I want to buy a Tacoma, but I'm concerned with the Safety Sense systems found in 2018-current model years. It feels extremely intrusive to have a vehicle take control of the braking in what it deems to be an emergency situation, and it seems like a lot more computer stuff to fail some day. A google search just turns up endless praise for such systems. How does Scotty feel about pre-collision systems, lane departure corrective steering, and upcoming the robot takeover?
Thanks,
Matt
I cannot speak for Scotty but I for one welcome our robot overlords.
However in vehicles not only have such features been found to be less than reliable, they will become endless money pits over time.
We turned all that crap off on our '21 Corolla. Luckily don't have any of that stuff in our other vehicles. When we drive, we drive and pay attention. Too many people are driving and distracted with all sort of other things, mostly have their head down doing something on their smart phones, drives me nuts. I pass 'em and get the heck away. If everyone would just drive and pay attention, wouldn't need all this extra crap in cars.
So having own a 2019 Camry, the safety sense as of late at least for my car, is still a feature that you can kinda turn off. Lane departure is just assistance and I have tested it on an open road. The car will scream at you if you don't have both hands on the wheel after it ping-pongs for a little bit. But you can turn steering assist off. The other one is that is new to me is adaptive cruize control which will brake and gas for you. (This is kinda jank as the sensors on my car only work well in straight lines, going in a curve and the car will brake hard if there be a car right next to you) And lastly from what I've seen, I was going down a curved road at speed limit 30mph and there was a semi right in front of me stopped at the light, I know here I was actually going to the right lane and the car panic and freaked out at me telling me to use the brakes but did not actually brake for me while trying to make that right turn. After I passed the semi it still beeped at me until I guess the system recalibrates or something?
I find it very annoying sometimes and sometimes I like it.
-my dad’s house has a tight driveway so we gotta park super close to each other. I typically park like a couple inches from the bumpers of the other cars. I was pulling in my dad’s 2018 Camry XSE and the stupid thing slammed on the brakes by itself when it was still like a foot and a half away from the other car. Luckily my 2019 Camry SE doesn’t have this stupid thing because I know how to park and how close I can get without hitting stuff.
-adaptive cruise control is nice to have for when I’m driving tired but annoying when I’m perfectly alert and awake. But I just hold the cruise control button until it’s in regular cruise control mode because if I’m coming up on another car that’s going slower than me while I’m in adaptive cruise control mode, it starts braking when I’m still like 150 feet away from the car in front of me and I’ve had people think I was brake checking them because of this.
-Lane keeping assist is also great for when I’m tired but when I’m on curvy roads, it’s very annoying because it beeps at me when I’m not even going over the lines. I’d yelling “SHUT UP!” at the car every 10 seconds.
-blind spot detection is great to have. Honestly I think that if somebody owns a car that comes with blind spot detection, and they still somehow manage to cause an accident by coming into somebody’s lane and hitting them while that system is beeping at them, that light on the mirror illuminating, and the thing popping up on the center display screen, then they should get extra large fines, suspension of driver’s license, or even a little bit of jail time for vehicular assault/manslaughter depending on the severity of the accident. This is because by ignoring all those little warnings that there is something there, the driver basically hit that other driver on purpose. Yea it can be turned off but there really isn’t any reason to turn it off since it only makes the annoying beeping sounds if you’re actually about to hit somebody.
you can turn off the stuff that you dont like
i was backing out of a parking space, someone cut right behind me and my vehicle stopped, so that was helpful
All the cars I’ve ever owned did not have any of that fancy tech, so I don’t really care for it but understand why it’s there. But it’s the norm nowadays and more stuff to go wrong in the future. Ironically, insurance premiums may go up since it costs $$$ to fix and repair such systems in an accident.
