Cruise CONTROL help

Hi geraldlanc...I have a 2016 Four Touring and live in the USA (stating that because I can only comment on USA cars). When I want to use cruise control, I push and release the button on the end of the cruise control stalk/lever on the right hand side of the steering wheel. That will cause a cruise control/car icon to light on the right hand/lower area of the dash screen. Once the icon is lighted (lit?), the radar cruise control is ready for action. Once you get above 27 mph (or so) and have achieved the desired speed (let's say 50 mph), push the cruise control stalk down and release it. The car will take over and keep you at 50 mph UNTIL you approach a vehicle in front of you that is going slower. The radar cruise control will detect the vehicle ahead, determine that it is going slower, and automatically slow your car to match the speed of the vehicle ahead. If the vehicle ahead increases speed to 55 mph, your car will return to 50 mph (automatically). By using a button on the right hand side of the steering wheel (I think it is a car with curved lines "shooting" out from the front), you can adjust the distance your car will maintain between you and the slower moving vehicle ahead of you. The default is three bars/lines of distance (maybe three car lengths?)...if you want to decrease the distance, press the button on the steering wheel once and the distance will decrease to two bars/lines (maybee two car lengths?). Press it again and the distance will decrease to one bar/line (maybe one car length?). Press it again and it will return to the three bars/lines. You can "toggle" from three bars to two bars to one bar to three bars as much as you want. I normally leave it on three bars/lines.

If you want to change from radar cruise to "regular/normal" cruise (non radar activated response) and you are already in radar cruise, you have to turn the system off by pushing/releasing the button on the end of the cruise control stalk. The dash icon will go out. Then push/HOLD the cruise control stalk/ lever button in for 3 (+/-) seconds. When you first push the button in, the radar cruise icon will light up. As you hold the button in for the required time, the radar cruise icon will go out and another/different cruise icon will light up. Once you have reached the desired speed, push the lever/stalk down to set your speed and your car will maintain that speed and WON'T adjust itself to the speed of vehicles ahead of it (behaving like an "old fashioned" cruise control). If the cruise control hasn't been turned on for the trip, simply press in/hold in the button on the end of the cruise control lever/stalk for 3 (+/-) seconds to turn on the "regular" cruise control system.

In rada or normal cruise modes, the cruise control stalk works like this: Pushing the cruise control lever/stalk down sets/holds the speed based on how fast you are going when you push it down (holding the desired speed). If you want the cruise to stop holding speed, you can touch the brake pedal lightly OR pull the cruise control lever/stalk toward you. The system will "remember" how fast you had the desired speed set and be ready to resume that speed once you start moving again and after you have achieved 27 (+/-) mph. To resume your previous speed, achieve 27 (+/-) mph and push the cruise control lever/stalk up. The car will resume its previously desired speed automatically.

Finally: If you are on cruise (either mode, radar or regular) and you want to increase speed by one mph, simply push the cruise control lever/stalk up and release it...the car will increase its speed by one mph for each time you push the lever/stalk up. If you are on cruise (either mode, radar or regular) and you want to slow the car down by one mph, simply push the cruise control lever/stalk down and release it...the car will decrease its speed by one mph for each time the lever/stalk is pushed down.

Hope that helps!

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Push the button at the end of the stalk to enable the system. There will be an icon of a speedometer and a car that lights to indicate the system is ready.

Accelerate to your desired speed, then briefly press down on the stalk to set that speed. The word "SET" will appear near the aforementioned icon while the system is actively controlling the speed.

Press up on the stalk to increase speed, press down on the stalk to decrease speed. The set speed should be briefly displayed on the information screen to the right of the speedometer. Pull the stalk toward you or apply the brakes to disengage and resume manual control; you can resume automatic mode by briefly pushing the stalk up to resume.

There is a white button on the steering wheel, within reach of your right thumb, that cycles between three following distance settings when a vehicle is detected in front: long, medium, and short. The system defaults to long every time you start the car, for safety. When you press this button while the system is enabled, the information screen will briefly display three, two, or one teal bars in front of a picture of the vehicle, indicating the current following distance setting.

You can use the right/left arrow buttons on the right hand steering wheel control to make the display stay on the DRCC/LDW screen. In addition to the lane markers, CC speed, and distance settings, this display will show a leading car ahead when the system detects one. Note that you can see vehicles ahead long before the radar detects them. Do not rely on DRCC to handle all traffic situations, such as rapidly approaching already stopped traffic ahead.

In cases when the system is following a car and has slowed to a stop for a few seconds, the car will not automatically resume forward motion. You should see a screen that says "Waiting", and then, when the vehicle ahead begins to move again, instructions to either tap the accelerator or press up on the stalk to resume your travel.

If the system is following a vehicle and then loses radar lock, a message will be displayed with three audible beeps indicating that the system disengaged and you must manually take over speed control.

 

Good description! For me it's one of the most used and nicest features. There are a few quirks with the DRCC that I've found ways to deal with. Maybe others can comment on them. Occasionally when I'm enabling DRCC it won't engage. Until it says "Radar Ready". I haven't figured out why. Anyone figure out what it take's to get it engaged consistently?

 

The system is conducting a self-check before it reports back as working normally and it's ready to be used. I think it's as simple as that.

 

I think it checks for vehicles ahead first, hence the delay. Then when you set it, if there is a vehicle it goes into the vehicle following mode, i.e sets the speed to the vehicle ahead, if not it goes into a sort of looking for vehicles mode and will set the speed to whatever you set it to.

 

When you hold the cruise control arm up (not nudge and release but hold it up a bit), the car will accelerate and continue to do so until you press the brake pedal. I'm not exactly sure if I can control it with the CC arm or not at that point. It freaked me out so I haven't tried doing that again. On the Chevy I got rid of, that was the way to increase to a new speed... hold up until I reached the speed and release. With this car, it keeps accelerating after I release it.

 

Yes I think you guys are correct, self check and looking for the car to follow. We just have to figure out the sequence to get it on when it doesn't want to.

Michelle, I believe in either of the CC modes, if you hold the arm up it scrolls up the set speed. On my car that set speed is displayed on one of the top screens. Only while your changing it. As you said, hold on the cars going up to that set speed. One of the features I liked in my old gen two was the tap up or down 1MPH. Three taps up you went up 3MPH. The new gen 4 seams like it does the same.

 

Holding the stalk up will not cause uncontrolled or indefinite acceleration. It's important to make a distinction between adjusting the target speed and the actual speed of the car. The target speed can often be increased at a faster rate than the actual speed, so when you release the stalk the car has to keep accelerating to reach the new target (but will eventually stop increasing speed).

I used to drive a Chrysler/Dodge that had an ACCEL(erate) cruise control button that operated in the press-and-accelerate-until-release behavior you described. The new target was whatever speed you were going when the button was released. Toyota's DRCC doesn't work like that. See the right information screen and notice the small target speed in the corner whenever you adjust the speed using the stalk by tapping or holding up or down.

 

In UK, tapping the CC lever up when cruising increases target speed by 5 mph and decreases by 5 mph when tapping down. As has been said elsewhere on here, to set a speed other than multiple of 5, best to achieve speed using accelerator before setting CC.

 

Scared me first time I used it, I did the same, thinking it was like the Gen 3, hold until you get up to the speed. When I looked at the MFD just before I let go of the stalk, I realised I'd set it to 105mph and was doing about 60mph and because there were no cars in front of me it kept on going. Luckily I was quick enough to realise what was happening and touched the brake, which cancelled it.
Since then I've always done what RCO says above, got up to speed with the accelerator then set it, except where I can't up get to the speed I want due to traffic then I set it to the speed I'm at in the traffic then nudge it up in 5 mph increments to the speed I want to go when the traffic clears.

 

Like kithmo and 'Chelle it frightened me a couple of times before the penny dropped! Thing is, you need to deselect CC before accelerating and resetting the speed. If not, I found the desired speed didn't always register, but reverted to the original setting on pushing the stalk down. It has happened to me twice, so it may be the normal thing, but it could just be this potentially clumsy old 'insert appropriate noun here'

 

That has been a feature on Toyota cruise control to accelerate as well as increase the cruise control speed setting. I believe if you hold the control down, you car will decelerate.
From http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om-s/OM47A29U/pdf/OM47A29U.pdf

Large adjustment: Hold the lever in the desired direction.
In the vehicle-to-vehicle distance control mode, the set speed will be increased or decreased as follows:
Fine adjustment: By 1 mph (1.6 km/h)*1 or 1 km/h (0.6 mph)*2 each time the lever is operated
 For the U.S. mainland, Hawaii
Large adjustment: Increases or decreases in 1 mph (1.6 km/h)*1 or 1 km/h (0.6 mph)*2
increments for as long as the lever is held
 For Canada, Guam, Saipan and Puerto Rico
Large adjustment: Increases or decreases in 5 mph (8 km/h)*1 or 5 km/h (3.1 mph)*2
increments for as long as the lever is held

In the constant speed control mode (P. 310), the set speed will be increased or decreased as follows:
Fine adjustment:
By 1 mph (1.6 km/h)*1 or 1 km/h (0.6 mph)*2 each time the lever is operated
Large adjustment:
The speed will continue to change while the lever is held.

*1: When the set speed is shown in “MPH”
*2: When the set speed is shown in “km/h”

 

Certainly don't have to do that on my Gen2. Test drove a Gen4 and found that the control works in the same way as my Gen2 EXCEPT that as others have said, holding the CC lever anti clockwise works very differently, and I inadvertently set the speed to 112mph!

Bad idea Toyota I say! On my Gen2, holding the lever anti clockwise gradually accelerates the car until the control is released. V v different.

Plus, I really don't like the 5 mph minimum increments in the. uk version either, or is it 3 as the manual says?

On the UK Gen2 it's 1 mph increments. Far better I reckon

Anyone know if the increment size is configurable? It should be IMHO. I know this varies between cars built for different parts of the world.

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Traditional CC has one option: the speed you set is the speed you go. When using the hold-then-release method of adjusting your speed with the stalk, it's more or less the same: the speed you're going (at release) is the speed you set. Bonus: in both ways of looking at it, the set speed is the same big number as displayed on the speedometer.

DRCC breaks this mental model. You can set your desired speed independent of the actual vehicle speed because of the radar-based following distance. The set speed is displayed on a different screen, and doesn't necessarily match the speedometer. I use this feature all of the time. When in heavy/slow traffic, I'll set DRCC and let it maintain a following distance; meanwhile, I'll push up on the stalk to set a higher speed so that I keep up if the flow changes, or to set the speed I want once the congestion clears. Without introducing new control inputs, I think Toyota implemented this feature well but at the expense of changing how the stalk works.

If we don't understand or account for the difference in operation in our mental model, expecting the same as traditional CC, then we're bound to be surprised by certain behaviors. For example, there's absolutely no reason why DRCC couldn't behave like traditional CC when there is *not* a proceeding vehicle in radar lock. But that requires drivers' mental models to understand if/when the radar has a lock (and maybe why). I'm doubtful that placing this extra modal burden on drivers would result in fewer mistakes or less confusion.

It's usually best if a control works exactly one way all the time. If not for all cruise stalks, then at least for a single vehicle. I believe that's why DRCC behaves the way it does -- to enable the feature I described.

Now what would be interesting, and I haven't tried this, is to see if the stalk works traditionally when using the long press of the ON/OFF button to put the system in traditional mode instead of radar mode. Does the stalk behave the same as Gen2/3 in that mode or not?

 

Correction, today I tested DRCC and CC modes. In CC, holding the arm up, the car accelerates and when released the set speed is the car speed. But in DRCC it ramps up the set speed far faster than the car can accelerate. Conversely holding the stick down decels the very hard. I recall the time I accidently discovered that. it felt like the car was about to lock up the brakes, trying to slow the car down. Luckily I got DRCC disengaged.