I’ve had several situations exactly as JFox described where the person in front of me is really taking their time with a turn, and I, risking my safety for the sake of MPGs, am trying to time it so I don’t have to brake much and just coast through. The car will beep at you pretty early.

I had one event where it actually applied the brakes though. We’ve all been there: coming up on a fresh green light, expecting the car already stopped there to start moving, only he doesn’t. I absentmindedly came in a little too hot and had to slam the brakes, but Safety Sense judged it to be a bit more dire and slammed the brakes harder. The music turned down/off, the car beeped a lot, and we jerked to a stop.

The frustrating part was it disabled the accelerator after the event for several seconds. After the car in front of me got his shit together I could still only basically coast through the intersection; after a few seconds of mashing the gas pedal I could finally accelerate again. It was already embarrassing, considering there were 3 adults in the car with me, but then Toyota put me in timeout. “No no no, you can accelerate again when you learn to behave.”

Sidebar: I’m not completely reckless, I always make sure I have an out for stuff like that (room in another lane to swerve if needed). Still not worth the <1% gas I’m saving with risky driving. I’m working on that lol

 

Same, happens to me a lot of times in left turn lanes and sometimes in right turn lanes where people are stopping, yielding, going like normal people. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP, brakes, cant move at all

 

The system is designed to recognize humans (of different size), cars (of different shape and size), bicycles and motorcycles. The computer analyzes the objects that the camera sees and uses artificial intelligence to assign them a "value" - "this looks 80% human, that looks 92% car, etc." If an object looks less than certain % of what the computer is programmed to recognize it ignores it. It also looks for road edges and painted lanes to analyze if the object is in your path or the road will bypass it. The whole process of "recognizing" an object and deciding what to do is very fast, takes less than 200 ms.

It's a very "intelligent" system. For example, it won't slam the brakes if it sees somebody standing right in front of the car on the edge of a curve, because it is smart enough to figure out that you will turn before you hit the human. But it will react to a person that is off to one side, but walking towards the road in front of you. And it won't brake for trees along the edge of the road (because they don't look like a car or a human).

The system is NOT designed to recognize deer, dogs, cats, chicken, alligators, wild hogs, rabbits, etc. The complexity and number of different shapes that would have to be analyzed and identified as "danger" vs. "safe" is beyond what computers can do fast enough (yet). You could attempt to program the system to recognize a wide range of objects, but this would extend the reaction time, and in a system like that quick reaction time is essential.

One final consideration. Automatic braking system is designed to safe lives, not bumpers. It will attempt to brake and stop the car, but depending on your speed, road conditions, visibility, etc. it may not be enough to prevent contact. However, in most cases it will slow down the car enough to save the pedestrian's or your life. If you hit the car in front of you, it's your fault, not the autobraking system. You are still responsible for maintaining safe distance, speed and paying attention. If the autobrake doesn't avoid a collision 100% and you end up with a hefty body shop bill, be grateful to Toyota engineers for saving your a$$, instead of complaining about the autobrake system not being smart enough to make up for your driving mistakes.

 

This answer is better than anything I have read from Toyota or any other car manufacturer. I, being the person I am and having never had the system activate, decided I needed to test it using cardboard and aluminum foil. Now I know why that didn't work and why I've never had the system activate. I wish manufacturers would provide people with information like this instead of "Trust us, it's working.. don't try to test it". Thank you so much, great post!

 

I braked for a car that didn’t see me, but the collision avoidance kicked in and assisted and brought me to a stop about four inches from the other car’s fender. I am convinced that the collision avoidance prevented damage.
I bought our 2020 Xse hybrid for the safety features. I am 71 and the technology goes far to make up for my reduced reaction time.

 

What speed were you traveling?
I thought that pedestrian and cyclist detection only works at lower speeds.

A deer that suddenly steps in front would be the same as a cyclist or pedestrian and if you are traveling at highway speeds the system won't save you that's not what they advertise the system for AFAIK.

The system warned me multiple times in city environments but I was already reaction to the situation.

In my opinion the system works pretty good but it is not something to have blind faith in. There is no failsafe system on the market today.

 

Vehicle radar like the one Toyota and other car makers now use operate around 84 GHz and can detect a wide variety of things like other cars, people and animals. These radars use the Doppler frequency shift of the return from a target to determine the relative velocity between the radar and the target. The Doppler shift comes from the motion of the target along the radar’s line of sight. Movement perpendicular to the radar line of sight will not cause a Doppler shift.
Because the vehicle with the radar is moving, all returns from stationary objects will have a Doppler shift corresponding to the vehicle speed. This includes trees, guardrails, bridges, parked cars, etc. This is called “clutter”, and it will overwhelm the radar’s processor if it isn’t blocked. So, there is a notch filter to that effectively blocks out signals from stationary objects. This is why the vehicle radar may not detect a deer on the side of the road or one crossing straight across the vehicle path. It also can lead to collisions with stationary vehicles ahead without the safety system preventing the collision.

There are some tricks that can be implemented to mitigate the Doppler notch problem, but it is difficult to completely prevent it.

 

Last year I was driving through rural Utah. It was near sunset and I was driving about 50 mph on a 2 lane highway. Suddenly a deer appeared right in front of me. I had to suddenly swerve to avoid hitting it. "Safety Sense" did nothing.....

 

I think it would be great if Toyota added deer to car, pedestrian, and bicycle sensing. Maybe one day soon!

 

I have ! It saved me from rear ending another car the first week I had it. The light turned green and the car in front of me started to go (and so did I) and for whatever reason he braked hard. Admittedly I was distracted but my car came to a screeching stop saving me from ruining the front end of a brand new car. Love it!

 

Exact same situation I was in and car safety tech saved me.

 

Considering a few years ago cars would just beep at you to warn you of a pending collision. A few years before that, silence.

I’d say we’re making progress

I’vebeen on the interstate at 65mph going into an off ramp when a car cutin front of me to make the same exit and slammed on their brakes. No way could I hit the brake faster than the crash mitigation system did and saved me from colliding with the dipshit. Now that I think about it, I wonder if it wasn’t an insurance fraud attempt. ಠ_ಠ

 

I have had it beep and flash a message on the dash. The situation that caused mine was so fast I'm going to assume the message on the dash said Brake like the manual indicates.

Driving manual transmissions for so long, I don't go to the brake pedal as much as most would so when a car is slowing to make a right-hand turn, I usually let off the gas and let the car slow on its own. This kind of scenario is not liked by the system it would seem. Since I don't crowd people, I have enough time to not hit someone making a right-hand turn pretty well but since the system identifies an object getting close and you haven't touched the brake pedal, it intervenes thinking that you do not see the object. I have never felt the car brake for me but it could be but not enough for me to notice. What I don't like is the beeping and the flash of a message in red on the dash board. This distracts the driver from what's important; not hitting the object. It would seem to work well and the videos I've seen where the car comes to a complete stop before hitting an object is pretty compelling. However, I'm not planning on testing to those extremes and the scenario I indicated above is by no means testing the system but it did intervene.

 

It came on for me when someone brake checked me. I actually appreciated it because we were on a two-lane rural road and it took my brain a second to realize that they weren't just braking, they were braking hard for no apparent reason other than to prove a point. It didn't brake for me, but the warning came up and a big loud beeping sound took over the stereo.

FYI wasn't tailgating, I flashed them because they were blocking the overtaking lane on a road where overtaking opportunities are pretty few and far between and I don't think they realized I was trying to get through. They really overreacted to that and braked hard to prove a point or something.

 

It has saved me once when a car in front suddenly braked extremely hard. The car slammed on the brakes extremely hard.

Normally there is a warning first and if you don't react quickly enough it applies the brakes.

There are however quite a lot of conditions that have to be met before it does something. It only applies the brakes until you are very close to the other vehicle. If there is time to swerve out of harms way you are probably not close enough for the system to react.

 

It has saved me once when a car in front suddenly braked extremely hard. The car slammed on the brakes extremely hard.

Normally there is a warning first and if you don't react quickly enough it applies the brakes.

There are however quite a lot of conditions that have to be met before it does something. It only applies the brakes until you are very close to the other vehicle. If there is time to swerve out of harms way you are probably not close enough for the system to react.

I don't believe that at all.... The deer that I nearly hit would have been a hood ornament if I did not take immediate action. The deer was only a couple feet away when I passed it.....

 

AFAIK system only designed to brake on cars, byciclists or pedestrians. It may not have recognition for animals. I have had occasions where it gave me warnings for cars only and even saved me from rear-ending in traffic once. I felt like just this one encounter alone that saved my butt made it so worthwhile to own the car with such safety tech. Hence the reason I have immediately upgraded my wifes car. Once the tech improves even further I will certainly be upgrading again so long term ownership for me is out of question.

 

That’s a negative for a deer. I’ve seen the red light flash maybe a couple of times for cars. But not when a deer jumped right in front of us while doing 55. No chance at all. I slammed on the breaks as I hit it.

Car was drivable after the hit. But the repair was 13k total.

 

I had mine happen twice now, I got too close to a car waiting to turn left, and it beeped and I evidently got too close cause when I went to go around them and accelerate the pedal did nothing.

My cautionary warning is that if this happens and then you need to move quickly, the car just sits for a bit, I turned my sensitivity down and it hasn't happened since.

Maybe it's telling me that I am driving too agressive!

 

I had mine happen twice now, I got too close to a car waiting to turn left, and it beeped and I evidently got too close cause when I went to go around them and accelerate the pedal did nothing.

My cautionary warning is that if this happens and then you need to move quickly, the car just sits for a bit, I turned my sensitivity down and it hasn't happened since.

Maybe it's telling me that I am driving too agressive!

Sounds kind of similar to the incidents described here

A scary hesitation experience in my RAV4 Prime

I've had my 21 Prime since last August and after 6500 miles I really like almost everything about it, but yesterday I had an experience that was downright scary. I did a brief search here but couldn't find any other posts that described this problem. I was at a stop sign waiting to make a left...

www.rav4world.com

and here

TSS 2.5 tried to kill me today!

I thought TSS was supposed to be a bunch of safety features, not something designed to kill me. Here's a drawing of the situation. Be kind, I'm not an artist and I did this in Microsoft Paint. This is a very nasty turn. It's not an intersection, just an entrance to my complex. I have to...

www.rav4world.com

 

I had it beep the warning the other day. I was simply going around a large pothole in the road but there was a car parked to the side a few car lengths ahead. I was aiming straight at that car for perhaps half a second so the warning was not entirely out of place.

 

WOW I just received a Great education. Thanks

 

IIHS actually tests the crash mitigation and accident avoidance systems with cars and pedestrians. RAV4 gets high marks, but check out the details. It’s an interesting testing method.

2021 Toyota RAV4 4-door SUV

2021 Toyota RAV4 4-door SUV - small SUV

www.iihs.org

 

IIHS actually tests the crash mitigation and accident avoidance systems with cars and pedestrians. RAV4 gets high marks, but check out the details. It’s an interesting testing method.

2021 Toyota RAV4 4-door SUV

2021 Toyota RAV4 4-door SUV - small SUV

www.iihs.org

Checked it out looks good, except 37mph rating isn't impressive as it only reduces speed by half pretty much. Ford almost stops but Hyundai wins

Rav4
In the 37 mph IIHS test, impact speed was reduced by 23 mph.

Highlander
In the 37 mph IIHS test, impact speed was reduced by 24 mph.

Escape
In the 37 mph IIHS test, impact speed was reduced by 34 mph.

Palisade
In the 37 mph IIHS test, this vehicle avoided a collision.

 

I had received a recall on my 2009 BMW X3 stating similar about a heated PCV valve which could heat up and catch fire. The notification said that there wasn't resolution or parts available yet. A whole year went by and still no resolution or parts. By then it didn't matter since it got totaled and now I have a RAV4 parked in the garage where it used to park.

 

The pre-collision detection even on the 2023 is extremely poor it doesn't really warn you or anything it only activates last second. The CRV on the other hand will warn you will slow you down Will baby you and protect you it's such a sad thing Toyota hasn't improved this as it's the most important part of all the safety systems.

 

That second link is mine and it just happened to me.

BTW, which setting did you turn down the sensitivity on? I may need to do that to mine.