Will the Prius stop to avoid a collision?

AFAIK the automatic emergency brake feature on all Toyotas is radar-based. It might never 'see' a plastic item.

 

Does the Owner's Manual actually say it will always stop? Or sometimes just reduce speed before impact? And are garbage cans on the list of detected objects?

Many people are letting their expectations get ahead of technical reality. These are not yet self-driving cars.

 

The IIHA and other test groups use dummies that are detectable to the sensors. Usually a light weight plastic shell that looks like a car of pedestrian that won't cause a crash with an impact. The plastic, or the paint, is impregnated with some metal powder.

 

Cover one side of the trash can in aluminum foil and retest?

 

Sorry, I don't believe that's going to work. The system has already been rigorously tested by the vendor, NTSB, and possibly consumer report - under controlled conditions - so what is the point? It's not a self driving car and the driver must pay attention. It's a 2 -3 ton weapon that the driver is responsible for. That's what I was told over 50 years ago; while I was learning how to drive.
I've got mine turned-off; don't need the car to automatic brake for me. I have had the dash board turn red stating "BRAKE" several times. I was approaching a car too fast, making a right turn into a driveway. Scared the 'ba-geebers out of me' - the first time it did that - dash board and beeping. The car in front cleared my path without me touching the brakes. Technology is nice, but there's no substitute for the human brain.......

Just my 2 cents.....

 

Consumer testing of it, isn't really practical or reasonable. This system promises only to reduce collisions and impact speeds part of the time, not completely eliminate them. Sometimes it will do neither. This provides a statistically significant reduction in deaths and injuries when used as a driver assist, enough to be very worthwhile, but not enough to allow driver disengagement.

If you try to test it yourself, you are very likely to be finding some conditions that is doesn't cover. Expect damage a certain not-yet-determined fraction of the time. And because you intentionally performed such testing, your insurance company is not legally responsible to cover the resulting damage.

 

That would be highly unusual as typical AEB systems rely on vision at least for short distance (the original city/ pedestrian use case). Do you have some technical details?

but generally speaking this feature is meant to save peoples (pedestrians) lifes and this is what eg EU regulations have in mind. Preventing damage to the car (or the poor trashcan) is really helpful too but way less priority.

 

Nope, just going from what I remembered from reading the way-too-much info about ours. I do know that if the radar sensor is blocked or not working, the overall feature doesn't work, warnings on dash etc.

So it's clear to me that it needs radar, but not clear to me how it fuses that signal with whatever it sees on camera.

 

What I'm most curious about is whether it can detect animals. Deer are really bad around here (my '14 prius was lost to a deer, and my housemate just hit a deer in his '20 Kia Soul a few days ago), and I'm seriously paranoid about it.

 

From actually driving the car, it does emergency brake full stop. Otherwise I would have rear ended car/motorcycle in front of me.

Was at red light, completely stopped, and mindlessly took foot off gas and started idling forward into rear of people.in front of me, twice.

Big alert sound and the red splash screen, and all of a sudden car automatically slams on breaks. Even for 3 miles an hour forward, was a priceless correction made automatically.

No idea on other situations.

 

I wish more cars, especially trucks, had this feature. I got rearended twice last week. Both by big pickups that "didn't see me". Well, TBH, they didn't see my little trailer I tow behind my car and ran into that.

 

blargh. Were you hauling camouflage materials?

I put some extra DOT reflector tape on my hitch-mount package tray specifically to prevent that.

 

No, it was empty, and has a plywood top (we were on asphalt).

One happened at a stoplight. When the stoplight turned green the truck behind me hit the trailer. Then the same thing happened at a 2 way stop sign when I went to take off.

 

It won't brake if you're going under 7mph. See below. So put the trash can out there again, floor it, and have faith. Or trust IIHS, their results from a few days ago gave it a pass on breaking for pedestrians. And the

"Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection: This system uses millimeter-wave radar and a camera to help detect pedestrians, in certain conditions, in addition to vehicles. To help prevent or mitigate collisions, the system activates an audio and visual alert in addition to brake assist, followed by automated braking if the driver does not brake in a set time. Automated braking operates at relative speeds of between 7-50 mph for potential collisions with pedestrians, and can reduce speed by approximately 19 mph. For potential collisions with vehicles, the enhanced PCS system included with the TSS P package operates at relative speeds of between 7 mph and the vehicle’s top speed, reducing speed by approximately 25 mph."

 

I was definitely going less than 7 mph when it abruptly and with out my input slammed on the brakes.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you posted about, hmm

Maybe the "at relative speeds between 7-50mph" is not definitively between 7-50 mph, because it's "relative" ?

I'm confused, but yeah, my car slammed on the break automatically under 7 mph avoiding bumping a car and a motorcycle on two separate occasions at a red light.

Bozo for letting my foot off the brake. Not an excuse but I'm begining to think - for me - some of these safety features allow my guard to come down. Really appreciate them also. Sans the car jerking around randomly a couple times a day trying to help me.

 

Here's what happened I think, was at full stop at red light, motorcycle in front of me, I thought car was in "hold" mode, and must have let my foot off the brake. I hear the beeping, don't know what it is really see the screen flash red and then next thing j know my head almost taps the steering wheel because the car 'slammed' on the breaks to stop me from continuing to move forward.

Any ideas on why that happened under 7 mph? Or maybe I misunderstood the 7 mph thing or maybe this was not PCS activating and it was something else?

 

At low speed, you have the PKSB: Parking Support Brake. That's using the parking sensors rather than the radar and camera, but like the PCS it can reduce acceleration, then brake.