Incident with Toyota Corolla Cruise Control Today!

[H_TC_HB15]

Hi everyone, 

I recently bought a 2022 Toyota Corolla Hybrid hatchback from Toyota, it's just 14,000 KM driven. I took it on the highway today, it was my 2nd trip on the highway with this car using the cruise control, and I did around 400 KM on this trip. 

I was driving with adaptive cruise control (ACC) ON at 120km/h in the middle lane and there was a vehicle ahead of me similar to a tow truck carrying 2-3 cars. I was gaining on that vehicle fast, the ACC was supposed to slow me down but it didn't, instead, it kept driving at 120km/h and was about to hit the vehicle, then instead of slowing down, the cruise control gave me an alert (all orange) and I hit the breaks HARD to slow down. (Just to be clear, I always use ACC at a maximum 3-line distance to keep a reasonable distance between myself & the vehicle ahead of me) 

It was a warm sunny day, no rain, no snow, no fog. 

I don't think I switched between ACC & normal CC because right after this happened, I overtook that vehicle, and used the 'SET' button to reengage ACC, everything was fine for the rest of the 150 KM journey and my car slowed down as it was supposed to do each time there was a vehicle ahead of me. 

It was a scary incident. I wonder what exactly caused this? 

Normally, when I disengage the ACC by pressing the brake, I use the 'SET' button to reengage it. Is this the right approach or am I doing it wrong? (I wonder if the SET button possibly switches between normal & ACC?) 

What should I be careful about in the future? 

I'm attaching a picture of the controls for your reference. 

Thanks

[sportse]

Trucks don’t always trigger the ACC due to the back of them being higher than a normal car. 
 

I’ve had an auris in a similar situation, the car initially started to slow down as I was gaining quickly towards the truck then lost track of it and started accelerating towards the back of it. 
 

you just need to be aware of it, and take over early if it doesn’t start to slow down. 
 

it’s easier in the 23 as I have a big display for the acc set in the middle of the dash which shows me when it has detected a vehicle in front and gets closer until it reaches the 2 second gap I’ve set. 

[Roy124]

11 hours ago, H_TC_HB15 said:

Normally, when I disengage the ACC by pressing the brake, I use the 'SET' button to reengage it. Is this the right approach or am I doing it wrong? (I wonder if the SET button possibly switches between normal & ACC?) 

I thought SET will use the current speed whereas you need to Resume to return to the original.   I can't remember the exact names on the Corolla. 

The back of the trailer might not have given a 'clean' radar image and confused the system.  A car, coach or panel van presents a clean plane reflector. 

[H_TC_HB15]

4 hours ago, Roy124 said:

I thought SET will use the current speed whereas you need to Resume to return to the original.   I can't remember the exact names on the Corolla. 

The back of the trailer might not have given a 'clean' radar image and confused the system.  A car, coach or panel van presents a clean plane reflector. 

This is a major safety flaw then. 

[H_TC_HB15]

7 hours ago, sportse said:

Trucks don’t always trigger the ACC due to the back of them being higher than a normal car. 
 

I’ve had an auris in a similar situation, the car initially started to slow down as I was gaining quickly towards the truck then lost track of it and started accelerating towards the back of it. 
 

you just need to be aware of it, and take over early if it doesn’t start to slow down. 
 

it’s easier in the 23 as I have a big display for the acc set in the middle of the dash which shows me when it has detected a vehicle in front and gets closer until it reaches the 2 second gap I’ve set. 

Thanks, I'll make a note of this & will definitely rely much less on Toyota safety systems moving forward. 

But this is a very serious problem if the ACC can simply miss some vehicles. Is Toyota going to fix it only after people start losing their lives!! 

[Cyker]

Must be more to it than that - Mine (Albeit a Yaris not a Corolla) will happily lock onto a motorcycle and follow it!

[fred88]

17 hours ago, Cyker said:

Must be more to it than that - Mine (Albeit a Yaris not a Corolla) will happily lock onto a motorcycle and follow it!

Agreed, never had an issue with mine. I suggest the OP gets it checked out.

[Roy124]

17 hours ago, H_TC_HB15 said:

This is a major safety flaw then. 

H, it would be if true.  Only a supposition.  Radar is pretty good but if can, from time to time, suffer from anomalous errors.

Does anyone know the frequency of the car radar?  I think it may operate in Ku band or higher.  Or indeed how it works.  Driving down a road the radar will receive echoes at a steady rate dependent on the car's speed. 

As you approach an obstruction the signal return rate will increase.  If you take no action then the car will and it will slow down until the return rate decreases.

If we think for a moment,  at any one instant your car may 'see' 3 or 4 other radars.  It may be a rare incidence but is can conceivably have picked up a stray signal. 

With proximity sensors and blind spot monitoring our cars are increasingly radar emission hot spots. 

[Chuffmonkey]

I use ACC a lot and its not got me into that situation before, I have it set on 1 bar and it usually slows to soon in my opinion as you are coming up to lorries. I find myself having to change lane a good 50-75 meters before the vehicle Infront to maintain speed. 

Set is for the ACC to the speed you are currently doing. Res, resumes the speed you had previously set before touching the brake or pressing cancel.

Standard cruise is after a few seconds of pressing the cruise control icon and is displayed differently.

Did the display show an icon of a car when this happened? If not then possibly a glitch but its very rare. 

[TonyHSD]

These autonomous drive systems aren’t to be trusted 100% and just as drivers aid but not driver’s replacement. So many fatal accidents with Tesla and other brands. You can play with auto parking and if malfunction happened you may end up with a new bumper but driving at speeds over 30mph and leaving the car to control itself is not ideal. Just as safety note. 👍

[H_TC_HB15]

1 hour ago, Chuffmonkey said:

Standard cruise is after a few seconds of pressing the cruise control icon and is displayed differently.

Did the display show an icon of a car when this happened? If not then possibly a glitch but its very rare. 

I think it was a glitch. I'm pretty sure I didn't switch between ACC & regular CC. 

In my dashboard, it doesn't show a car icon next to you, I think it's in other models of Toyota where it shows a car in the middle of the screen. 

Here is how I do it: 

I press the right ACC button > SET (to engage ACC) > RES/SET (to increase or decrease the speed). 

If I want to disengage ACC, I press the brake. 

 

[H_TC_HB15]

32 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

These autonomous drive systems aren’t to be trusted 100% and just as drivers aid but not driver’s replacement. So many fatal accidents with Tesla and other brands. You can play with auto parking and if malfunction happened you may end up with a new bumper but driving at speeds over 30mph and leaving the car to control itself is not ideal. Just as safety note. 👍

Thanks, yes, makes sense. 

[Chuffmonkey]

On 3/24/2024 at 3:33 PM, H_TC_HB15 said:

I think it was a glitch. I'm pretty sure I didn't switch between ACC & regular CC. 

In my dashboard, it doesn't show a car icon next to you, I think it's in other models of Toyota where it shows a car in the middle of the screen. 

Here is how I do it: 

I press the right ACC button > SET (to engage ACC) > RES/SET (to increase or decrease the speed). 

If I want to disengage ACC, I press the brake. 

 

I have got used to pressing the cancel button to disengage the cruise rather then tapping the brake. I got used to the cancel button in my old car that just had standard cruise.

If I am approaching a roundabout on a duel carriage way ill just press the cancel button so the car can cruise charging the Battery a bit, same if I am being overtaken and I need to change lane, I just press cancel to the let the car cruise until I can overtake. To me the ACC is very good but as mentioned above by Tony, I don't fully 100% trust it and always have my leg near the brake. 

[Roy124]

Although a higher grade than the Yaris, I think the Corolla  CC is abysmal.  The Yaris controls are ideal for touch.  Big cancel section on the right.  Small ridged switch top left, a Set/Res up/down toggle in a fenced position in the centre.