Wozniak cites 'scary' 2010 Prius acceleration problem

As I said before, there is an special speed indicator (with numbers) at which ACC has been set on.



You can find rest of the pics on our dear friends site:
A experiência 3G... dia 03... os consumos fantásticos - Prius-PT

Notice 120kmh to the utmost right, next to the ACC? Thats exactly what it is ;-)

 

Thanks, but it's NOT on my US 2009 and I don't know about US version 2010's...

 

Wow, I have to admit that is a relatively fair and balanced presentation. Which really suprises me. Could this be a sign that the media is slowly burning out and/or realizing how predatorial they have been? ....unfortunately I doubt it.

 

I think Woz is right, actually. I have a Prius V as well, and have noticed that you have to be VERY careful how long you press up the speed increase lever. A quick tap increases the speed by 1 mph, but a minimally longer upward press of the lever jumps up the speed setting by 5 or even 10 mph. My previous Prius, a 2007, did not behave this way, and it happens whether or not the adaptive feature is active. When it first happened to me, I thought it was the famous "unintended acceleration" problem, though a firm press of the brake did slow the car down. After much testing, my wife and I are still not sure if we should consider it a feature (i.e. a quick way to rev up the cruise control setting) or a defect. If it's a feature, I'd say the implementation is poor, and potentially dangerous.

 

Then you are wrong side by side with him.

Too bad you noticed it, instead of reading it from the user manual. That's exactly as it was programmed to do, that's exactly what is in the user manual explained black in white.

The previous model was different, and the 3G has evolved a lot in a lot of areas, this is just one of them. If cars behaved just the same from each model to the next you would still have horses pulling you over... One should ALWAYS read the manual on what concerns automatic features at least, such as cruise control. It's your problem not to have read it, not the car's.

Incredible this statement of yours. So, you never bothered to go the the user manual, you had to do a lot of testing to understand it. What did you do with the user manual? Did you toss it away in trash or what?

This is a VERY WELCOME feature from my point of view. It's something I miss on my 2G and something I love when driving a 3G. I drive a lot on roads with 80 km/h speed limit, and a lot on high-ways where I can set the speed to 130 km/h. Both kind of roads are connected, i.e. one leads to the other.

When driving a 2G, and while entering the high-way, I have to either use the accelerator pedal and keep pushing it over what I wish for just to gain acceleration (it's normally uphill to make it worse), or I have to keep the damn lever up and stay with it up for ever till the car reaches the 130 km/h I want it to. Boring.

When driving a 3G, I simply keep the lever up and look at the preset speed indicator on the right of my dash. In a few seconds it reaches 130 km/h preset speed, and I'm still barely over 90 km/h when it gets there. I can just relax, release the lever, and the car will do the rest for me, it will get to 130 km/h eventually and stay there.

Nice feature, for those who actually try to see the positive side of changes and read the user's manual.

If you don't like the feature, just don't use it, what's the problem? Use the accelerator pedal to get to your desired speed and then just press "SET" on the lever.

The last thing you can say is that Steve Woz is right. He was telling the Prius had a problem, a software bug. There is no bug when the software is working as designed.

 

Yes, you should step on the gas if you want to accelerate. Cruise control should not be used as a quick shortcut to achieve rapid acceleration. It was originally introduced, and primarily intended, to be an easy way for the driver to MAINTAIN a steady speed. I see why you like the new "feature" but it should be used with great caution, in my opinion.