Prius Four or Five? Pre-collision worth it?

HOWEVER, I do find that it loses sight of the lanes pretty frequently, especially if you're in the right lane (hence on- and off-ramps interrupt the right lane marking), or if there are underpasses (the car can't see the lane markers into the sudden shadow), or if the paint is worn, or if a car crosses the lane very close to you, or...

Basically, there's a lot of times that you get a little double-beep indicating that the LKA isn't working temporarily. It's a very different beep from the faster, higher, longer alert you get when you cross a lane marking. And I don't believe you get it if DRCC is off (in which case it's LDW, not LKA).

That said, it's still nifty to have, and makes long drives less tiring. And it does occasionally catch me cutting a curve a bit short and driving on the lane markers. I usually just respond with "Yeah, yeah, I know..."

 

This is dependent on conditions, though - I think you have to be at 9 mph or less, and there have to be cars parked on either side of the empty space for parallel parking. For perpendicular parking, it can park on the far side of a single car. When it can't use these references, it will revert to just putting the car in the same relative location from where you last started parking.

Also, if you stop with the steering wheel straight and the driver right in the center of an open perpendicular spot, then start again and turn away, the car will use that stop to help it figure out the location of the parking space, even with pre-assist turned off. It can use this method (along with some computer vision to find the white lines) even if there are no cars parked on either side. If you don't stop, it'll assume the car is at the same angle it was last time you used it for perpendicular parking.

 

I would go for the prius 5, if these additional safety features only save your life or a member of your family and or friends once or more often, then the extra cost was money well spent.

Here In Australia Our Prius 5 model called the I-tech comes in 2 versions, with the solar roof package and 15 inch alloy wheels including all the safety features of the Prius 5 or without the solar roof package and 17 inch alloy wheels, these I-tech cars does not include LKA.

I guess it's a personal choice but in my opinion, money shouldn't be a factor over human life of family and friends, maximum safety is always first for me. all the best with your choice, Prius no matter what model level is a brillant car.

 

The ATP safety features are mainly for convenience, as the car still requires your full attention to drive safely. It's not like buying a car with no seat belt or air bag. When people say "The PCS saved me once!" they meant it assisted them in stopping the car, not necessarily saved their lives as would be the case with seat belt or air bag.

 

That's not universally true - for example, if I offer to install meteorite shielding on the roof of your house for the low, low price of $10 million dollars (AUD, USD, whatever), would you take it? After all, money shouldn't be a factor...

The fact is that money IS a factor. Governments consider this all the time; for example, the cost to install seat belts versus the monetary value of the lives it will save. In that instance, seat belts cost so little, and save so many lives, that it's easily worth requiring them to be installed in all vehicles. PCS is probably not quite there yet. (Yes, I estimated - assuming it costs $2000, amortized over 10 years, and prevents every death of a vehicular occupant, it would be just barely worth it, at the typical range of $1-10 million USD per life. But it can't prevent every death, so it's not going to be worth it just yet.)

With my meteorite shielding, it's pretty obvious that the chances of death by meteorite are exceedingly low - even for $2000, I bet you wouldn't take me up on it. It's not a bad decision to have PCS, it's just not as easily justifiable as other safety systems are.

I think it deserves a little bit more credit than that... Even if you're totally incapacitated, it may (e.g. "should") help save your life by reducing the severity of a crash. It won't completely avoid an accident like some other pre-collision systems are designed to, and it obviously can't drive the car for you, so yes, it still requires your full attention. But that doesn't mean it's a "convenience" item rather than a "safety" item.

 

True, but the probability of becoming totally incapacitated is practically nil unless you're targeting a very specific demographics that include those at high risk for heart attacks or have medical conditions that could cause them to pass out. Yes, it becomes a more important safety item if you happen to belong to those groups but for the general population, it pales in comparison to the number of lives saved by seat belts and air bags.