Temperature-Down vs. Front-Defrost Buttons

Post a photo of your steering wheel?

Bob Wilson

 

Here's the option on the screen:

 

Using the steering wheel buttons only works if you have the MID in HVAC mode. I don't leave it there so I don't use that. I use the buttons on the side of the display.

I once hit the front defrost by accident. Simple - learn from my mistake and don't do that again. But Toyota could have put the buttons a bit farther apart.

 

Switching it over is just a few clicks on the right button.

There's a ton of other options available the same way, like selecting music.

 

Oh please. You haven't used the system and so you don't know what you're talking about, by definition.

I have two active cars. One is this:



The other is this:



Overall, after using both extensively, the second one functions better, is easier to use, and is less confusing.

 

True, but I find scrolling through the MID menus much more distracting than simply touching the up/down buttons.

 

Important to me, is a system that requires less eyes-off-the-road. Been looking at this, the system on base and intermediate levels of Honda Fit:



I like this, because it seems with a little use it would become second nature, adjustable with no need to take eyes off the road.

 

The Prime's system requires virtually no eyes off the road. I leave it in Auto 99% of the time, and just adjust temperature, which is a snap (no harder than looking in the rear view mirror). In the few events where I need to manually control the controls (mainly rear defrost, front defrost without starting the ICE, and changing ECO or S-Flow modes), it's also super-easy - just a simple touch. Again, eyes off the road for the same time as looking in the rear view mirrors.

The auto system works so well that there's almost no need to mess with it at all and when you do, it's crazy easy. Yeah, if it were all manual all the time, it would be a little harder, but the systems in my 72 Buick, 91 Explorer, 88 Mazda and 2001 Pathfinder were all harder to use and more distracting because they required constant interaction. This one requires almost no interaction. For probably 90% of my trips, I don't even touch the temp controls and 90% of the rest the temp controls are the only thing I touch, and maybe only once per trip on average for those.

 

i had a merc back in the day with age buttons and dials. you could work them with everest mittens on and both eyes on the road.
it didn't have a screen though, so i had to pick my music the same way.

 

The point with the Prime is YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORK THEM AT ALL!

 

I have one spot I really need to intervene, dropping down a long hill to near sea level on this coastal highway, especially if it's raining. I need to override it, set vent mode to the best Toyota allows me, half to the windshield, and half to the feet. I'd prefer all to the windshield, but that's another story. Anyway: if I don't do that override, as often as not it starts fogging up. It's a windy road, typically we're going through there after dark, and I'd really prefer to be able to switch mode without taking eyes off the road. With my third gen's buttons that's already impossible, and I think the move to touch screens is only increasing the distraction factor.

BTW man, what's with the caps lock?

 

This morning, I got in the car in the insulated attached garage, went outside into dense fog, and drove to work. Never touched the AC controls.

When I left work at lunch, the car had been in the parking lot in partially-freezing drizzle all morning. I descended 700 feet over 11 miles, and never touched the AC controls.

In the very rare case that I know things might be bad, I open the controls before I shift to drive (it's just one-touch). That way, I can switch to windshield heat if I need it with a single touch. If I KNOW it's going to be bad, I switch to windshield heat before I shift to drive. In both cases, I don't have to mess with temperature, AC or fan settings. The car does that on its own just fine.

Really, it's an almost touch-free system, and when it's not, it's super simple.

 

i have the same, but prefer manual control. i do like the sound of voice control though.

 

Being a person that likes to control the car rather than it control me, I can say the Prime set to Auto mode is about as much set and forget it as anything I've ever owned, including rapid fogging situations. My 2010 was not able to do that without manual intervention. It took me a little while to trust what I was seeing but it just works. The Prime senses the internal humidity levels and keeps the fogging from happening to begin with. It used to irritate me the way Toyotas would mess with the recirc on/off usually right when you didn't want it. In the Prime, set it to Auto, set the temp and drive. It will shift to the low power version windshield defrost on its own if it detects inside fogging if it even gets that far. It has to be driven to believe it. This is coming from 7 years in a 2010 Prius II, 30K in a 2014 Camry Hybrid, etc. It's the best I've seen to date.

 

I agree, auto is much better on the Prime than on a Gen 3 prius, it handles fogging MUCH better. I'm always changing temperature though, so it's not quite a set once and forget it. I've even turned off S-flow at times in the summer to get enough cooling to be comfortable.

 

Yeah, I meant all the multiple HVAC controls outside of temperature setting.

 

We’ve (I’ve) come a long way since I started driving in 1961. We had a 1959 VW that had no heater fan control, had to keep the car in a lower gear to spin the engine fan to move semi warm air into the cockpit. Want the air directed to the windshield? You had to bend over and slide little doors closed down near your feet on both side footwells.

The 6 volt battery didn’t do cold well. On very cold nights we would remove the battery and bring it into the house to stay warm.