He tried to get the Prius spinning but it did not, whatever briskly he swung the steering wheel !!
Volkswagen and Mercedes are still contemplating the introduction of this technology into the market.

These journalists were also allowed to testdrive the Prius GT, with the 145 hp motor of the Yaris T Sport. Toyota had setup a slalom, and the Prius GT took it very easily and fast.

 

Thanks Arnold!! Great news . . . I think????

Babel Fish translation of story.

http://www.autovisie.nl/

SOUNDING VICTORY FOR THE TOYOTA PRIUS 15-NOVEMBER-2004 The 58-obstinate jury of the car of the year has embraced the Toyota Prius with its environment-friendly hybrid traction massively and exclaimed to winner. Overwhelming note bene, the Prius took almost 140 points projection on number the two, Citroën C4. It is the second time that Toyota the title wins, in the year 2000 the Yaris could decorate themselves with the predikaat car of the year. An earlier version of the Prius participated moreover already in 2001, but then had the Toyota the ford Mondeo and the alpha 147 lets precede. Of the new, considerably improved version of the Prius the jury obviously much more was under the impression then then in 2001, because in spite of heavy antagonists such as the very good Citroën C4 and ford focus he scored a considerable projection. Differently went it heals with the BMW 1-serie. A dared attempt of the beierse penetrate manufacturer in the segment which is dominated by the Mégane, focus, golf and Astra. He gathered wood only 83 points at each other and that is very terrible little. Citroën can be without more proud on its beautiful Second place with 267 points, with wide projection on the focus. To the overwinnaarpotentieel of C4 does not need be doubted therefore absolute, he had, thus you almost are able say, one large breakdown: that the Prius participated. RESULT & POINTS 1. Toyota Prius 406 2. Citroën C4, 267 3. ford focus 228 4. Opel Astra 180 5. Renault mode 151 6. Peugeot 407,135 7. BMW 1-serie 83 All results and point partitioning of the 58 jury members stand in car vision number 24 that on Thursday 18 November appear.

 

Congrats on your new baby.. er.. car.. treat it like a baby though.. just.. less maintainance with the car :mrgreen:

 

By the way, Does anyone know if VSC programming can be added or computers swapped out to upgrade my #3 to have VSC. The light on the dash does exist already on the #3 just don't have the actual package.

 

You might want to just call toyota and talk to a tech who knows the prius. We have some very educated people here. I'm not sure if we could give you an opinion that is exactly accurate though. Almost anythig is possible. the techs should know. Usualy, people would say no though.

 

There needs to be significant hardware at each wheel to sense what the wheel is doing and to control the brakes. It's not just a software issue.

If you don't have VSC already, you don't have the hardware.

To keep costs down, some of the cheap parts of the VSC would be on every vehicle in the product line. That's why the lights are there. But the parts that matter and by that I mean the parts that cost real money, are not there.

I will be getting VSC on every car I ever buy from now on. My life is worth it.

 

In other words the VSC hardware is above and beyond the ABS hardware at each wheel?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Arnold\";p=\"51782)</div>

I don't know about Mercedes, but Volkswagens have had VSC for several years, as standard on many models in some markets. The VW version is called ESP (Electronic Stability Programme).

Here are links to two CNN articles on this subject:

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/25/pf/autos/w...dex.htm?cnn=yes

http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/25/pf/autos/w...s_esc/index.htm

Our Passat has it, but I don't believe it's ever operated, so far.

John Allen

 

ABS works by interupting the signal that your foot is sending to the brake pads. It does not ever initiate braking. It does use sensors to detect slippage, and the sensors that do that may be the same sensors that VSC uses.

But ABS only works when you brake. VSC works all the time. So yes, the hardware is different.

And non VSC cars don't have that hardware.

If Toyota was going to put the hardware on all it's cars anyway, there would be no reason to not put the software on all their cars as well. Then they could market the car as having VSC on every model.

The major expense of VSC is the hardware. As anyone who burns software knows, once the software is written, it's real cheap to copy it, over and over and over.

 

I don't think VSC has different wheel sensors than ABS. However, VSC has a yaw sensor/ECU, and a steering position sensor. Probably has programming differences, or at least some settings to change, unless the programming checks for VSC components, and if there, enables VSC.