Premium vs Advanced

I'm with you on the adaptive cruise control. I currently drive a Subaru with EyeSight. I never realized how spoiled it has made me. I will never purchase another vehicle without it.

 

that's why i keep buying base models, but the prime plus has a lot of stuff.

 

Yeah, I bought a washer and dryer. I am not going back to beating my clothes with a rock at the creek.

 

My P.Prime has not arrived yet (May-June, sigh...) but between the one test drive I had, and a Model S test drive where I tried out Tesla's even-more-advanced feature to that effect (Autopilot), I can definitely see DRCC becoming the next microwave oven! That is, one of those features where, sure you can get by without, but once you have it, you just can't imagine how you ever got by without it.

Also, it's not just about safety, but also driving stress. My viewpoint is that, other than DRCC, the remaining TSSP safety features must be backup only: Think about them only enough to make sure they're for-sure all turned on, and then drive normally and attentively. Buuuuut! Drive relaxedly (if that's a word) and confidently, knowing that the technology has your back, rather than always stressing that one minor lapse of attention and you're screwed, or maybe even dead...

Tesla Autopilot, from what I've seen in my test drive and in YouTube videos is a little different though: With it, you drive a little more like a ship's captain than the helmsman: Your job is to think big-picture and call the shots (e.g., which exit to take, which direction to turn at this intersection, etc.), and also to eagle-eye the helmsman to make sure he "don't do nothing' dumb." That, plus be ready at a moment's notice to take over the helm when he says, "heeeelp! I'm confused! Take over! Quick!


iPad ? Pro

 

mr88cet, watch out for those microwave ovens.

 

The absence sold our 2010 Prius for a 2017 Prius Prime and skipped the 2016 Level Two ECO.

Bob Wilson

 

You can say that again !!!

When I'm cruising along at 80 mph on long open roads through South Dakota, you wouldn't expect someone to pass you at 90, then suddenly slow down immediately upon getting in front of you. That's not only rude, it's dangerous. Yet, I see it all the time.

The fact that my Prius will sense that terrible driving behavior and automatically slow to create a safe buffer is really, really nice.

 

And in NJ, if there is 20' between you and the car in front of you, someone will cut in. Happens all the time. I have to tail gate to prevent this and I'm sure people get annoyed with the tailgating.

 

Tailgating to prevent cutting in is far worse behavior than cutting in.

 

Live in NJ for a while and see how many accidents are caused by cutting in. Tailgating may not be the right word, but you need to be close.

 

I've driven in NJ a little. People are crazy rude. I kept getting honked at when I was at a dead stop on the highway with everyone in front of me also at a dead stop. Where did they expect me to go?

Cutting in is not dangerous unless there isn't enough room. If you leave 2 seconds like you're supposed to (2 seconds at 60mph is 176 feet), cutting in is not risky.

 

It's a stress thing with me too. Before with normal cruse or totally manual, I'd get angry quite often, now I just sit back and chill and let my car handle the stress!

I even do cruise on either the longest or second longest just so people can pass me as a step to passing the guy in front of me. I'm oh so much calmer about it!

I'm hoping the other safety features of the advanced will work as well, I'm particularly excited to see how well it keeps of traffic in my blind spot. I haven't had any wrecks with my 2010 prius, but there have been a few close calls with people lurking in my blind spot. (the prius has a pretty big blind spot!)

 

As I recall, Volvo made a press release about its up-coming fully-autonomous driving systems, essentially exactly about this (I think it was 8-9 months ago): They said they will work very reliably and safely, but in many cases you won't get where you want to go very fast, because it will always drive as safely as possible, and other drivers will take advantage of that, to the disadvantage of you getting to you destination quickly.

So, in this scenario, it might average driving at half the speed of the other cars, because it keeps insisting upon, but rarely actually achieving, a safe following distance.


iPhone ? Pro

 

The side mirrors, modified hexagonal shape, are much, much better at covering what had been a blind spot. I especially notice it when compared to our BMW i3-REx.

Bob Wilson

 

I learned from my grown daughter how to set the side mirrors to greatly reduce the blind spot as taught to her in drivers' ed. They are more to the side without keeping a reference to your own car in the mirror. Think of focusing them on the lane beside you, rather than your own car. It is much better, and teams up well with the inside mirror. Plus, I have a habit of keeping track of the traffic behind me and how it's moving relative to me.

 

Give it a few more years, increasing numbers of autonomous vehicles on the road, coupled with the folks who just drive responsibly, it'll get better. The few idiots left will stand out more and more.

 

No, that is not true. Let me explain.

Let's say you have a bunch of rude and unsafe tailgaters out there cutting in on you while you are on the highway. You're supposed to leave 2 seconds between cars but these tailgaters are only leaving a half second. Now, let's say over a 15 minute drive that 30 of them cut in on you - one every 30 seconds. That's going to cost you 30 drivers * 0.5 seconds per driver which is 15 seconds on your 15 minute drive which means you are running at 98.3% of the average speed you would have been had you not let anyone cut in on you.

The point is simple - preventing people from getting in front of you will save you very close to zero time on a total drive, and who thinks it's important to risk your life to get to work 15 seconds earlier anyway?

 

Yeah, I thought I invented that myself, but when my stepdaughter took driver's ed, yeah, that is indeed what they taught.

I point the inside rear-view mirror straight back, and use only it when I want to look directly backward. The outside rear view mirrors I point at the car I would have hit if I were to have made a careless a lane change.


iPhone ? Pro

That's a good quantification there. Sure, I was exaggerating when I suggested it would slow you down by that much.

Volvo's point was that their autonomous driving systems, if ever faced with a trade-off between safety and anything else (travel time, optimal route, fuel economy, etc.), will *always* make the safest choice, and some people will ... take advantage ... of that: Cutting you off, etc.


iPhone ? Pro

That's a good quantification there. Sure, I was exaggerating when I suggested it would slow you down by that much.

Volvo's point was that their autonomous driving systems, if ever faced with a trade-off between safety and anything else (travel time, optimal route, fuel economy, etc.), will *always* take the safest choice, and some people will ... take advantage ... of that: Cutting you off, etc.


iPhone ? Pro

 

Scenario: two ramps from a crossing interstate enter at about the same place, one on the left and one on the right. The two main lanes get backed up. The left ramp is a long one, at least a half mile. People behind me jump the median to get into the entrance ramp lane and zoom-zoom around everybody else, who are stop and go. Mostly stop. It literally takes 10 minutes to go that half mile because at least 5 semi-trucks and 50 or more cars pass you on that ramp. When it gets to the end of the merge, they use the shoulder to get past one more car.

It is not a matter of 15 seconds. it adds 10 minutes to my drive. And that's only one spot. I add about 20 minutes or more to my drive every day because of lane cutters alone.

Lane cutters are like grown people cutting in front of 8-year olds at the ice cream parlor. Rude, inconsiderate, and dangerous.

 

I don't drive anywhere like that at all, but there's no reason you can't drive a Prime without using the dynamic cruise control for situations just like that. Then you can use it when you're in better driving situations. Even I don't use the DRCC all the time.


Merged, please use multi quote

I actually knew that trick, but I tend to use my side mirrors in parking lots a lot, so i don't want to lose that. I also try to remember where are all the cars are too, and usually i do, but not always. I've only had close calls a couple of times in the last 100,000 miles...