Indy 500 Carb Day Practice To Franchitti; Dixon...
News
Reviews
Guides
Gas Mileage
Car Types

Is Woz's Prius Acceleration Just Toyota's Wacky Adaptive Cruise? Page 2

 
4,765 views Feb 3, 2010
Follow John

2010 Toyota Prius

If we had to guess, we suspect Toyota will find that Woz's 2010 Prius works exactly as it's designed to do. It's just that its cruise control is designed to act in a way that's different to most others, and hard to interpret unless you focus on the digital speed indicator.

Tossing the manual in the trash?

If we knew Woz (we don't, except by reputation), we'd ask him whether he read the (thick-ish) manual that came with his new 2010 Toyota Prius.

Of course, early Apple Macintosh aficionados said the only way to find out if software was any good was to rip off the shrink wrap, put the diskettes in the Mac, and toss the manuals in the trash. If you got it to work, it was good.

Unfortunately, modern cars aren't like that. Even uber-green third-generation Toyota Prius hybrids that get 50 mpg.

[Jalopnik, CNet]

For full details on the two Toyota accelerator recalls in North America (including certain Lexus and Pontiac models)--along with what to do if your accelerator sticks--visit our summary: Toyota And Lexus Recall: Everything You Need To Know.






Tags:
Posted in:
 
Contribute
Send us a tip Comment Contact the editor
Follow Us

 

Have an opinion?Join the conversation!

  • Posting indicates you have read this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
  • Notify me when there are more comments
Comments (16)

  1. By Telegraph Road Posted: 2/3/2010 1:22pm PST

    Ahhh...let's tell Woz it's not a bug--it's a feature. He'll love that.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  2. By ColtsChiefsTitans Posted: 2/3/2010 1:50pm PST

    Soooo... WOZ is a MAC, and his PRIUS is a PC!!!!
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  3. By godzilla Posted: 2/3/2010 4:51pm PST

    my acura does 1mpg each time i hit the button
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  4. By orion Q Posted: 2/3/2010 5:11pm PST

    Who designs a cruise-control to increase in 5-MPH INCREMENTS!? Idiots!
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  5. By dave Posted: 2/4/2010 3:01am PST

    Can you imagine the reaction if Ford/Chrysler/GM had this system?
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  6. By Gerard G. Kneipp Posted: 2/4/2010 5:36pm PST

    By the time you're at 70 mph and you let go of the button, the computer has set your cruise control speed at 115 mph. And it's now rapidly accelerating you to that speed!
    I have never heard of such a stupid way to build something that has a hair trigger. I hope that Woz and any other electrical engineer including Dr. Antony Anderson be notified of this story. I would imagine that fire works and all sorts of stuff goes on at the point of rocketing on the highway.
    But I will say that you have at least finally come to an agreement as to where the problem originates. HOORAY. And still there is a major issue with the hair trigger toyota has made.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  7. By Gerard Kneipp Posted: 2/5/2010 8:54am PST

    You're at 70 mph,let go of the button,the computer has set your cruise control speed at 115mph rapidly accelerating you to that speed! "And I can repeat it over and over again,safely" "This is software not a bad accelerator pedal.I was able to repeat what was going on with my cruise control as well UNTIL my accident. Now my cruise works differently. Toyota tell me WHY? And still you say it is not an ELECTRICAL issue. I would like to see what Woz's owners manual has to say in regards to using the cruise unit. In particular about holding the cruise to reach desired speed and then letting go that SHOULD set the cruise at the MPH desired, not the speed that the computer calculated. In a case that you have given, setting the speed at 70 mph and the computer spitting out 115 mph is criminal. There should be some NEON LIGHT that goes off saying WARNING,Prepare yourself,launching pad ready for launch. The action should be cancelled because of the massive acceleration boost trying to go from 70mph to 115 mph.Post the section on cruise control use from Woz's owners manual or same from Toyota. All of this needs to be brought to the outside, as well as Toyota's engineers. Possibly Dr. Anderson, Safety Research & strategies Inc, and Woz could sit down and truly diagnose the problem and come up with a resolution.Again! I say ELECTRONICS! Don't be shy Toyota, step up and do the right thing, not only by me but every one of your surviving, loyal to the brand customers.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  8. By Leading Edge Boomer Posted: 2/10/2010 10:03pm PST

    Did not the whining commenters not read the article? Each button push changes the set speed by 1 MPH, while holding the button down goes to 5 MPH increments. This is clearly visible on the dashboard display. While it is different from what are, at root, mechanical cruise control systems, it works just fine.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  9. By Aurelio Posted: 2/11/2010 1:08pm PST

    It is not the best user interface design. A driver should be able to operate a cars controls entirely by touch while keeping the eyes on the road. While this design works fine when adjusting the volume of a TV (Hold down and quickly ramp the target value up) it unintuitive when the user might expect kinesthetic feedback to be sufficient (which for every control in a car is true, brakes, gas, steering wheel, all work kinesthetically) I think this may in fact be the first time ever in automotive history that a control system has worked by advancing a control loop setpoint rather than in real time.
    -Aurelio
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  10. By larry Posted: 2/14/2010 8:56am PST

    It's a stupid design or design flaw. Think, speed of car is volume to music player. If the same design is incorporated in iPod or any mp3 player, people's ears will blow up. In a court of law, Toyota will blame people for not reading the manual, the people who lost their hearing will say "we pressed the - (down) button but the volume kept going up."
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  11. By Programmer Posted: 3/3/2010 10:44am PST

    Whatever we say or do, we can't stop our cars transforming from our "mechanical slaves" to "electronic masters". May be it's time Toyota fires their software engineers who are used to writing software for the home PC and hire those who write software for aircrafts and spaceshuttles.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  12. By  asktog Posted: 3/13/2010 11:27am PST

    1) Because "it's in the manual" doesn't make it OK or even make it rise to a level necessarily higher than criminal negligence.
    2) Because it seems like a cool idea to an engineer not only fails to ensure it's a practical idea, it militates against it. The best and most brilliant engineers love making toys--and shortcuts--only they and their friend Charlie can use.
    3) Requiring a driver to stare at a display located at a different focal distance than the road ahead in order to use an optional feature is beyond irresponsible.
    Everyone above the engineers who designed this accelleration short-cut should be fired; it's their job to prevent the engineers from shipping this kind of stuff. And don't expect the poor Hertz renter assigned a Prius to spend two hours reading the manual before driving off the lot.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  13. By in Woz's Defense Posted: 3/15/2010 9:11pm PDT

    Nice personal attack on Wozniak. Classy. Whether you've sussed the problem with your "5 mph increments" or not (which is, IMHO as a programmer for +35 years, _INCREDIBLY STUPID_) or not, it is still a problem to have a "feature" like that in shipping vehicles for, what, 10 years now?
    He found a real problem. You're treating it like it's his fault. And blaming him for bringing it to people's attention.
    You might be a self-titled "Car Expert," but your knowledge of UI is lacking. Futhermore, when you get taken to the woodshed by "asktog" (do you have any idea who HE is?) it proves you're only firing on two cylinders.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  14. By Angus Bohannon Posted: 3/16/2010 2:27pm PDT

    Only wimps use cruise control anyway. I bet there would be very few problems if people used manual transmissions and didn't use cruise control.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  15. By Andrew Posted: 4/14/2010 1:19am PDT

    "There should be some NEON LIGHT that goes off saying WARNING,Prepare yourself,launching pad ready for launch. The action should be cancelled because of the massive acceleration boost trying to go from 70mph to 115 mph."....
    I'm sorry, but obviously you have never driven anything more powerful than a lackluster 4 banger, with a battery charge... WHEW lots-o-power there! Cranking out an astounding 134 hp, yeah, It'll feel like your braking the sound barrier as you blaze past the 70 mph mark. Now im Canadian and 70 mph converts to 110 km/h for me, hardly a speed trademark.
    With that kind of power I would expect a prius would take more than 45 seconds to accelerate from 70 mph to short of 115 mph (184 km/h) as a powerplant of that prowress would probably tip the scales at slightly over 100 mph.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  16. By Andrew Posted: 4/14/2010 1:19am PDT

    As for the previous Sikes runaway prius escapade, If you can't comprehend the operation of a shift lever in an automatic, and belive your car might flip if you play with it while driving, you need your license revoked! Its scary to think that myself being a young male driver, authorities and licensing agencies (don't even get me started about my insurance premiums!) are more worried about me as a danger to society because I am alledgedly unsafe as I am plastered with the stereotype of a wreckless and careless driver due to my age. It's quite apparent that many experienced drivers are not able to safely operate a low powered and low risk vehicle (the Prius, and many other underpowered toyotas for that matter) while I have been driving my Volkswagen GTI VR6 disaster free for 4 years.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

 

Have an opinion?Join the conversation!

Find Green Cars

Go!


More from High Gear Media

 
 
Green Car Reports
  • Follow Us
  • Twiiter
  • Facebook
 
 
© 2011 Green Car Reports. All Rights Reserved. Green Car Reports is published by High Gear Media. Send us feedback. Stock photography by Homestar, LLC.