Featured "Toyota Safety Sense" Preventive Safety Package-equipped Vehicles Top 10 Million Units Globally

this is a major step in auto safety, i expect to see accident rates coming down year over year. congrats toyota!

 

Don't count your chickens just yet.

American drivers have repeatedly found ways to keep fatality rates from dropping as fast as they should, such as by mentally checking out quicker than the cars get safer. They even increased the carnage during 2014-16.

At least 2017 was (from preliminary figures) down a fraction of a percent, though even that was tiny compared to the long term trend.

 

Does anyone have experience with the automatic high beam system? Any details on how it works? Seems like an infrared camera picking up heat of a person or animal on a dark screen on the dash or center console would be more effective at alerting the driver to pedestrians at night than high beams going off?

I was once pulled over by Washington State Patrol and given a warning for flashing my high beams at them when they were headed towards me. Their vehicle's headlights were too bright and was going up a hill towards me so I couldn't see the road as well as I wanted. So sick of overly bright oncoming headlights unnecessarily making it hard to see where I'm going! The cop explained that it's illegal to flash your high beams at oncoming traffic.

So maybe Toyota is going to have to rethink this one? High beam flashing is considered enough of a safety hazard in the state of Washington for them to make a rule, what does Toyota say? Will they disable this feature in this state?

In the bigger picture, we need night vision testing for all drivers and if you have bad night vision you lose use of your license during night time hours because all of us folks with well-refined night vision from hundreds of thousands of miles of night driving are sick and tired of being blinded by near blind people with overly bright headlights.

 

in my sons rav4 they worked pretty well at detecting oncoming headlights. not sure of the technology though. i was impressed, because i prefer more light, but often forget to turn them down when a car is coming.

 

Oh... So you're saying they turn themselves off when oncoming traffic is vulnerable to them? I like that... My concern was that they automatically turn on to light up/blind a pedestrian or animal for the safety of the driver at the expense of the eyes that's getting high beamed.

 

can't speak for other mfgs, but his were strictly based on oncoming headlights. high beams when there were none, low beams when there were.

interestingly, my old mercedes owners manual called the high beams 'driving lights', and recommended using the low beams with oncoming traffic

 

Oh... I see... I think you're referring to the (AHS) Adaptive High-Beam System, which is a great idea... This announcement adds to that function with a new system that I find more questionable:

• Automatic High Beam (AHB): contributes to the early detection of pedestrians and the reduction of accidents during nighttime driving

 

interesting, now i'm totally confused. not sure what is on the rav4.

 

I never have liked flashing my high beams and my back seat driver always says to do it. lol
I have noticed a lot of people flashing their headlights at me since the time change. I have noticed other people with new cars having headlights that seem awful bright but as they come closer they don't bother me as much. These new LED headlights seem to have a definite cutoff, there isn't much of a transition from darkness to light. Kind of hard to explain but living out in the country with cornfields on country roads you can see a definite line where the light ends and the darkness begins.

 

I've spent decades hiking through forests in the dark at night... The more you train your eyes to see in the dark, the safer driving at night becomes. Catch is, you know the type... Often they are parents who will come into a room that has perfect lighting and turn all the lights on so it's way too bright. These people do the same thing when driving when it comes to what kind of headlights they like. Nothing ruins good night-vision faster than bright lights.

 

Whatever you do don't go wandering off and reading the owner's manual to find out and report back... No greater blasphemy on Prius Chat than people doing that. Keep your eyes on the screen and just keep typing!!!

 

Toyota is saying the system is preventing 70% of rear end collisions, and up to 90% with the close approach radar system. This is fantastic news, not just for auto safety but I presume 90% of traffic jams in our area are caused by accidents, so the roads should carry more traffic with less gridlock, as these systems gain % of auto market.

I guess it might be bad news for auto repair shops.

 

Yea... But the advancements are no longer being held back as much and demise of auto mechanics and auto body shops is inevitable. For example, Tesla's drivetrain has 22 parts... Most vehicles have a drivetrain with 200 parts... So all these shops have had plenty of advanced warning...

 

is not my car

 

I don't think so. We have a pattern of risk compensation or risk homeostasis, preventing these improvements from producing their full benefits. Nearly every time the basic risks are reduced, we multiply our risky behavior to sort-of compensate, somewhat (or sometimes entirely) offsetting the expected benefits. That is likely why traffic fatalities actually starting rising in 2014, despite safer cars.

 

That's why I used term "wandering." You know how grown up kids are when parents head out to find 'em to ask a question....

 

I am in reference to the PriusChat Twitter feed

 

So what? That marketing fluff doesn't change my response to your suggestion that this is bad news for auto repair shops. Previously safety improvement have repeatedly been diminished by changing driver behavior.