GR Yaris First Experience of Auto Braking (PCS) 😱

I've had a few cars with this system now (and actually my current van does too) and had varying degrees of success.

T-roc used to be like driving with a paranoid driving instructor, threw the brakes on if someone was turning off the road and thought I was not going to brake in time or just... go around them.

Current car X3 only throws the brakes on when trying to park around grass... or a slight slope... thinks I'm about to reverse into a giant rock, really annoying and I have do go deep into the system to turn it off and just park the thing. Has yet to brake for me while driving and only caused a few heart attacks with a loud beep and BRAKE on the screen. The few times it has done it, again, has been over nothing.

By far the best is my work van (Man TGE) it has only ever done it once, and it was the one time in traffic on the motor way someone ahead of me threw their brakes on. Hard to know if I made it stop in time after reacting to the beep or if the van did it but it was spot on. Has yet to cause any heart attacks or brake for no reason!

So I would say bit by bit it is getting better, and it Varys wildly from car to car. Looks like the GR is more in the T-roc category!

Agree that I would rather it did it and save someones life (or more often than not just be annoying) than not have it at all and kill someone that could have been prevented. Short term discomfort over someones life is a no brainer. And if you do break and the person behind you does go into you, hopefully it is a low enough speed no one in the cars would be injured and they would be at fault for not paying attention. I know it would not not be ideal to write the car off, but I think the low speeds this happens at means it is unlikely to be an outcome.
 
It does make me wonder about liability though. I mean, the car decides you might have an accident, so automatically brakes for you, and you're read ended.... If it actually was just precautionary emergency stop... like, who is at fault. I mean, it'd be hard pressed to suggest the car doing the braking as 'at fault' because another road user managed to trigger the automatic braking, even if it wasn't required... but then the collision shouldn't technically happen, if the car following behind was following at an appropriate distance.

I expect it's probably on the following car, but it's small consolation that you've been rear ended for no reason.
 
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I'm not an liability expert, but how I understand it if you drive into someone else regardless of their speed / stopping you're at fault as you have not controlled your vehicle appropriately and that has resulted into crashing into someone.

As you said though, little consolation if you got rear ended, sobbing "at least I'm not at fault" somehow would not make the tears less bitter 😂
 
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Yeah, that's where I'm not 100% sure, because like, if someone brake checks you at say, 40mph to a full emergency stop for no reason, there's reasonable cause to suggest it was say a dangerous manoeuvre, and wasn't a necessary thing to do. If your car does that, you could quite easily catch out someone even at a reasonable following distance.

Hope no one here ever has to find out though!
 
I was also under the impression you needed to come to a complete stop if auto braking kicks in, before you could drive off - not the case in my situation.
 
gr-fun said:
I was also under the impression you needed to come to a complete stop if auto braking kicks in, before you could drive off - not the case in my situation.
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Only below a certain speed will it actually stop you. I've had it do that to me once in 23500 miles of driving. It was infuriating at the time because it felt like a total over reaction by the system as I was well on the brakes already. This was in traffic at under 30mph when someone ahead pulled out. I've had numerous brake warnings, but only had it slam on about 3 times in the mileage I've done. The brake warning is annoying at times, I agree. A lot of my driving is residential streets so it is pretty tight in places.

On the whole, though I don't see it as any real issue at all.
 
corroded said:
Yeah, that's where I'm not 100% sure, because like, if someone brake checks you at say, 40mph to a full emergency stop for no reason, there's reasonable cause to suggest it was say a dangerous manoeuvre, and wasn't a necessary thing to do. If your car does that, you could quite easily catch out someone even at a reasonable following distance.

Hope no one here ever has to find out though!
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It’s almost always the non-stationary car that’s at fault. The only exceptions are when someone has changed lanes or pulled out in front of you, instantly removing your stopping distance. But then you have to hope for an honest moron, video footage or an eyewitness.

I’m currently getting paid for driving to and parking at work, as I can’t cycle. So that’s one plus out of all this, an excuse to daily the GR again. I saw another PW on my way home too.
 
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corroded said:
Yeah, that's where I'm not 100% sure, because like, if someone brake checks you at say, 40mph to a full emergency stop for no reason, there's reasonable cause to suggest it was say a dangerous manoeuvre, and wasn't a necessary thing to do. If your car does that, you could quite easily catch out someone even at a reasonable following distance.

Hope no one here ever has to find out though!
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I can tell you I already had my share of shit stains b\c of that... Including almost getting rear ended in start/stop traffic in a highway (it enabled while coasting at 30 kph, with more than enough space in front to immobilize the car - luckily the guy behind managed to brake in time, otherwise it was a rear end collision for sure), and it started beeping and preparing to brake b\c it thought a stationary motorbike in the other lane that was doing lane splitting was going to hit me while I was turning right. Had some reports from other owners here that had the system activate b\c of a few branches on the side of the road as well...
So given those experiences, that's one of the systems that I keep disabled at all times.

There was also a report in the other forum as well of a guy who managed to get the system to trigger at highway speeds at night (i.e. the car completely immobilized in the fast lane of the highway), with no-one in front of him...
 
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Mark said:
That's a very good point and something we should all consider along with any changes we make to our cars , internal mirrors, seat heights, bla, bla, bla. External of the car, any changes to the engine , exhausts, change of tyre size / compound, wheel size. Could be used by Toyota or your insurance company to waive good bye to any rights you have as a customer . It's very unlikely that any of this would happen but I'm not willing to take that chance. So once I get my car it will remain original.
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"So once I get my car it will remain original"... That's what we all said !
Anyhow, in my opinion, it's better to put all these electronic assistances to sleep before every departure. It only takes a minute or so during warm up. I do it systematically.
 
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micsub said:
"So once I get my car it will remain original"... That's what we all said !
Anyhow, in my opinion, it's better to put all these electronic assistances to sleep before every departure. It only takes a minute or so during warm up. I do it systematically.
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Furthermore, I received an official letter from Toyota France, a recall for the radar system to be checked and recalibrated if necessary they say. They have the same issue even on the standard Yaris and other regular Toyota cars equipped with the same emergency braking assistance system...
 
The 'brake!' warning is more sensitive after the recall for the radar. As others have said, switch everything off and risk invalidating your insurance. Not sure how they would prove that though.
 
as all these safety parameters are optional to the driver it would not be possible for any insurance body to bring them into contention in the event if RTA claim
 
Yahonza said:
The 'brake!' warning is more sensitive after the recall for the radar. As others have said, switch everything off and risk invalidating your insurance. Not sure how they would prove that though.
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I've not had mine done yet on the recall. It'll be a shame if it makes it worse, as it hasn't been a problem for me at all over the first 10k miles.
 
If every car has auto braking though. No one would rear end you 😅😂. That I guess is the logic that someone would use to defend it

Personally had the brake warning thing maybe 5 times. 3 times was the same skip on the estate I live. and I had to dance around the parked car on the left and skip on the right. I got so used to it I ended up bit too fast for the system.

But generally it’s not too bad. That cyclist though, that was quick, I’d have maybe braked myself if I saw that, (and had the time to)

Still no activation yet. But I could understand the cyclist moment kinda. It a valid reaction. I reckon someone might have taken. Not something completely out of the blue.
 
with vehicle stationary scroll through your settings menu......however if you accidently click the wrong button and hear a ticking sound...exit the vehicle as quickly as possible as you've activated the self destruct-system
 
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