Cruise control and traffic sign recognition

[TimLOTSW]

This may well have been covered elsewhere and I apologise if that is the case. I assume that although the car recognises speed signs it does not ( unlike VW) change the cruise control set point automatically? Is this the case? Why is there a green rectangle around the speed limit indicator, I this confirmation that your set point does not match the speed limit? Also, whilst on the subject, my understanding that due to EU legislation the speed limit warning is reset to on whenever you restart, great safety feature as you stare down and scroll through menus looking to turn it off. Also I like the visual only warning but this gets reset as well and you cannot deselect that whilst driving. P.S. I seem to remember leaving the EU?

 

[Roy124]

2 hours ago, TimLOTSW said:

I assume that although the car recognises speed signs it does not ( unlike VW) change the cruise control set point automatically? Is this the case?

Correct, it does not change the CC setting.  The displayed speed sign will change to White on Red if your actual speed set is higher than the limit. 

 green rectangle .... confirmation that your set point does not match the speed limit?

Correct, the green box will also show 2 up arrows showing you may increase the set speed. 

It will display down arrows if the set speed it too high.

Also, whilst on the subject, my understanding that due to EU legislation the speed limit warning is reset to on whenever you restart, great safety feature as you stare down and scroll through menus looking to turn it off.

True.  Lots of chat here about RSA.

Also I like the visual only warning but this gets reset as well and you cannot deselect that whilst driving. P.S. I seem to remember leaving the EU?

Correct, however UK has accepted EU motiring rules and will no doubt continue so to do.

 

There are two lines of thought expressed here about the overspeed warning.

1.  It is a PITA having to set it off all the time. 

2. The other extraordinary suggestion is to drive at the speed limit or less.

The problem with option 2 is the posted limit is frequently wrong or misread by the car.

[ernieb]

Agree with Roy the car misreads the speed signs or does not see the changes. (Unless the ‘24 version is better than the ‘21 version)

I use WAZE and the speed signs, I’ve found, are very good.

[TimLOTSW]

Thanks for your help, I want the notifications, just not as beeps and/or a little tolerance e.g. get speed down within xx Yards or allow to creep over by 1 or 2 mph for a few seconds. What is particularly irritating is when it's the cruise control not keeping to the set speed.

[CPN]

3 hours ago, ernieb said:

Agree with Roy the car misreads the speed signs or does not see the changes. (Unless the ‘24 version is better than the ‘21 version)

(answer: it's not!!)

[philip42h]

10 hours ago, TimLOTSW said:

Thanks for your help, I want the notifications, just not as beeps and/or a little tolerance e.g. get speed down within xx Yards or allow to creep over by 1 or 2 mph for a few seconds. What is particularly irritating is when it's the cruise control not keeping to the set speed.

Yes, no and maybe ...

I agree on the subject of anonymous beeps - the driver should have the option to receive visual alerts only. Which is the default for the older system in my car - so I'm happily driving without [those particular] beeps. There's no reason why Toyota couldn't comply with the current legislation AND allow a recognised driver profile to opt for visual alerts only. And, maybe, they do but ...

The system shouldn't allow any tolerance - the law doesn't. We really should adapt our driving style to comply with the speed limit in effect on the current stretch of road. Yes, I know, I don't either, but the visual alert reminds me that I should, and I am trying, honestly.

My car is equipped with "Dynamic Radar Cruise Control with Road Sign Assist (vehicles with RSA)" so I would expect that yours is too. You will need to enable the function - I suspect that it is 'off' by default (RTFM). When DRCC RSA is enabled the DRCC set speed can be increased/reduced to the recognized
speed limit by pressing and holding the “+RES”/“-SET” switch.

The DRCC most certainly does keep to the set speed (unless there is a slower car in front) but it is up to the driver to set that speed. Personally, I really would object to the car deciding to change the set speed for itself - that's the driver's job.

[Roy124]

11 hours ago, TimLOTSW said:

What is particularly irritating is when it's the cruise control not keeping to the set speed.

This is actually another issue.  Certainly, if you set 30 in a 30 zone it will kick off if the car does 31.  However this is not the same alert as when you physically drive at 31.

If you set the CC to 50 in a 60 zone, as you noted, the set speed is in a green box with up arrows.

Now suppose you crest a rise at 50 and the car momentarily exceeds the set speed you will get the same overspeed warning even though you are under the limit. 

The Toyota advice here is to drop your cruise speed by 5 mph as you climb a hill.  This will give you a better mpg.

Best way to achieve this is briefly cancel the CC, apply throttle to maintain-5, allow the speed to build up after the crest and re-engage CC.  Or just drive without CC 😀

[Rod9669]

It annoys me that the CC changes in increments of 5mph - I usually set it at 53mph in the 50's on the M4 in Wales, and If i happen to miss that exact speed and use the + or - then I'm either doing 47mph or 52mph - bugs me 🤬

[Nick72]

So I thought the cruise control can be set to automatically follow the speed limit from the traffic sign recognition feature. Mine defaulted to that when delivered and took me a while to find it in the menus to switch it off because it wasn't reliable and didn't work on our so called smart motorways where the speed goes up and down faster than Benny Hills trousers. 

I just have it set to give me a visual warning nowadays and like Ernie I use Waze, but gives me a a single beep of I go over 10 or whatever percentage I've set in the app.

[Roy124]

@Nick72 I thought that was a future aspiration by Brussels technocrats.  As you say, unreliable.   You might be driving at 30 when it sees a 20 sign and immediately brakes which would be disconcerting to a driver following. 

@Rod9669 that used to be true of the Corolla.   My MY21 Yaris Cross will increment at 1 mph steps with one click and 5 if I hold it.  Much better.

[PeteB]

17 hours ago, TimLOTSW said:

Why is there a green rectangle around the speed limit indicator, I this confirmation that your set point does not match the speed limit?

The green rectangle sort of does tell you the set speed doesn't match the speed limit.  However, it's mainly useful in changing the cruise control set speed as long as:

1. the displayed speed limit is correct
2. you're happy to use the speedo indicted speed and not the true speed

Attached to the green rectangle will be a small arrow pointing up (speed limit is higher than set speed) or down (lower than set speed).  If it's pointing up, pressing and holding the +/Resume button will make the set speed jump straight to the indicated speed limit, use -/Set if the arrow points down.

It's not brilliant as you have to wait until after you've passed the new limit sign and for a higher speed limit that may make following drivers impatient (drivers generally seem to have a lower patience threshold than when I started driving over 50 years ago!), and for a lower limit it means you're exceeding it until the car reacts.

On a slightly different note, I've adopted the practice of at first setting the CC to 5 mph above the limit, and as it hits the speed I want (e.g. 53 in a 50 limit) I quickly hit cancel then set.  I've done it so many times it hardly seems a chore.

[Roy124]

@PeteB do you need to cancel?  I think Set will do it in one go.

[PeteB]

Interesting - I must confess that hadn't occurred to me!  I'll check next time I use the car.

[Nick72]

4 hours ago, Roy124 said:

@Nick72 I thought that was a future aspiration by Brussels technocrats.  As you say, unreliable.   You might be driving at 30 when it sees a 20 sign and immediately brakes which would be disconcerting to a driver following. 

@Rod9669 that used to be true of the Corolla.   My MY21 Yaris Cross will increment at 1 mph steps with one click and 5 if I hold it.  Much better.

Yep,my experience. Too unreliable. But there's a setting to automatically set the cruise speed to the road traffic signs. Or at least I'm sure there was.

[Roy124]

@Nick72 yes, but it's mandraulic.  IIRC you press and hold the up button.  You can then increment faster than the limit.

The EU aspiration is for the car to see the sign and set the speed. 

On road I use, A43, has 50 limit signs then nothing for well over a mile.   Suddenly there is a repeater sign and just yards beyond it is derestricted.

We also have Anglian Water put up signs.   I have yet to see any work in progress but they leave them up.  They get knocked down, and the derestricted is not visible.   Once the Black line was Bend Dexter.  Would the system recognise the wrong direction?

 

 

[AndrueC]

It's not yet fit for purpose. It's bad enough new owners have to put up with it beeping and changing colour at inappropriate moments. Having it actually impact the vehicle's operation would be awful. There's a section of motorway near me where the car briefly thinks it's a 30mph zone because it catches sight of a sign on a road that passes underneath.

23 hours ago, TimLOTSW said:

P.S. I seem to remember leaving the EU?

Do you also remember many people pointing out that the UK market was too small to be worth treating differently to the EU? And that all we were actually doing was weakening our ability to control our future?

[Roy124]

@Anrewhdx I remember Douglas Hurd saying that we would fight tooth and nail to stop, or at least modify, EU regulations.   Once adopted we would rigorously enforce the regulations that we had previously opposed.

OTOH Maggie was said to be a bad European as she was inflexible.  Other EU countries would accept EU Regulations and apply them as they chose.  That way the passage was easier and the effect minimal. 

 

[Nick72]

3 hours ago, Roy124 said:

@Nick72 yes, but it's mandraulic.  IIRC you press and hold the up button.  You can then increment faster than the limit.

The EU aspiration is for the car to see the sign and set the speed. 

On road I use, A43, has 50 limit signs then nothing for well over a mile.   Suddenly there is a repeater sign and just yards beyond it is derestricted.

We also have Anglian Water put up signs.   I have yet to see any work in progress but they leave them up.  They get knocked down, and the derestricted is not visible.   Once the Black line was Bend Dexter.  Would the system recognise the wrong direction?

 

 

Didn't know that thanks Roy. Makes sense though. Puts liability back with the driver. 

[Roy124]

I tried holding the up button.  It did not go straight to the limit.  Mind you, each model seems to use different logic. 

[nlee]

15 hours ago, AndrueC said:

It's not yet fit for purpose. It's bad enough new owners have to put up with it beeping and changing colour at inappropriate moments. Having it actually impact the vehicle's operation would be awful. There's a section of motorway near me where the car briefly thinks it's a 30mph zone because it catches sight of a sign on a road that passes underneath.

Do you also remember many people pointing out that the UK market was too small to be worth treating differently to the EU? And that all we were actually doing was weakening our ability to control our future?

I seem to recall reading that the UK had little choice in blanket adoption of EU vehicle safety legislation, otherwise the EU could legitimately prevent UK vehicles from being driven on the continent, which would be a significant issue for many that take their cars over there for holidays.

[Mike2222]

I might have misread something, but are other people stuck with CC in 5mph increments only? Mine can be operated/set in 1mph increments and to the bets of my knowledge always has been...? 

 

It's possible I could have altered some settings back when first got the car, but I can't recall now, but it's is definitely possible for for a 2022 PHEV Rav. 

[PeteB]

1 hour ago, Mike2222 said:

I might have misread something, but are other people stuck with CC in 5mph increments only?

It seems to vary by model.  All Toyotas I've driven which had non-radar CC adjusted in 1 mph increments and 5 mph increments if the stalk/button was held for more than a second or so.

However, most Toyotas and Lexus I've driven with Adaptive (Radar) CC (including Lexus RX and LX models I briefly drove 15 or so years ago, along with a 4th Gen Prius, 5th Gen RAV4 HEV and my present Highlander Hybrid) incremented in 5 mph.

I have seen reports of one or two other models using 1 mph increments, like Mike's RAV4 PHEV and, I think, someone else's recent Yaris.  Also, a CH-R Hybrid I was lent by my dealer a while back also adjusted in 1 mph increments.

For some reason, those Adaptive CC cars that work in 5 mph increments can be put into old fashioned non-radar mode by holding the button for a few seconds when switching CC on, and AFAIK in all cases that will adjust in 1 mph increments (5 if stalk/button held).

I don't know how Toyota make such decisions, but I prefer 1 mph increments, and when others have commented I've yet to see the opposite opinion expressed (which, I suppose, may change now!).

[ernieb]

My ‘21 PHEV is 1 mph increments.

[philip42h]

28 minutes ago, ernieb said:

My ‘21 PHEV is 1 mph increments.

And my 2020 HEV increments in 5s (my 4.4 increment in 1s). At first I thought it a bit of a pain and now I find it perfectly fine and wouldn't want to go back. 5 mph increment for DRCC is just fine - I really don't understand what people are complaining about ... 🙂

[philip42h]

43 minutes ago, PeteB said:

when others have commented I've yet to see the opposite opinion expressed (which, I suppose, may change now!).

😄