Interested in newer technology adaptive cruise, etc

I use adaptive cruise control on the daily on my commute to and from work. It's awesome!

 

Originally I was like, "Meh..."

My opinion changed after using the adaptive Cruise Control, I like it. A lot.

But as others have posted, I would not go out of my way to specifically purchase a new vehicle JUST to have the feature.

 

I went from my ‘15 Taco TRD sport to my ‘18 Tundra TRD OR. It has the TSS package but I dont use/disabled everything to shut the chimes up other than the adaptive cruise. I had a leaf hit the sensor and the dash lit up red saying ‘BRAKE!’ and scared the crap out of me, other than that no probs. I personally wouldnt have upgraded from say a 17 to 18 just for that though, was just the year that happened to come up for sale in the color/config I wanted. The taco was fine without it.

 

Adaptive cruise is nice on 2+ hour drives. My commute is 2.5 hours, so I use it a lot.

 

Adaptive cc works great with MT as it, as you would expect, brakes or speeds up as per the radar, but does not shift gears. However if you decide to up shift or downshift, depressing the clutch pedal does NOT disengage the cc so you can change gears and carry on in cc. No other MT with cc that I have ever driven allows you to do that.

 

I like the radar cruise but you have to babysit it otherwise it'll slam on the brakes if a car changes lanes in front of you. I can neither confirm nor deny the collision avoidance has saved my bacon a time or two. The high beam assist is useless. The lane keeping is just an annoying beep that I'll turn on if I'm really tired, but any music louder than a moderate volume will drown it out.

Keep your 2017 if that's all you're looking to upgrade. My two-cents..

 

the auto high beams are definitely useless. they turn off every time there is a road sign.

 

I like all the tech goodies on my new Taco and use them a lot.

 

I just got my 22 and I’ve been trying to figure all these electronics out.

The first thing I will say is the auto headlights suck. Is there anyway to override the auto and keep them on bright? It is beyond dangerous to live in elk country and have your headlights dim when pass a road sign. I am going to look into a light bar if not.

Next question, my wife has an accord and the lane function steers the car back between the lines. I bet it is a top seller for drunk drivers. Sarcasm aside, the taco doesn’t do anything when I go out of a lane. Is it supposed to?

Cruise control worked, but the only time I used it was on a two lane road with no cars around.

I really haven’t had a chance to play with the rest of it. I bought the truck for off road use and driving around town. I pretty much live in the sticks, so I am not sure I want all this stuff. I am kind of missing my 15 to be honest.

I appreciate any input on how this stuff is supposed to work or any insights on how to make it work better is much appreciated. I have a TRD OR auto with the lowest tech package as it was the only one available with a differential lock within a two month time frame that I needed it. F’ I want the world to go back to pre-Covid.

Cheers,
Andrew

 

Auto brights is about the only tech component I use in my 21 Sport DCSB Auto.

• lane departure beeping annoys me and I'm usually well rested on long trips so I keep it off. If I had to pull an all nighter for an emergency I would probably enable lane departure for safety
• Adaptive cruise is cool if you never tow and you live where the roads are never icy or snowy. Adaptive cruise can apply the brakes without driver input which can be dangerous in snow or icy conditions if the driver isn't expecting it. I tow often so I never use adaptive or standard cruise.
  
• Not sure if your year comes with the wifi hot spot and the emergency call button. I don't use that functionality and the Toyota App is cool but I didn't like it enough to renew into the paid subscription. If I had kids or the wife drove the Taco I would leverage the app to set speed notifications and leverage location tracking.
  
• Car Play may be the most compelling reason to upgrade if you use Apple products. I have Gaia GPS and Maps for navigation and also listen to Audible books so the phone interface to the Taco is nice.
  
• Blind Spot Monitoring works and I have only really needed it once, when I was backing into my garage and someone at my complex flew around the corner at a crazy speed that I didn't see. I leave it off on long trips since I tow, use my side mirrors and maintain situational awareness
• I don't use the wireless charging mat so it is just a wasted switch port being taken up that I may repurpose.
• Keyless entry is a must so I like that. Not sure if keyless is part of the tech package. I dig it.

I hope this helps - just my perspective. A shot of my rig yesterday out at the reservoir (wind gusts were 70 mph earlier - probably 35 - 40 mph pictured here).

 

Yep that is a downside if you have large, highly reflective signs in your area. Camera thinks the reflected light is an oncoming car. On the switch panel just push the auto headlights button so it is no longer depressed (in the on position) and you now can control the brights like any other, non-tech enabled car. IIRC that switch is next to the bed light rocker switch. Easy to find.

 

I love my sport with all of the electronics mentioned they just need some getting used to.

 

Our trucks have hydraulic power steering assist so the computer has no way to control the steering. Most newer cars have electric assist and the computer uses that motor to steer the car. So we only get a warning for the lane keeping, no assist to keep between the lines.

 

I agree, the auto headlights suck. I keep mine turned off. There's a button on the dash to the left of the steering wheel that turns them off.
Lane departure warning is just that, a warning. I also keep it turned off unless I'm tired. All it does is beep.
Radar cruise is great on longer trips but on congested freeways you have to babysit it by resting your foot on the gas, otherwise it likes to overreact when someone changes lanes in front of you. You can also press and hold the button on the end of the stalk to get regular cruise.
Congrats on the new ride! It's always an adjustment but I'm sure you'll get to like it. And if you don't, as much as you and I both want the world to go back to pre-covid, the resale is bonkers on these right now.

 

Thank you all, I really appreciate the explanations.

 

Dynamic cruise is great in some situations, other times it isn't. The system operates well in my opinion, especially considering that it is a fully reactive system.

These dynamic cruise/radar systems lack human insight/intellect when it comes to anticipating other drivers' actions. There's so many subtle things that a person works out in their head in real-time to predict traffic interactions... No computer will be able to duplicate your human intuition or driving style.

So...take TSS with a grain of salt. It is one of my favorite features, but I also had to adapt to it and understand the limits of the system. Those that don't want to adapt to it will hate it, hate on it on TW, and never use it.

 

I bought my new '17 in early '18, and those crappy options are one of the reasons I didn't buy an '18.

Of course, the other reason was $4k off the price to clear them to make room for the '18s....

 

I turned lane keeping off the day I got the truck and haven't turned it back on, but my general attitude towards adaptive cruise is that you can take it from my cold dead hands. That said, Toyota's implementation of it in the Tacoma is not particularly good and has this annoying shutoff feature under 40km/h. As others have pointed out, whenever the person in front of you finally gets out of the way the truck absolutely floors it which seems like a bit much.

My older Golf had a way better system that would handle stop/go traffic and was a lot less jumpy on acceleration. Overall I would say if you're mostly happy with your current truck there's little reason to upgrade just for the TSS goodies.

 

FWIW, I love adaptive cruise control and BSM. Everything else is meh.

 

I've had my truck for about 3 years now and I really just want something new. I even considered the new tundra, but that one is way too expensive and new. Despite all that I haven't seen anything out on the market that makes me want to immediately trade.