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a7jet

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
My Toyota salesman showed me a LTA "HACK" that he discovered. He puts a 2lb fishing weight on the steering wheel that makes the car think you have your hands on the wheel and the LTA does not disengage.
I didn't want to put anything that might hurt someone or crack the windshield on the steering wheel SO I found that one of my wife's ankle weights (1lb 7oz) with Velcro would wrap around the steering wheel at the 2 o'clock position and given that all necessary conditions are met (painted lines on road and selected settings in car) the LTA will stay engaged. The constant pressure that the ankle weight pushes down on the wheel gives enough resistance to the LTA system to make it sense that you have your hands on the wheel at all times.
I use this only on divided highways with good painted lines (no construction zones) to make my trip less work. Also I only use it when my wife is with me to ensure I don't go to sleep while the car is doing all the steering.
Obviously, this is something that I do not recommend for anyone to try; I am simply passing along information that my salesman shared, and I have used successfully; You make up your own mind about how to use or not use this info.
QUICKDTOO water bottle suggestion below is better than my suggestion!
 
#2 ·
Interesting approach. Considering I don't fully trust LTA because I've had it take aggressive right turns into exit lanes on some highways, I figured out a movement vs weight "hack". When I'm warned that LTA is going to shut off because my hands aren't on the steering wheel, I just lightly nudge the bottom of the steering wheel with my knee/thigh. It doesn't take much for LTA to reset its timer, so I wait 20 - 30 seconds until I have to nudge the steering wheel with my knee/thigh again. Rinse and repeat - one day our Primes will be this cool:
 
#3 ·
If I didn’t leave the LTA off because of it constantly trying to ping pong me back and forth within a single lane or suddenly try and jerk me up an exit ramp when I’m in the right lane on the highway, I might try it out. But alas, no. Until LTA functions better in my car (‘21 R4P), I will not be using this handy tip.
 
#7 ·
Tesche said:
If I didn’t leave the LTA off because of it constantly trying to ping pong me back and forth within a single lane or suddenly try and jerk me up an exit ramp when I’m in the right lane on the highway, I might try it out. But alas, no. Until LTA functions better in my car (‘21 R4P), I will not be using this handy tip.
Click to expand...
IMHO, your problem of "ping ponging" in your lane is because you are trying to continually override the LTA. Ease up on the wheel and let the LTA settle into its groove, then just the occasional nudge will have it working smoothly. Try it, you might like it. And yes, it gets confused at departure lanes, but you already know that, so compensate.
 
#8 ·
I drive 250 miles on a two lane US-36 regularly. It is mostly straight as a string, and event the curves are gradual. Often there is little traffic. I use a 12oz water bottle. Does not need to be full. I tend to put my hands on the steering wheel whenever I meet someone. And I have learned pretty much where the lane assist fails. Happens enough that you must pay attention, but being able to rest you hands on your lap cuts some fatigue I think. I happen to have carpal tunnel and driving makes it worse.

I never use the hack if I am feeling drowsy, for obvious reasons.
 
#9 · (Edited)
My first R4P would only drive handsfree. I think it came from the factory miscalibrated. If you touched the wheel it would disengage. Would go for indefinitely without any alerts. My second one works as designed, but it has a habit of hugging the lane especially when passing. Too close for me. Useful only in very sparse traffic.

After having a unicorn that came from the factory hands free, and seeing how many times it made idiotic decisions, I have no desire to hack it.
 
#10 ·
chuckles70 said:
My first R4P would only drive handsfree. I think it came from the factory miscalibrated. If you touched the wheel it would disengage. Would go for indefinitely without any alerts. My second one works as designed, but it has a habit of hugging the lane especially when passing. Too close for me. Useful only in very sparse traffic.

After having a unicorn that came from the factory hands free, and seeing how many times it made idiotic decisions, I have no desire to hack it.
Click to expand...
For as much as these cars cost it would be nice to have the choice. If your first one was capable of doing it that tells me there is a way to program it.
 
#12 ·
Tesche said:
If I didn’t leave the LTA off because of it constantly trying to ping pong me back and forth within a single lane or suddenly try and jerk me up an exit ramp when I’m in the right lane on the highway, I might try it out. But alas, no. Until LTA functions better in my car (‘21 R4P), I will not be using this handy tip.
Click to expand...
I was irritated by the ping ponging of my 23 R4P but noticed a sensitivity setting. It was set low or mid and I changed to high. I figured it was already too sensitive so I'd see what crazy sensitive was like (keeping my hands on the wheel and being very careful). Well it turns out the ping ponging went away and the higher sensitivity setting seems to smooth out the centering. I did not expect that but pleasantly surprised. I'm not sure if the 21 is the same as the 23 XSE but you might try it. My wife's 24 Corolla Cross Hybrid is fine at the default setting. The only thing I notice is that it sometimes veers right if there is a turn off and the lane opens up into 2 lanes briefly. I don't know why the software programmers would have the vehicle steer too the right when the centerline has not changed. It's obviously trying to center into the opened up 2 lane wide striping but I would think it would be programmed to ignore that for the duration of turn offs seeing as there are no double wide lanes to center in.

Anyway, who am i.

It's like the remote start not working when the doors are unlocked. No app notification even though it knows the doors are unlocked. I could probably write the line of code that says if doors are unlocked and the driver is trying to remote start, post a warning that doors must be locked to remote start. But Toyota must not want to pay for that simple code in their crap app. End of Rant.
 
#13 ·
Actually 300g is enough, I guess even 250g would do. The best thing is to just velcro a tiny 300g tungsten block behind the streering wheel. 1" cube is fine enough for that. A bottle or fishing weight really makes it hard to grab the steering wheel. A tungsten 1" cube is so small it will never get in your hands way.

Cheap alternative is a hammerhead of 300g - but yeah steel is too light so that's twice the size - it has advantage that you can use some stick on strong magnet plate to fix it.

TSS 3.0 disengages every 30 minutes without interaction, so watch out when you watch a movie or so it says... Well better don't watch a movie in first place or install a camera that monitors you and disengages the cruise control if you're unattentive. Some other niggles are - the maximum side accelleration is 3m/s but it doesn't brake enough to make it do so, and the angle of the camera isn't wide enough to make it through u-turns even if you follow some very slow cars.

So Sunnypilot or Frogpilot is much better in experimental mode.
 
#14 ·
extremecarver said:
Actually 300g is enough, I guess even 250g would do. The best thing is to just velcro a tiny 300g tungsten block behind the streering wheel. 1" cube is fine enough for that. A bottle or fishing weight really makes it hard to grab the steering wheel. A tungsten 1" cube is so small it will never get in your hands way.

Cheap alternative is a hammerhead of 300g - but yeah steel is too light so that's twice the size - it has advantage that you can use some stick on strong magnet plate to fix it.

TSS 3.0 disengages every 30 minutes without interaction, so watch out when you watch a movie or so it says... Well better don't watch a movie in first place or install a camera that monitors you and disengages the cruise control if you're unattentive. Some other niggles are - the maximum side accelleration is 3m/s but it doesn't brake enough to make it do so, and the angle of the camera isn't wide enough to make it through u-turns even if you follow some very slow cars.

So Sunnypilot or Frogpilot is much better in experimental mode.
Click to expand...
Because who doesn't have a one inch solid tungsten cube laying around. Check the junk drawer in the kitchen!
:D
 
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