Adaptive Cruise took costly to use?

From everything I've experienced using the adaptive cruise is still pretty touchy as it will accelerate and brake pretty aggressively in any traffic at all. My understanding is it uses the brakes to control speed but when someone merges in front of me it slows down pretty fast...must be why people are reporting worn out brakes under 20k miles. It holds speed well uphill but it costs you at least 2 if not 3 mpg on a 300 mile trip with any hills like MD and VA. I'll just be using it on open flatter roads from now on...I really don't want to go through brakes...one thing I do really like is following a car on a 2 lane you can hang back a comfortable distance and the other driver never feels like your tailgating

 

It works really well in the wide open interstates, but when there is more traffic I just prefer to drive without any cruise at all

 

Yeah, I won't use adaptive cruise in traffic because it burns the brakes up. I learned that lessen. The rotors on 3rd gens are junk.

 

I mostly use the old school cruise, which if you didn’t know, you can access by holding the CC button for about 3 seconds. I am not a fan of adaptive in most situations except wide open interstate

 

I use adaptive cruise + LCA all the time. On interstates it is such a great tool - so much less fatigue on long days of highway miles.

So far my brakes are still fine but if excess AC/LCA eats brake pads - then that's just the cost of doing business.

 

The worst part is when the car cut in front took the exit, it make my tundra down shift and gun it back to set speed, but brake again cause the car in front is only a few car lengths ahead.

 

I travel for work and get to rent various brands as well as drive the OEM I work for. The Toyota adaptive cruise is very aggressive.
My 2nd gen is similar in weight to the 3rd gens, but i truly believe that braking programming is a function of vehicle mass so it inherently has to be aggressive based on the full size vehicle weight class.

 

2022 here.

I use adaptive cruise control all the time on highway. On my truck it's not aggressive at all, it's extremely smooth braking and I can't see how it would wear brakes much more than I would.

Acceleration is very smooth as well, I just shift it into Eco mode and it's never jerky. Even in stop and go traffic it's amazing.

This is certainly one feature that I love the most from this new techy truck, and I would not want to give this up for any other reason. It has to get only better for me in my next truck.

Wife has a 2022 GLE and that adaptive cruise control is much harsher than Tundra is. Acceleration is not really smooth and braking is also often jerky. Lane steering is bit better though

 

I don't need the vehicle to brake or accelerate for me, I don't need it to center me in my lane. I'm a better driver than the vehicle is.

 

I don’t use adaptive cruise control in my Tundra or RAV4. It accelerates and brakes far too much for it to be fuel efficient in my case. Since I use cruise control on a daily basis, I want to save me on fuel costs. Additionally, I avoid using my brakes if necessary like backing off the gas prior to getting close to another vehicle.

 

Thank you 22whatwedo and Oey12 especially. I seriously didn't realize we had conventional cruise just a button hold away. Noob alert!

 

Amen. When I am in the drivers sets that is job 1. Not surfing, Facebooking, watching videos like the other drivers I am constantly dodging as they go over the center line

Thankfully where I live they have put in the center line rumble strips for the Facedriving crowd. At least they correct back into their lane quicker so I don't to go in the grass to prevent an accident

Maybe lane centering helps with the beeps for Facedrivers as well. Toyotas don't seem to the primary culprit I encounter.

 

I drive between my home in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago and a property near Cadillac, Michigan regularly. I use the adaptive radar cruise all the time however it did warp my rotors within the first 20K miles. I replaced them and now with 50k mi it's happened again. I'm wondering if you found a relatively inexpensive solution for better rotors on the 3rd Gen Tundra? I've looked in have been able to find very few options for aftermarket rotors, in particular drilled and/or slotted ones that I think would better shed the heat from excessive breaking by the adaptive radar cruise control.

 

OK Boomer

 

I too have a 2022 Tundra and use the adaptive radar cruise control all the time. In general I like it, however there are certain scenarios where it's garbage. For example if you're cruising along at highway speed and someone comes into your lane within the distance of your radar, but still plenty of distance between you and the vehicle where, if you didn't have adaptive radar cruise control on, you would just let off the gas and coast to slow down. But the adaptive radar cruise control doesn't know how to coast and instead it applies the brakes and does so too heavily.

It warped my rotors at 20K and I had to replace them. Since then I've been very conscious to cancel the adaptive radar cruise control when someone cuts in front of me, but somehow I managed to warp them again this past summer. With the number of people who are complaining about a similar problem, I do believe Toyota has lots of room to improve this feature.

In general I'm a fan of the adaptive radar cruise control. But I think Toyota software engineers need to update the code so that it does a better job of coasting to slow down instead of applying the brake, when distance permits.

 

My problem with adaptive cruise control is it is far too annoying. Between the default LONG range at which it will start to react to traffic ahead to the way it accelerates when you clear whatever is triggering it I find it way easier to just hold a long press on the button when I engage CC and operate the gas and brake manually if needed rather than sit back and do nothing while the computer annoys me, LOL.

 

Seems like all the Toyota OEM rotors are prone to warping. I went through a set on my Tacoma within 25K as well, replaced under warranty. I replaced with a Power Stop kit and didn’t have any problems after that — planning on same when it’s time with this truck.

 

I found in our Sienna, that in Eco mode, it is less aggressive getting back up to speed vs. my '18 Tundra.

 

Yeah, it ruined my brakes.

 

I'm in the far south suburbs and found the as soon as I got past RT 30 on I-57, adaptive cruise is useless around here. Only time it works good is late at night with noone on the road.

 

that's a riot Mooney Madness I didn't catch it and now can't go back and edit ha...needs more cowbell

 

I'm a young millennial, but thanks for trying to stereotype me. I try not to let others, or in this case, things, make my decisions for me.

 

...

Lol I thought to call you old as well after your previous comment, but decided not to, and be nice

So you're petty anti technology then?
I choose to avoid technology in many ways myself, but adaptive cruise control is really enjoyable for me

 

I'm selective with the layers of complication I add to my life.

I didn't even know the adaptive CC was hard on the brakes, but that's one more reason to avoid it.

 

I've got it on my '21, but have never used it. Am looking forward to try it.

Does it turn on your brake lights when it activated aggressive braking?

I have a hard time believing it can be used in heavy traffic. I can't use regular cruise in heavy traffic, so I figured it would be the same for the adaptive cruise.

 

yes, it does turn on the brake lights.

and ya, cruise of any kind in traffic is a PITA, I just like to drive it myself at that point.

 

I think you will be unhappy if you use it in heavy traffic. But it's perfect for highway cruise speeds on uncongested expressways.

 

I used adaptive cruise in stop and go traffic thru Kansas City once. But I had the speed set very low, like 20 mph or something. It was actually quite nice to sit back and let the truck drive in that scenario. With the speed set low, eco mode, and the range at 3 bars it did great without any aggressive braking or acceleration. I won't use it in heavy traffic moving at normal highway speeds, though. That's when it acts like an inpatient teenager is behind the wheel..

Matt

 

I 'assume' it is the same as the 2.5 adaptive cruise control and it is an acquired taste I guess. I always use the CC and the adaptive created challenges that you talk about but are easily overcome once you get the hang of it. I sit next to my wife n her 4Runner and she has been bitching about the apdative. I explained to her how the settings work to determine how close you want to follow. She leaves it alone which is the furthest distance from the front of you vehicle to the other vehicle so if someone changes lanes in front of you be careful not to bump your head on the windshield.

When I am driving and I see someone signaling to turn in my lane I change lanes to maintain my speed. Try playing with things and drive differently, you may end up liking it.

 

When adaptive cruise nearly melted my brakes I was going down a long winding pass in Colorado. I wasn't towing and had no load. I had the cruise set at 65 mph when I caught up to a 18-wheeler that was doing about 50. Every time we went around a sharp curve, the adaptive cruise would lose contact with the 18-wheeler and attempt to speed up. When the road straightened out, the cruise would sense the 18-wheeler again, and slam on the brakes aggressively.

I don't know why I didn't turn it off, but by the time we got to the bottom of the pass, the brakes were literally shaking the whole truck fairly violently. I probably took 10K miles off of the life of the brakes just in that one episode. Fortunately, the shuddering went away when the brakes cooled off. Since then, I've avoided using adaptive cruise when there is any traffic around, and have never experienced the brake shudder again.