I know I shouldn't use DRCC on twisty roads, but I noticed last week that if I either resume, or increase the target speed, and I'm going around a bend, the car doesn't speed up until I straighten the wheel as I'm coming out of the bend. Does the DRCC sensor area move with the steering or is the car just sensing that I have some turn on the steering and hold back ?
I don't know specifically on the Prius but on other brands of automotive radar they do get the steering angle and IMU (yaw rate sensor) information from the CAN bus to move the sensor area as the car turns. I don't know about the resume and speed up behaviour you have observed. kevin
I'd like to think the radar is waiting to clear the proper distance ahead is clear of traffic before accelerating. Of course, I could just be blowing smoke...
On my Gen 3, I think there is some steering angle taken into account. There's a sharp bend (Well sharp for a highway. It's nearly 90° and you go from 5mph to 40mph around the bend and then back to 50 as you straight out. Of course a sharp bend like that is the ultimate test for my older DRCC unit. As I follow a car, sometimes it catches it if I can turn my steering wheel soon enough without going into the other lane or following too closely. Other times, it will lock on and off, resulting in a jerky accelerate/brake dance around the curve. Of course if I want a smooth turn, I'll cancel DRCC and re-engage back on the straight. So at least on my unit, it appears to steering angle into account as to where to look for the vehicle ahead within the radar's pulse frequency, umm, "cone of visibility".
Radar cruise control responsiveness varies depending on the Drive mode. I find the responsiveness when in Eco too slow. I use Normal but it is even quicker to respond in PWR mode. The non-radar cruise control setting is very responsive regardless of Drive mode.
You're right, DRCC won't resume completely on a bend. I have an On-Ramp I use most days which starts with a bend coming off a roundabout, but the speed limit is 60km/hr for 400 metres or so. My previous cars I'd just hit resume and it would take it up to 60km/hr till the 1000km/hr sign 400 metres along then wind the speed up to the Speed Limit. Not with PRIUS - partly because the resume C/C stalk has moved around, but also, if I do find the C/C stalk, it won't accelerate to 60 until the bend straightens out. I also found something else crazy TOYOTA has done - we wanted to dial a phone number but the dial pad was greyed out - it said that I couldn't do it while on the move. It wouldn't give a dial pad for my passenger to use till we came to a red traffic light (which wasn't long, fortunately). It'll let you access the address book and dial a number in there, but no key-pad.
I agree, perhaps that's because as driver, we can see it's clear but the radar has not verified that is clear enough to re-engage.
Interesting! Have you ever tried using Siri or OK Google to dial using voice instruction? My driving instructor in the other seat discourages me from any unnecessary distractions and prefers to manually struggle with the phone herself. Never sure whether to be amused or irritated by her frustration, both options are likely to incur wrath.
No, I giggled while my daughter was trying to make sense of SIRI a while back - we discovered SIRI doesn't have a clue about baking chocolate brownies. I don't have an apple - it's SAMSUNG, but haven't been able to make much sense of OK Google either - but haven't tried voice instruction, didn't realise it did that!!!
Yes, I'm a devout Android user. Had a Nexus 6 which iss great but recently bought a new Hwawei P9 because Google are stopping support for N6 in a few weeks time. Here the official instructions: Call someone - Android - Google Voice Help
The Prius also has builtin voice recognition for dialing, even on Trim Two. My salesman had me try it before my test drive. I have not used it since. Here is a part of that section in the US manual.
Sure, but I understand there has been some lag reported when using it and a cell phone can do it for itself anyway. I tried using the voice button on my wheel and it would not work without the Nav element present - which I don't have. My 'Business Edition' is kind of between your 3 and 3T. You'd have to compare the official specs to see the differences.
Sorry to appear contrary, but the button is present on the steering wheel. It just does not work on my model, it's for the Business Edition Plus and Excel models above mine in UK.
I've tried several times to activate/train/use Google voice activation, but have come to the conclusion that as my old Dad (R.I.P.) would say "…it's about as useful as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking contest!" IOW totally bloody useless, so I leave the stupid feature TURNED OFF!!!
LOL. My old man used to say, If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. But I respect your view, after all different phones by different manufacturers and operated by different people are certain to have different results.
I have a Motorola Droid Maxx phone, and also a Verizon Ellipsis 10 tablet. Both run Android, and the Google voice app thingy is bloody useless on both, perhaps it has problems with my "mid-Atlantic" accent…
Is the phone or the car "listening" to you if you use the steering wheel button? I thought it was the car. We tried it, my daughter spoke into it with some commands her (KIA) car understands, and it didn't come up with anything remotely like what she asked for, other than I think it was "PLAY" - it started the CD player, but attempts to change volume or track didn't work, then she tried other commands she said she used on her car - after 5 minutes, we gave up and - 13 mths later, I haven't tried again. I wondered if it didn't understand proper English? I wondered whether it needed ENTUNE connected - I don't have it connected - my salesman said that it wasn't worth the bother, (nor do I have Navigation on my car).
