When did adaptive cruise control become available?

What year. I'm looking for a second (used) truck, and I'd like to have it. Thanks.

 

2018

 

Right on, thanks

 

Cool, now I'll look for a truck between 2014-2017.

 

I'll sell ya mine! Original owner, all receipts, only 224,000 miles!

 

Yeah, I hate them when I had a rental Lexus.

 

$15k?! Sold!!!

 

The Adaptive Cruise can easily be bypassed by holding the cruise control on button for about 3 seconds or so. It will revert to a normal cruise control function. On my 2018 I rarely use the Adaptive Cruise Control and only did on occasion when I used to commute long distances for work. Never used it since.

Dan

 

This. It's nice on an empty stretch of highway with 1 or 2 other vehicles. 10+ vehicles with the way people drive these days it's a nightmare. I just instinctively hold the cruise button for the 3 seconds or whatever to bypass it.

 

Oh wait you’re only 2wd

 

I was unaware it was the default CC setting, but yeah, I still want it. I drive a shit ton of miles.

I rented a Highlander last year and fell in love with the feature. It was flawless over a three day trip including though Atlanta and back. But I know some people (my brother and my wife for instance) who hate CC of any kind.

 

It has it's operational quirks:

1) If someone changes lanes into your lane ahead of you cruising at a lower speed, it will over-react and hit the brakes to assume proper following distance instead of simply coasting to achieve the same result.

2) if on a gentle sweeping left turn in the left lane on a multi-lane freeway and you come across a vehicle in the next lane over traveling slower, it might think you are going to run into it thinking it is in the same lane as you. Brakes will be hit as a result.

3)On more than one occasion I encountered a vehicle on a two lane road pull over in a turn-out and stop and the cruise reacted in the same manner as #2 above.

Not necessarily dangerous but just disruptive. I just need to be vigilant like a co-pilot when it is engaged.

Dan

 

I hate, HATE the adaptive cruise on my wife's Mazda CX5... Someone changes into your lane way ahead of you on the freeway and it brakes like there's a little old lady holding a kitten in the crosswalk. First time it did it scared the shit outta' me.

The adaptive cruise in my '19 Tundra I rather like. (After shortening the active radar distance to the smallest gap)

I find it much less annoying than constantly using the CC lever to speed up/slow down like I used to have to in my '00. (Why do most people have so much trouble maintaining a constant speed, even on wide open highway with no traffic?)

 

Same here! CX5 drives me nuts!

 

Right?! It over-reacts worse than my wife does when I tell her I'm going on a surf trip with the guys!

 

Dan, thank you for composing all of that excellent info. I would buy you three beers in a row right now, one for each paragraph.

My rented Highlander displayed a little of what you described in paragraph one. In time, the other two things might have surfaced as well. The adaptive cruise was less than perfect, but being a heavy user of cruise control in general, it was good enough to make me wish my Tundra had it. Thanks again for laying all that out.

 

2016-2017 have the abliet barely larger fuel tank but no lame TSS beeping.

Best years, in my opinion

 

Well, most of the TSS stuff can be disabled. The only TSS feature I have to turn off every time I start the truck is the miserable PCS (Pre-Collision Sensor). This actually very dangerous since it yanks your attention away from a situation you are managing (somebody pulling out in front of you for instance) with a loud beeping and collision warning. Idiotic!

Also, 2018 is the first year for LED headlights which are fantastic.

Dan

 

Glad to help!

Dan

 

Is there no setting to disable that?? If I have to listen to that, I'll do without the adaptive CC and stick to something pre-2018.

EDIT, just saw Dan's response. I'm not sure I want to have to silence the thing every single time I start the engine. Hmmmm.

 

The PCS is the ONLY function of TSS that I could not permanently disable. All others I could. One valuable function of the TSS is the RCTA (Rear Traffic Control Alert). When backing out of a parking place it will alert me to someone (or something) crossing behind me, including kids, shopping carts, other vehicles, etc. that I wouldn't see otherwise. Very valuable, works perfectly.

Really, no worries on the TSS. Work through the issues and tailor to your driving style and all is well.

Dan

 

Barely? 26gallon to 38? I mean I'm not a mathematician, but damn if a 33% increase isn't well into significance

 

The adaptive cruise came when TSS came since it uses the same system. I drive a Ford Transit at work and they did a much better job with radar cruise, I use it all the time at work but never in my Tundra because its so terrible with how it reacts to vehicles in front of you, way too much unnecessary braking. Thankfully its much easier to bypass in my truck than the Ford, in the Ford you need to change it in the dash settings.

 

Read up on real world difference from empty to full and you’ll see it’s much less useable difference than advertised due to the tank design. I still want more fuel, but it’s not as much as you think.

 

I regularly put 28-30 gallons in my tank, but you're right, I should probably read up on the supposed real-world differences, haha

 

This. Also hate that the truck floors it once someone moves out of the way to get back up to the set speed. It’ll throw you back in the seat sometimes

 

There is 12 more gallons of fuel in the 38 gallon tank (obviously), the problem is the fuel gauge and estimated range are still assuming you have the 26 gallon tank. Toyota (for some stupid reason) did not calibrate these functions to be tank size specific. With experience, one can pretty accurately determine the actual range of the tank. Note miles driven, gallons to fill up, do the simple math and you can make use of the extra gasoline. It is a pain but doable. At freeway speeds (unladen, not towing, generally flat terrain) I can get somewhere north of 600 miles in range since I get 17-18 measured mpg. I have used this figure twice on two long drives I made not long after getting my new Tundra. These were during the Covid lock-downs and it was difficult to plan fuel stops and it worked to my advantage.

Personally I think it is ridiculous to have to go through this to determine actual range potential. A fuel gauge is there for a reason and should accurately reflect fuel remaining. The "estimated" range on the dash is also useless since it is completely inaccurate with the 38 gallon tank. All this being said, I'm darned glad to have the bigger tank.

Dan

 

#1 is by design and is the same behavior you'll see with all manufacturers.

#2 and #3 are because Toyota uses RADAR without any real intelligence, so it's just looking for obstructions within a specified forward-range based on your travel speed.

Tesla used to use radar + vision, but has recently phased out the radar aspect and only uses "Tesla Vision." It still behaves exactly the same way under situation 1, but it will maintain speed and full self-driving capabilities as long as the other vehicles on the road are in a separate lane. When the lane markings are severely faded or missing you can have quirks though.

 

The 3rd Gen version of adaptive cruise must be better. I friggen love it. It's honestly one of the few tech features I think is actually worth it.

 

I just wish it came back on at the same distance you left it at. By default it is "As far away as fucking possible". I prefer the short distance setting which is still really far away.