IMHO, the announced “Toyota aims to make Toyota Safety Sense [Pre-Collision System w/ Pedestrian Detection, Lane Departure Alert w/ Steering Assist, Full-Speed Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Automatic High Beams] available across nearly the entire vehicle lineup by the end of 2017” is missing inclusion of essential driver-visibility related operating safety functionalities, which are important to this hybrid-vehicle buyer-driver...Namely, Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM) & Rear Cross-Traffic Alert (RCTA). The chassis designs of the hatchback, wagon, and subcompact Prius cars are similarly afflicted with bothersome side and rearward blind spot areas/obscuration zones. I am particularly interested in these visibility problem areas as present in my current and future gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle of choice…the Prius v station wagon, and would like to see BSM & RCTA offered for it. Unfortunately, BSM & RCTA are not offered in the vee or any Prius vehicle, while these functionalities are offered in Toyota’s Avalon, Camry, Highlander, RAV4, Sequoia, Sienna…and even in the Tundra Truck. I am disappointed that BSM & RCTA safety technology is not even offered-included-bundled in as part of the 2015 vee’s “Max Bells & Whistles” $3,335 Advanced Technology Package (ATP) Option. It seems to me that a Prius v station wagon priced at $35K-$36K Out-The-Door should include BSM & RCTA. These visibility enhancement safety features would aid in ameliorating blind spot visibility and obscuration problem areas in the vee, both while traveling on-the-road, moving in traffic, and for safe parking lots ingress/egress dodging and maneuvering in and around errant scurrying “invisible” toddlers, stealthy purse-clutching/shopping-cart-pushing grannies, and those discourteous backup light ignoring drivers who speed down parking lanes at Max-Warp. The refresh for the 2015 Prius v station wagon, made three-years into the model offering, was mainly done to “Fix” and convert the 2012-2014 wagon’s “POOR” IIHA Small Overlap Front Crash Worthiness Rating into a “GOOD”, plus downsize adjust the feature-contents and package price of the ATP Option by some 40%, as well as adding a new v-Four model. Regrettably, Toyota’s front end structural beefing up, their ATP whacking & hacking, and options stirring up missed the mark as regards addressing and ameliorating the existing driver-visibility blind spot zone safety shortfalls in the vee. Hopefully, the NEXT GEN/GEN II Prius v station wagon design will offer BSM & RCTA to address the existing driver-visibility safety shortfalls in the GEN I & GEN I Refresh vee’s design, along with plunking in Toyota’s new 40% thermal efficiency gasoline engine and delivering a 10% increase in Official EPA MPG fuel economy.
