Lexus Safety System + consists of four main features on the car to help make a safer driving experience for all people not just those who own Lexus'. These four features are:
1. Dynamic Radar Cruise Control
2. Pre-collision System with Pedestrian Detection.
3. Intelligent High Beams
4. Lane Departure Alert with Lane Keep Assist
What Does Each Safety Feature Do?
Dynamic Radar Cruise Contol (DRCC):
This feature acts as a standard cruise control being you can set the speed of the vehicle and not have to press the gas pedal to keep that speed. The only difference is that DRCC will not only keep the set speed but it will slow down to match the traffic ahead. As traffic speed varies the car will slow down and accelerate to match the speed. Once there is no traffic in front of the car it will speed up to the set speed and remain there until traffic is detected. With DRCC you can adjust the distance that your car follows traffic in three increments. As speed increases the set distances of these increments will increase. On some vehicles an All Speed DRCC is availible allowing for this function to be used at all speeds where as the High Speed DRCC only works from 30 mph up. The All Speed DRCC will come to a complete stop and such as in stop and go traffic. Once the traffic ahead of you moves, the car will wait for you to tap the gas pedal or lift up on the cruise control level to resume driving at traffic speed. LEXUS DRIVERS VIDEO OF DRCC
Pre-collision System (PCS) with Pedestrian Detection :
As you are driving down the road your 2017 Lexus is continuously watching for traffic and pedestrians. This feature is to help warn you the driver of a possible collision. If your Lexus detects that you are coming up to a car that has hit its brakes and you are not applying the brakes an alert will com up on the dash to warn you of a possible collision if you do not apply the brakes then the Lexus will apply them for you to try and prevent a collision. The same thing will occur if a pedestrian walks out in front of the Lexus. PCS DEMO PEDESTRIAN DETECTION IN ACTION
Intelligent High Beams:
To turn on this feature you push the head lamp control lever, on the left side of the steering wheel, away from you. Then you make sure that the auto high beams selector is depressed.(1) This is located to by the driver's left knee. When this feature is turned on the Lexus will be monitoring the ambient light to determine if the high beams should be turned on. Such as driving from a city street with street lamps to a country dark road. Also the monocular camera is watching for on coming traffic to turn off the high beams so you don't have to worry about turning off your high beams on that windy country road. Your only concern is to steer. INTELLIGENT HIGH BEAMS HOW TO TURN THEM ON made by yours truly
Lane Departure Alert (LDA) with Lane Keep Assist (LKA):
This feature with LDA will alert the driver that their vehicle is drifting out of the lane by vibrating the steering wheel or by an audible alert. Also if steering assist is turned on the vehicle will make small adjustments to bring you back into your lane. With LKA the car will actively make adjustments to keep you centered in the lane. Of course it will not turn the vehicle but it will keep the vehicle centered on curves and easy bends. At any time the drive can over ride this system by simply applying a little extra effort to steer such as changing lanes. When changing lanes if the turn signal is on, the steer assist and center steer will disengage until the signal is off.
The LSS+ uses two different sensors to provide the needed information to the vehicle's safety computer system. These sensors are a monocular camera, and a millimeter-wave radar sensor.
Monocular camera:
Basically the monocular camera is a digital camera that sends live images to the vehicle's computer system.
This uses a monocular sensor located behind the rear view mirror along with a millimeter wave radar sensor located in the front grill behind the Lexus emblem.
Millimeter-wave radar sensor:
This sensor works like a bats echolocation. It sends out radar waves and detects the waves that come back to locate distances and speed of objects ahead of the vehicle. "This technology can detect objects up to 40 meters away, such as pedestrians and bicycles, separated by as little as 20 centimeters, in only 0.1 seconds."(2)
Does Every Lexus Have These Features?
These safety features come standard (meaning you don't pay extra to get them) on seven Lexus models, and are available to add to the remaining six models. (Except for the CT which can only have Pre-collision system) Below is a chart of which models have which features within the LSS+
Lexus Safety System + (LSS+)
Lexus Safety System + consists of four main features on the car to help make a safer driving experience for all people not just those who own Lexus'. These four features are:
1. Dynamic Radar Cruise Control
2. Pre-collision System with Pedestrian Detection.
3. Intelligent High Beams
4. Lane Departure Alert with Lane Keep Assist
What Does Each Safety Feature Do?
Dynamic Radar Cruise Contol (DRCC):
This feature acts as a standard cruise control being you can set the speed of the vehicle and not have to press the gas pedal to keep that speed. The only difference is that DRCC will not only keep the set speed but it will slow down to match the traffic ahead. As traffic speed varies the car will slow down and accelerate to match the speed. Once there is no traffic in front of the car it will speed up to the set speed and remain there until traffic is detected. With DRCC you can adjust the distance that your car follows traffic in three increments. As speed increases the set distances of these increments will increase. On some vehicles an All Speed DRCC is availible allowing for this function to be used at all speeds where as the High Speed DRCC only works from 30 mph up. The All Speed DRCC will come to a complete stop and such as in stop and go traffic. Once the traffic ahead of you moves, the car will wait for you to tap the gas pedal or lift up on the cruise control level to resume driving at traffic speed.LEXUS DRIVERS VIDEO OF DRCC
Pre-collision System (PCS) with Pedestrian Detection :
As you are driving down the road your 2017 Lexus is continuously watching for traffic and pedestrians. This feature is to help warn you the driver of a possible collision. If your Lexus detects that you are coming up to a car that has hit its brakes and you are not applying the brakes an alert will com up on the dash to warn you of a possible collision if you do not apply the brakes then the Lexus will apply them for you to try and prevent a collision. The same thing will occur if a pedestrian walks out in front of the Lexus.PCS DEMO
PEDESTRIAN DETECTION IN ACTION
Intelligent High Beams:
To turn on this feature you push the head lamp control lever, on the left side of the steering wheel, away from you. Then you make sure that the auto high beams selector is depressed.(1) This is located to by the driver's left knee. When this feature is turned on the Lexus will be monitoring the ambient light to determine if the high beams should be turned on. Such as driving from a city street with street lamps to a country dark road. Also the monocular camera is watching for on coming traffic to turn off the high beams so you don't have to worry about turning off your high beams on that windy country road. Your only concern is to steer.INTELLIGENT HIGH BEAMS
HOW TO TURN THEM ON made by yours truly
Lane Departure Alert (LDA) with Lane Keep Assist (LKA):
This feature with LDA will alert the driver that their vehicle is drifting out of the lane by vibrating the steering wheel or by an audible alert. Also if steering assist is turned on the vehicle will make small adjustments to bring you back into your lane. With LKA the car will actively make adjustments to keep you centered in the lane. Of course it will not turn the vehicle but it will keep the vehicle centered on curves and easy bends. At any time the drive can over ride this system by simply applying a little extra effort to steer such as changing lanes. When changing lanes if the turn signal is on, the steer assist and center steer will disengage until the signal is off.LANE KEEP ASSIST
How Does it work?
The LSS+ uses two different sensors to provide the needed information to the vehicle's safety computer system. These sensors are a monocular camera, and a millimeter-wave radar sensor.Monocular camera:
Basically the monocular camera is a digital camera that sends live images to the vehicle's computer system.This uses a monocular sensor located behind the rear view mirror along with a millimeter wave radar sensor located in the front grill behind the Lexus emblem.
Millimeter-wave radar sensor:
This sensor works like a bats echolocation. It sends out radar waves and detects the waves that come back to locate distances and speed of objects ahead of the vehicle. "This technology can detect objects up to 40 meters away, such as pedestrians and bicycles, separated by as little as 20 centimeters, in only 0.1 seconds."(2)
Does Every Lexus Have These Features?
These safety features come standard (meaning you don't pay extra to get them) on seven Lexus models, and are available to add to the remaining six models. (Except for the CT which can only have Pre-collision system) Below is a chart of which models have which features within the LSS+(LKA)
Sources:
links to images are accessed by selecting the image.
www.lexus.com
www.lexuslearn.com (you need to be a Lexus employee to access this page.)
(1) http://drivers.lexus.com/lexusdrivers/resources/owners-manuals?type=om
(2) http://www.panasonic.com/global/corporate/technology-design/technology/radar.html