I had the occasion this morning to jamb my brakes on to avoid hitting someone's large brown dog. At 54 MPH (+/-), reaction time and cat-like reflexes enabled me to hit the brakes and the stopping power was so impressive that the center-seat armrest in the back seat flipped down. Cleared the groceries I had in all the seats and did a systems check on the seatbelt. It wasn't emergency stopping power I've felt since I discovered the axle-braking power of the military HumVee back in the late 80s, nor have I felt is since then. Wow.
Hi Skguh, Yep, a side benefit of the fancy hydraulics of the friction brakes , so that they are only used when needed, and blended in with the electric braking, is that the system has a pressure accumulator. Which stores hydraulic pressure. So, in a panic stop, the solenoids just open and bam your stoppin. I have only heard of this quick reaction system on Mercedes, other than the Prius and other HSD cars. The system detects how quickly the brakes are being depressed and triggers if the pedal is pushed down faster than some threshold.
Toyota's term for this is EBD - Electronic Brake Force Distribution. My GF's Avalon also has this feature. She said that it saved her from hitting another vehicle one day - she couldn't believe how fast the car stopped.
Or "Eat a Bit of Dashboard," or "Examine Belt before Driving, or "Everyone Behind you Doomed?" LOL--sorry. Beats the heck out of disc brakes, ABS, or whatever, alone!
When our Prius was new, I stomped the brakes to avoid a deer, and was completely shocked how fast the Prius stopped. Only later did I learn about EBD. It sure works. Tom
