xcel
09-17-2010, 11:57 PM
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg Pictures really can speak a thousand words. (cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=282026)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2010_Lexus_ES_-_Lexus_Safety_Experience.jpgWayne Gerdes - CleanMPG (cleanmpg.com) - Sept. 17, 2010
A 2010 Lexus ES – The aftermath of an ABS demonstration just before the smoke and dust has cleared.
Chicago, IL -- The “Lexus Safety Experience” is a behind the wheel driving event in which a number of very fortunate Chicago area journalists were exposed to Lexus’ latest automobile safety features in a manner that could be described as “Up close and personal”. With the backdrop of the famous (or infamous for those of us the live in the Chicago area) Soldier Field, we were afforded the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a number of brand new Lexus automobiles and put the pedal to the metal under a number of various driving scenarios. Well, sort of…
The various course demonstrations were not setup to reveal what kind of 0 to 60 times or lateral G’s the various Lexus models could achieve but instead were designed to reveal something quite different and far more relevant to the average driver in the real world. That being a chance to see, hear and feel what an automobile with a number of key safety features disabled and later enabled reacts like during extremely harsh accelerations, decelerations and accident avoidance maneuvers.
It’s not 0 to 60 but 60 to 0 that matters
While naught to 60 is the benchmark that most automobile reviewers accentuate and enthusiasts the world over covet (not us of course!), it is the controlled 60 to 0 time that keeps the rest of us from having to visit the body shop or worse, the hospital or morgue. The “Lexus Safety Experience” provided a firsthand look and feel as to what a ruthless stab at both the go pedal and the brake, and even both at the same time, is going to do to an automobile in a number of different high and low traction straight line and hard cornering scenarios.
On a non-public driving course and in a very controlled manner which included a professional driver sitting in the passenger seat, the often written about but little understood ABS, TC and VSC safety systems were put to the test in a somewhat violent manner. While spinning cars and squealing tires added to the day’s excitement, it was the experience of driving an automobile through a variety of very demanding scenarios with ABS, TC or VSC disabled and then enabled that really brought home the message regarding what these safety systems do for the rest of us each and every day.
“The goal of the training is to get sales associates comfortable with talking about the Lexus safety technology,” said Dave Griebler, Central Area Brand Manager for Lexus Motor Sales. “Actually, we hope you never have to use the safety systems but it will make you a safer driver if you have to.”
ABS (Anti-Lock Braking System)
ABS is known in the automotive world as the ubiquitous Anti-lock Braking System but in reality, what does this really describe? It does not allow braking under certain scenarios? It stops locking the brakes but??? It helps to keep the car straight when you bury your foot into the brake pedal?
Lexus has come up with a far more descriptive term and one that makes a lot more sense… ABS gives you the Ability to Brake and Steer at the same time.
One of the Professional Lexus Driving Instructors on hand described ABS in the most poignant fashion:
ABS is by far the single most important safety feature installed in the automobile in the last 50-years. It has saved more lives and reduced property damage more than all other safety systems combined!
All Lexus’ today come standard with four-channel, four sensor ABS which helps drivers maintain steering control during hard or compromised braking situations by avoiding wheel lock up. These situations could include a less than desirable or slippery road surface to in the worst case, an unexpected obstacle avoidance maneuver.
The ABS sensors are constantly monitoring the rotational speed of each wheel. When braking occurs, if one wheel is turning at a slower rate than the other three (inboard vs. outboard rotation speed dependency is taken into account), the computer senses that wheel is about to lock up or lose traction. It responds by repeatedly pulsing the brake line pressure to that wheel at up to 15 times per second. This allows for you to continue steering even under the harshest braking scenario vs. any or all of the four wheels being locked up and the smoke pouring out while plowing straight ahead and no way to turn…
Instead of describing ABS, what if you placed an automobile journalist behind the wheel of a brand new 2010 ES with its ABS system disabled, told him or her to shove the accelerator to the floor, then slam on the brakes while on a sand strewn parking lot when instructed and see if said journalist can stop from hitting a “simulated” disabled cement truck in the path directly ahead?
The results were not exactly heartening…
Lexus ES w/ ABS Disabled in a Live Emergency Braking Demonstration
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/No_ABS_Brake_Initiation.jpg
Brake Initiation.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/No_ABS_Braking_-_No_Control.jpg
Wheels turned but plowing straight ahead.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/No_ABS_Braking_-_No_Control_Final.jpg
Wheels still turned and you just had a close encounter with the back end of said cement truck which finally halted your forward progress.
There is no way you would have been able to pump the brakes even once during this accident avoidance maneuver and if you did, you would surely hit the “simulated” cement truck with a much higher speed then if you did nothing but push into the brake pedal with all your might.
Now let us see what happens at the exact same speed but this time, ABS is enabled allowing the ability to steer clear of the “simulated” cement truck directly ahead.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/ABS_Brake_Initiation_and_Semi-Control.jpg
Brake Initiation.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/ABS_Brake_Initiation_and_Semi-Control_Finish.jpg
The vehicle has traveled in the direction you intended.
As shown and experienced, a vehicle without ABS reacts a whole lot different and with much less control then one with ABS.
The next two demonstrations were a lot simpler and a whole lot less violent.
TC (Traction Control)
Down and dirty, TC helps you accelerate on surfaces that are not conducive to accelerating on to begin with. Think ice and snow.
TC uses the same wheel speed sensors used for the ABS system to determine if one or more of the drive wheels are beginning to slip during any slow speed acceleration. TC will automatically and almost immediately begin to reduce engine power and apply a slight or pulsing brake pressure to the affected wheel(s) until the slippage is under control. At the same time, TC transfers torque to the drive wheel(s) with better traction.
TC also works automatically in order to maximize available traction and in most cases, well before the driver has become aware that there is slippage occurring.
The TC demonstration was conducted using a 2010 Lexus RX which as instructed, was brought to a stop on a soaped up tarp. With the TC system disabled, the instructor said, “Punch it”! Immediately there was a lot of wheel spin but very little acceleration and even a slight shimmy was induced as we crawled up from 0 mph.
On the same soaped up tarp in the same RX but this time with TC enabled, the instructor again said, “Punch it”! While there was a small amount of wheel spin, power output immediately dropped even with my foot to the floor and the brakes were being pulsed to specific wheels to get the big RX moving forward.
The difference was not only more control but real acceleration vs. a lot of noise, a lot of fuel being consumed and little to show for it with TC disabled.
VSC (Vehicle Stability Control)
If the direction you are headed is not the direction you intended, VSC can take care of that…
VSC is a much more sophisticated safety system that receives input from sensors that monitor wheel speed, vehicle speed, cornering motion, yaw rate (a measure of a vehicle’s angular velocity around its vertical axis – think of an airplane turning left or right but not banking left or right and not diving or climbing), brake pressure and steering wheel input. Together, VSC knows the actual motion of the vehicle to sense when the front or rear wheels begin to slip. If the system senses a loss of lateral traction during a turn, it selectively applies individual brakes and reduces engine power to help regain control of the vehicle in a critical avoidance maneuver or even under something as common as hydroplaning.
The VSC demonstration was conducted by taking the RX to a given speed and without touching the brakes or the accelerator, take a hard turn and see how the vehicle reacts. Without VSC enabled, the RX under steered as you pushed your way to the outside of the corners cones before speed was bled off enough to bring the RX back into the path you intended. In the same RX, the instructor enabled VSC, directed us to duplicate the incident speed into the same turn, let off the gas and brakes and coast through the corner again. While there was still noticeable under steer, the VSC system began applying brakes to the wheels with the most slip and the corner was cut far sharper and with far more control then without VSC enabled.
Another item of interest regarding VSC systems in all Lexus automobiles is as follows: When VSC begins to reduce power and selectively apply the brakes, a light on the dash lights and an audible on-off-on beep is emitted. While other manufacturers flash a dash light, the Lexus added the beep to warn the driver that the automobile is actively attempting to bring control back to the driver even though the driver may not have known he or she was in a situation that VSC needed to be applied. This situation in which the driver may not realize he or she is in trouble could occur for example on a freezing bridge deck that may have frozen before the rest of the pavement before or after the bridge has or in the case of heavy rain, when the automobile begins to hydroplane.
Again, the difference was simply more control, a tighter turning radius and the only thing the driver needed to be concerned with is pointing the automobile in its intended direction.
BA (Brake Assist)
It is a common trait for us not to push, shove, slam, press or lift as much or as hard as we can during a reaction vs. a conscious action with thought. Even under stressful circumstances, giving an all out effort is not what humans are used to let alone trained to do and thus the need for a little feature called Brake Assist.
BA attempts to determine if you are in need of an emergency stop by calculating both the rate and the amount of force that you apply to the brake pedal and not just how firmly and deeply you have pressed into it. In emergency situations, it was discovered that some drivers would not press the brakes firmly enough to activate ABS and receive the full amount of braking force the vehicle they were driving was capable of. BA automatically responds to rapid braking by applying full pressure to the brakes for you while engaging ABS with all the benefits described above.
The BA demonstration was conducted by first taking an IS to a given speed and stomping on the brakes as hard as you could. The outcome is what we would expect, a full force application of the brakes and engagement of ABS to bring you to a stop as quickly as possible. On the next go around, you were asked to step into them and feel how braking force was being applied the deeper you stepped into the brakes. What we discovered was that a quick application required a very short travel of the brake itself to engage the full force and ABS initiation vs. just a slow application in which a longer travel was allowed with less braking force being applied.
Smart Stop Technology (In laymen’s terms, the Brake Override system)
We all know how much consternation the Sudden Acceleration hysteria caused earlier in the year when some Toyota owners said their cars and trucks were suddenly and without warning, accelerating with no accelerator input from the driver and causing collisions. With over 4,000 SA event accidents reported and now studied, not a single vehicles data log has shown the application of the brakes. Go figure :rolleyes:
One of the stories relayed to us even happened during the “Safety Experience” with a Lexus Sales Associates behind the wheel. One of the professional drivers had to place an IS in N because the Lexus Sales Associate behind the wheel failed to step on the brake but instead kept the car floored and had missed the brake altogether! Instead, the associate had pressed into the floor board next to the brake as hard as he could and of course no braking had occurred. The Professional driver asked this driver three times to step on the brake, looked down and saw he was not on the brake so simply slipped the car in N and let the Rev limiter control the engine while they coasted down the course. The Sales associate swore he was full into the brake while the real driver in the passenger seat could clearly see he was not even close and thus the action taken.
It just goes to show that there are perceptions and there are causes of an accident and in many cases, the two do not jive.
Lexus’ Smart Stop or Brake Override as most of us know it requires three conditions to be met before the accelerator cut out feature can be evoked.
A Throttle Opening of less than 1/3.
Vehicle speed above 5 mph.
Brakes are applied firmly.
The Brake Override demonstration was a bit unusual as you had to overcome your natural and learned reaction of letting off the accelerator while applying full brakes. You know, one foot from the accelerator that moves to the brake.
In order to experience how Brake Override works, it meant leaving your right foot planted all the way into the accelerator while your left foot was slamming the Brake Pedal to the floor. This was completely unnatural but it was the only way to demonstrate Lexus’ new brake override system.
The Twist -- The first run was in an IS with the Brake Override system disengaged. As we have discussed tens of times during the Toyota SA scare, an automobiles brakes will overcome the engine at full throttle and the speed at which you are traveling. Stopping distances will be longer but brakes are far more powerful than a given vehicles engine output if you apply the brakes firmly and do not let go.
The first Brake Override demonstration was conducted with the following practiced before we actually were lead down the straight away. The instructor said, “Punch it” and when a certain location on the straight was reached, he would instruct us to “Brake”. At this point, we had our left foot pushing into the brake as hard as we could and our right foot was still holding the accelerator pedal to the proverbial metal. With the Engine giving its all, the brakes slowed and then stopped us in what I thought was a relatively short distance. Far shorter than I would have expected in fact!
With the “Brakes Can Override” the Accelerator even at WOT demonstration out of the way, it was back into an IS with the Brake Override system intact. Again, the instructor said, “Punch it” and when a certain location on the straight was reached, we would leave the accelerator mashed to the floor with our right foot and use our left foot to fully engage the brakes. As soon as the brakes were touched, the engine simply dropped back to idle as if the accelerator pedal was not applied at all. Even after we stopped and while still holding the Accelerator to the floor and the brake still applied, the IS was sitting still as if you were sitting at a light with the engine simply idling.
Lessons learned? Brake override is a safe and simple solution that works.
Conclusions?
Why the “Lexus Safety Experience”? For one, the safety systems described above are usually beyond the Sales Associate’s ability to explain to a customer. By sending as many of their Associates through this hand’s on training, they will have not only knowledgeable sales people but experienced sales people able to describe these safety systems as they actually work instead of how they are supposed to work.
Second, Toyota, Lexus and Scion are still in a PR battle and with the facts to back up their history of building the highest quality and safest cars and trucks on the road, getting their message out is still a priority and very important one.
Afterwards while describing the Brake Override solution, Curt McAllister, Toyota’s Midwest Public Relations Manager added: “By the end of the year, Toyota, Lexus, Scion will be the first full line manufacturer to have brake override installed in all of its vehicles across the board.”
That was a pretty big statement with the following questions asked and answered. While the Europeans have included brake override systems in “some” of their cars for years, the much maligned VW/Audi (think of the Audi 5000), MB and even BMW to this day still do not include brake override systems on “all” of their vehicles. And neither does anybody else!
And an off-shoot that every CleanMPG’er will love to know and that the Lexus engineers had never heard before but verified afterwards is this: During a FAS with the key placed back into IG-II and after the approximately 2 to 3 second systems check, all of these safety systems and more in current Lexus’ are placed in their normal ready state just as we have experienced in most every other vehicle.
In addition and as we always check in the latest vehicle manuals, most Lexus’ w/ standard AT’s can be flat towed up to 50 mph with a 200 mile limitation before an idle must be completed. Which means FAS’ing from any reasonable speed is a given.
I want to thank Curt McAllister for the invite to one of the most unique driving experiences I have had the opportunity to partake in. And the rest of the team including John Parks, Lexus District Sales Manager, Dave Griebler, Central Area Brand Manager for Lexus Motor Sales and Dave Harbuck LEXUS Motor sales, Dan Swartz, Lexus Area Manager and Craig Shook from Lexus Technical Services.
Wayne
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2010_Lexus_ES_-_Lexus_Safety_Experience.jpgWayne Gerdes - CleanMPG (cleanmpg.com) - Sept. 17, 2010
A 2010 Lexus ES – The aftermath of an ABS demonstration just before the smoke and dust has cleared.
Chicago, IL -- The “Lexus Safety Experience” is a behind the wheel driving event in which a number of very fortunate Chicago area journalists were exposed to Lexus’ latest automobile safety features in a manner that could be described as “Up close and personal”. With the backdrop of the famous (or infamous for those of us the live in the Chicago area) Soldier Field, we were afforded the opportunity to get behind the wheel of a number of brand new Lexus automobiles and put the pedal to the metal under a number of various driving scenarios. Well, sort of…
The various course demonstrations were not setup to reveal what kind of 0 to 60 times or lateral G’s the various Lexus models could achieve but instead were designed to reveal something quite different and far more relevant to the average driver in the real world. That being a chance to see, hear and feel what an automobile with a number of key safety features disabled and later enabled reacts like during extremely harsh accelerations, decelerations and accident avoidance maneuvers.
It’s not 0 to 60 but 60 to 0 that matters
While naught to 60 is the benchmark that most automobile reviewers accentuate and enthusiasts the world over covet (not us of course!), it is the controlled 60 to 0 time that keeps the rest of us from having to visit the body shop or worse, the hospital or morgue. The “Lexus Safety Experience” provided a firsthand look and feel as to what a ruthless stab at both the go pedal and the brake, and even both at the same time, is going to do to an automobile in a number of different high and low traction straight line and hard cornering scenarios.
On a non-public driving course and in a very controlled manner which included a professional driver sitting in the passenger seat, the often written about but little understood ABS, TC and VSC safety systems were put to the test in a somewhat violent manner. While spinning cars and squealing tires added to the day’s excitement, it was the experience of driving an automobile through a variety of very demanding scenarios with ABS, TC or VSC disabled and then enabled that really brought home the message regarding what these safety systems do for the rest of us each and every day.
“The goal of the training is to get sales associates comfortable with talking about the Lexus safety technology,” said Dave Griebler, Central Area Brand Manager for Lexus Motor Sales. “Actually, we hope you never have to use the safety systems but it will make you a safer driver if you have to.”
ABS (Anti-Lock Braking System)
ABS is known in the automotive world as the ubiquitous Anti-lock Braking System but in reality, what does this really describe? It does not allow braking under certain scenarios? It stops locking the brakes but??? It helps to keep the car straight when you bury your foot into the brake pedal?
Lexus has come up with a far more descriptive term and one that makes a lot more sense… ABS gives you the Ability to Brake and Steer at the same time.
One of the Professional Lexus Driving Instructors on hand described ABS in the most poignant fashion:
ABS is by far the single most important safety feature installed in the automobile in the last 50-years. It has saved more lives and reduced property damage more than all other safety systems combined!
All Lexus’ today come standard with four-channel, four sensor ABS which helps drivers maintain steering control during hard or compromised braking situations by avoiding wheel lock up. These situations could include a less than desirable or slippery road surface to in the worst case, an unexpected obstacle avoidance maneuver.
The ABS sensors are constantly monitoring the rotational speed of each wheel. When braking occurs, if one wheel is turning at a slower rate than the other three (inboard vs. outboard rotation speed dependency is taken into account), the computer senses that wheel is about to lock up or lose traction. It responds by repeatedly pulsing the brake line pressure to that wheel at up to 15 times per second. This allows for you to continue steering even under the harshest braking scenario vs. any or all of the four wheels being locked up and the smoke pouring out while plowing straight ahead and no way to turn…
Instead of describing ABS, what if you placed an automobile journalist behind the wheel of a brand new 2010 ES with its ABS system disabled, told him or her to shove the accelerator to the floor, then slam on the brakes while on a sand strewn parking lot when instructed and see if said journalist can stop from hitting a “simulated” disabled cement truck in the path directly ahead?
The results were not exactly heartening…
Lexus ES w/ ABS Disabled in a Live Emergency Braking Demonstration
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/No_ABS_Brake_Initiation.jpg
Brake Initiation.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/No_ABS_Braking_-_No_Control.jpg
Wheels turned but plowing straight ahead.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/No_ABS_Braking_-_No_Control_Final.jpg
Wheels still turned and you just had a close encounter with the back end of said cement truck which finally halted your forward progress.
There is no way you would have been able to pump the brakes even once during this accident avoidance maneuver and if you did, you would surely hit the “simulated” cement truck with a much higher speed then if you did nothing but push into the brake pedal with all your might.
Now let us see what happens at the exact same speed but this time, ABS is enabled allowing the ability to steer clear of the “simulated” cement truck directly ahead.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/ABS_Brake_Initiation_and_Semi-Control.jpg
Brake Initiation.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/ABS_Brake_Initiation_and_Semi-Control_Finish.jpg
The vehicle has traveled in the direction you intended.
As shown and experienced, a vehicle without ABS reacts a whole lot different and with much less control then one with ABS.
The next two demonstrations were a lot simpler and a whole lot less violent.
TC (Traction Control)
Down and dirty, TC helps you accelerate on surfaces that are not conducive to accelerating on to begin with. Think ice and snow.
TC uses the same wheel speed sensors used for the ABS system to determine if one or more of the drive wheels are beginning to slip during any slow speed acceleration. TC will automatically and almost immediately begin to reduce engine power and apply a slight or pulsing brake pressure to the affected wheel(s) until the slippage is under control. At the same time, TC transfers torque to the drive wheel(s) with better traction.
TC also works automatically in order to maximize available traction and in most cases, well before the driver has become aware that there is slippage occurring.
The TC demonstration was conducted using a 2010 Lexus RX which as instructed, was brought to a stop on a soaped up tarp. With the TC system disabled, the instructor said, “Punch it”! Immediately there was a lot of wheel spin but very little acceleration and even a slight shimmy was induced as we crawled up from 0 mph.
On the same soaped up tarp in the same RX but this time with TC enabled, the instructor again said, “Punch it”! While there was a small amount of wheel spin, power output immediately dropped even with my foot to the floor and the brakes were being pulsed to specific wheels to get the big RX moving forward.
The difference was not only more control but real acceleration vs. a lot of noise, a lot of fuel being consumed and little to show for it with TC disabled.
VSC (Vehicle Stability Control)
If the direction you are headed is not the direction you intended, VSC can take care of that…
VSC is a much more sophisticated safety system that receives input from sensors that monitor wheel speed, vehicle speed, cornering motion, yaw rate (a measure of a vehicle’s angular velocity around its vertical axis – think of an airplane turning left or right but not banking left or right and not diving or climbing), brake pressure and steering wheel input. Together, VSC knows the actual motion of the vehicle to sense when the front or rear wheels begin to slip. If the system senses a loss of lateral traction during a turn, it selectively applies individual brakes and reduces engine power to help regain control of the vehicle in a critical avoidance maneuver or even under something as common as hydroplaning.
The VSC demonstration was conducted by taking the RX to a given speed and without touching the brakes or the accelerator, take a hard turn and see how the vehicle reacts. Without VSC enabled, the RX under steered as you pushed your way to the outside of the corners cones before speed was bled off enough to bring the RX back into the path you intended. In the same RX, the instructor enabled VSC, directed us to duplicate the incident speed into the same turn, let off the gas and brakes and coast through the corner again. While there was still noticeable under steer, the VSC system began applying brakes to the wheels with the most slip and the corner was cut far sharper and with far more control then without VSC enabled.
Another item of interest regarding VSC systems in all Lexus automobiles is as follows: When VSC begins to reduce power and selectively apply the brakes, a light on the dash lights and an audible on-off-on beep is emitted. While other manufacturers flash a dash light, the Lexus added the beep to warn the driver that the automobile is actively attempting to bring control back to the driver even though the driver may not have known he or she was in a situation that VSC needed to be applied. This situation in which the driver may not realize he or she is in trouble could occur for example on a freezing bridge deck that may have frozen before the rest of the pavement before or after the bridge has or in the case of heavy rain, when the automobile begins to hydroplane.
Again, the difference was simply more control, a tighter turning radius and the only thing the driver needed to be concerned with is pointing the automobile in its intended direction.
BA (Brake Assist)
It is a common trait for us not to push, shove, slam, press or lift as much or as hard as we can during a reaction vs. a conscious action with thought. Even under stressful circumstances, giving an all out effort is not what humans are used to let alone trained to do and thus the need for a little feature called Brake Assist.
BA attempts to determine if you are in need of an emergency stop by calculating both the rate and the amount of force that you apply to the brake pedal and not just how firmly and deeply you have pressed into it. In emergency situations, it was discovered that some drivers would not press the brakes firmly enough to activate ABS and receive the full amount of braking force the vehicle they were driving was capable of. BA automatically responds to rapid braking by applying full pressure to the brakes for you while engaging ABS with all the benefits described above.
The BA demonstration was conducted by first taking an IS to a given speed and stomping on the brakes as hard as you could. The outcome is what we would expect, a full force application of the brakes and engagement of ABS to bring you to a stop as quickly as possible. On the next go around, you were asked to step into them and feel how braking force was being applied the deeper you stepped into the brakes. What we discovered was that a quick application required a very short travel of the brake itself to engage the full force and ABS initiation vs. just a slow application in which a longer travel was allowed with less braking force being applied.
Smart Stop Technology (In laymen’s terms, the Brake Override system)
We all know how much consternation the Sudden Acceleration hysteria caused earlier in the year when some Toyota owners said their cars and trucks were suddenly and without warning, accelerating with no accelerator input from the driver and causing collisions. With over 4,000 SA event accidents reported and now studied, not a single vehicles data log has shown the application of the brakes. Go figure :rolleyes:
One of the stories relayed to us even happened during the “Safety Experience” with a Lexus Sales Associates behind the wheel. One of the professional drivers had to place an IS in N because the Lexus Sales Associate behind the wheel failed to step on the brake but instead kept the car floored and had missed the brake altogether! Instead, the associate had pressed into the floor board next to the brake as hard as he could and of course no braking had occurred. The Professional driver asked this driver three times to step on the brake, looked down and saw he was not on the brake so simply slipped the car in N and let the Rev limiter control the engine while they coasted down the course. The Sales associate swore he was full into the brake while the real driver in the passenger seat could clearly see he was not even close and thus the action taken.
It just goes to show that there are perceptions and there are causes of an accident and in many cases, the two do not jive.
Lexus’ Smart Stop or Brake Override as most of us know it requires three conditions to be met before the accelerator cut out feature can be evoked.
A Throttle Opening of less than 1/3.
Vehicle speed above 5 mph.
Brakes are applied firmly.
The Brake Override demonstration was a bit unusual as you had to overcome your natural and learned reaction of letting off the accelerator while applying full brakes. You know, one foot from the accelerator that moves to the brake.
In order to experience how Brake Override works, it meant leaving your right foot planted all the way into the accelerator while your left foot was slamming the Brake Pedal to the floor. This was completely unnatural but it was the only way to demonstrate Lexus’ new brake override system.
The Twist -- The first run was in an IS with the Brake Override system disengaged. As we have discussed tens of times during the Toyota SA scare, an automobiles brakes will overcome the engine at full throttle and the speed at which you are traveling. Stopping distances will be longer but brakes are far more powerful than a given vehicles engine output if you apply the brakes firmly and do not let go.
The first Brake Override demonstration was conducted with the following practiced before we actually were lead down the straight away. The instructor said, “Punch it” and when a certain location on the straight was reached, he would instruct us to “Brake”. At this point, we had our left foot pushing into the brake as hard as we could and our right foot was still holding the accelerator pedal to the proverbial metal. With the Engine giving its all, the brakes slowed and then stopped us in what I thought was a relatively short distance. Far shorter than I would have expected in fact!
With the “Brakes Can Override” the Accelerator even at WOT demonstration out of the way, it was back into an IS with the Brake Override system intact. Again, the instructor said, “Punch it” and when a certain location on the straight was reached, we would leave the accelerator mashed to the floor with our right foot and use our left foot to fully engage the brakes. As soon as the brakes were touched, the engine simply dropped back to idle as if the accelerator pedal was not applied at all. Even after we stopped and while still holding the Accelerator to the floor and the brake still applied, the IS was sitting still as if you were sitting at a light with the engine simply idling.
Lessons learned? Brake override is a safe and simple solution that works.
Conclusions?
Why the “Lexus Safety Experience”? For one, the safety systems described above are usually beyond the Sales Associate’s ability to explain to a customer. By sending as many of their Associates through this hand’s on training, they will have not only knowledgeable sales people but experienced sales people able to describe these safety systems as they actually work instead of how they are supposed to work.
Second, Toyota, Lexus and Scion are still in a PR battle and with the facts to back up their history of building the highest quality and safest cars and trucks on the road, getting their message out is still a priority and very important one.
Afterwards while describing the Brake Override solution, Curt McAllister, Toyota’s Midwest Public Relations Manager added: “By the end of the year, Toyota, Lexus, Scion will be the first full line manufacturer to have brake override installed in all of its vehicles across the board.”
That was a pretty big statement with the following questions asked and answered. While the Europeans have included brake override systems in “some” of their cars for years, the much maligned VW/Audi (think of the Audi 5000), MB and even BMW to this day still do not include brake override systems on “all” of their vehicles. And neither does anybody else!
And an off-shoot that every CleanMPG’er will love to know and that the Lexus engineers had never heard before but verified afterwards is this: During a FAS with the key placed back into IG-II and after the approximately 2 to 3 second systems check, all of these safety systems and more in current Lexus’ are placed in their normal ready state just as we have experienced in most every other vehicle.
In addition and as we always check in the latest vehicle manuals, most Lexus’ w/ standard AT’s can be flat towed up to 50 mph with a 200 mile limitation before an idle must be completed. Which means FAS’ing from any reasonable speed is a given.
I want to thank Curt McAllister for the invite to one of the most unique driving experiences I have had the opportunity to partake in. And the rest of the team including John Parks, Lexus District Sales Manager, Dave Griebler, Central Area Brand Manager for Lexus Motor Sales and Dave Harbuck LEXUS Motor sales, Dan Swartz, Lexus Area Manager and Craig Shook from Lexus Technical Services.
Wayne