Adaptive Cruise Control

[Louie]

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all 

Now there are a few minor things that irritate me with my GR Sports Corolla Hybrid 2L but nothing like the annoying adaptive cruise control buttons. Am i missing something but why do i have to press two buttons to activate the ACC. On all cars I have driven its always one button.  Now the ACC operation is actually superb and superior to my old Golf GTD. 

I am a little bit at sea on my next Toyota when my 3 year lease expires next year. I was aiming for a plug in hybrid but they are much more expensive than standard hybrids however I am hoping  Toyota will pull something out of the bag. I do not want to commit to getting an EV because the charging station infrastructure in the UK is badly flawed e.g. stations are full and some points of charge are defective and there is still not enough of them also I dont really want to be calculating if  i have enough juice to get to my destination. I know that Toyota have something up their sleeves with new 2022 models but they are being quiet about it.

 

 

 

 

[TonyHSD]

New generation self charging hybrids coming in 2022 looks promising,  imo phev are not better at all even they offer some sort of ev range they still have two plugs 🔋⛽️ and they are heavier and more complicated than standard hybrids., I always believe that these are exclusively suitable for very small number of owners (drivers) who does only short daily mileage commute and long drive end of the week every weekend otherwise an ev or sch are better option. If you only need your car for 5 or less long drives through out the year full Evs are more suitable, if you do drive a lot on weekly basis self charging is better. Quick look at auto Trader site shows a lots of phev Prius available and very few self charging hybrids., perhaps because of the reason above. 👍

Merry Christmas 🎄 

[Stopeter44]

I just took delivery of my Yaris, and to activate ACC, which is the default mode of ACC, you have to select cruise (not limiter, it's a rocker switch), then touch set. I haven't tried it yet. In the 208, I had to turn on the cruise, and then set it.

[AndrueC]

Agreed. It's silly having to first switch the CC on. I don't really understand why it needs to even be possible to switch it off. I've mentioned before that 'active/inactive' ought to be enough. My previous car - a Honda Jazz - had a dedicated push switch to turn it off which, whilst I still think isn't necessary, did at least mean when it was off there no was no chance of accidentally switching it on. It also meant that you could leave the CC permanently on which is what I did.

The other thing the Jazz did better was having a more obvious rocker switch for the CC controls with raised bezels. I am forever resetting my CC instead of resuming it because it's not obvious where your thumb is when you press it. There isn't any feedback either whereas the Jazz had a noticeable 'soft click'.

[Stopeter44]

Now I come to think of it, in my previous 208, I could leave the CC in pause, but, then I had the infotainment software updated, so that I could have CarPlay, and, for whatever reason the activation of the cruise control changed completely. I guess, because it was a three position switch I could have just left it at cruise, and it would be "paused" when I turned the car on. 

Anyway, I didn't mind turning it on and off as desired, because it annoyed me to see "cruise control paused" on the LED display.

[Cyker]

Is this unusual? Every car I've ever driven with cruise control has required it to be turned on then 'set' for it to work.

Once the system is turned on you can 'pause' it by braking or cancelling it (Much easier in my Mk4 than other cars - I like that Cancel is a big button!), but as long as you don't turn it off again you can always re-enable it by 'set'ing the speed again or pushing the up control to resume the previous set speed.

 

[Bernard Foy]

5 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

I just took delivery of my Yaris, and to activate ACC, which is the default mode of ACC, you have to select cruise (not limiter, it's a rocker switch), then touch set. I haven't tried it yet. In the 208, I had to turn on the cruise, and then set it.

Congratulations on your new Yaris Peter, enjoy its an amazing wee car.

[AndrueC]

3 hours ago, Cyker said:

Is this unusual? Every car I've ever driven with cruise control has required it to be turned on then 'set' for it to work.

I'm not claiming that it's unusual just that the Corolla's implementation seems particularly pointless. All it does is force you to press two buttons to accomplish the initial action. At least on the Jazz 'on/off' was a completely separate switch that you could leave on permanently if you so desired.

Imagine if your TV remote had two buttons 'on/off' for the remote and 'active/inactive' for the TV and the first time you wanted to watch TV every day you first had to switch the remote on. that would be annoying. At least with the Jazz version of such a remote 'on/off' would be a slide switch and you could leave it 'on' all time.

The rest of the operation is fairly standard but it would be improved by bevels to help us identify which part of the control is under our thumb and a detent to provide feedback.

[AJones]

7 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

Imo phev are not better at all even they offer some sort of ev range they still have two plugs 🔋⛽️ and they are heavier and more complicated than standard hybrids., I always believe that these are exclusively suitable for very small number of owners (drivers) who does only short daily mileage commute and long drive end of the week every weekend otherwise an ev or sch are better option.

I'd say the two plugs is the best bit, in the Prius PHEV it means you can do the first 20-35 miles purely on electric, which for trips around town means zero emission driving without starting the engine and burning no petrol at all, but for longer distance stuff you can do the next 500+ miles on a really efficient hybrid without any range anxiety or public charging difficulties.

I'd agree that for people who spend most of their time in the car, like taxi drivers and sales reps then a hybrid is better but for for anyone who does a mix of short trips and longer distance stuff it's a good choice.

As for more complex, well a lot of the technology is just an evolution of what's in the Prius, there's still a Battery but it's bigger, it still has electric aircon but it's a bit more sophisticated as it incorporates a heat-pump, to heat the car using electric. There's a charger which is new.

Probably the worst bit is that the Battery isn't big enough, if it could do say 75 miles on pure electric it would be perfect.

7 hours ago, TonyHSD said:

Quick look at auto Trader site shows a lots of phev Prius available and very few self charging hybrids., perhaps because of the reason above. 👍

I suspect it is that Priuses are very popular with taxi drivers who need to carry luggage but the boot in the PHEV is too small because it has been shrunk to accommodate the bigger Battery. If you were regularly transporting luggage like taxi drivers do, then it would be a problem. Plus at the moment the PHEVs are priced quite expensive, the regular versions are cheaper.

[AndrueC]

Yes I think PHEV would be perfect for me but the Prius loses so much boot space to it that the car becomes impractical. But a BEV will also work. Most of my journeys these days are local and I have a garage so it would be easy to keep the charge topped up. I don't often do long journeys and if I do I'll just book into a hotel and charge the car back up overnight. Two days of 200 miles each day is enough for my purposes.

[Mikw]

9 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

I just took delivery of my Yaris, and to activate ACC, which is the default mode of ACC, you have to select cruise (not limiter, it's a rocker switch), then touch set. I haven't tried it yet. In the 208, I had to turn on the cruise, and then set it.

Nice car, i hope you enjoy your new Yaris as much i enjoy mine.