Toyota Safety Sense 3.0: Features Worth Knowing About

Modern vehicles can do a surprising amount to help the driver. The catch is that plenty of owners never really learn what half of those features do. Toyota Safety Sense 3.0, or TSS 3.0, bundles several driver-assistance technologies together. You’ll find it standard on a number of newer Toyota models, and the system uses an upgraded camera and radar sensor to monitor what’s happening around the vehicle. Here are a few of the features you’ll probably notice most.

Pre-Collision System

The Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection can help detect vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and, under certain conditions, motorcyclists ahead. If the system detects a potential frontal collision, it can warn the driver and may provide braking assistance or automatic emergency braking depending on the situation.

Hopefully, it’s a feature that spends most of its life doing absolutely nothing. But having another layer of assistance there when something unexpected happens is the whole point.

Dynamic Radar Cruise Control

This is one of the easier features to appreciate on a road trip. Dynamic Radar Cruise Control lets you choose a cruising speed while the system monitors traffic ahead and helps maintain a preset following distance. Instead of constantly canceling and resetting cruise control as highway traffic changes speed, the Toyota can make many of those adjustments itself.

You’re still driving and paying attention, of course. It simply takes some of the repetitive work out of a long highway run.

Lane Assistance

Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist can warn you if the vehicle appears to be drifting from its lane unintentionally, and it may provide gentle steering assistance. TSS 3.0 also includes improved lane recognition compared with earlier versions of Toyota Safety Sense. Its camera can recognize certain roadside objects, such as some guardrails, as lane boundaries.

Again, the goal isn’t to drive the car for you. These systems are there to back up an attentive driver.

A Few Features You Might Not Think About

Depending on the Toyota, TSS 3.0 can also include Road Sign Assist, Automatic High Beams, Lane Tracing Assist, and Proactive Driving Assist.

• Road Sign Assist can display recognized signs such as speed limits.
• Automatic High Beams can switch between high and low beams when appropriate.
• Proactive Driving Assist can provide gentle braking or steering assistance in certain situations.

Individually, none of these completely changes the driving experience. Together, they can make everyday driving feel a little easier.

Learn the System Before You Need It

If your Toyota has TSS 3.0, it’s worth spending a few minutes learning how the features operate and where their controls are located.

Visit Toyota of West County if you’d like to explore a new Toyota with Safety Sense 3.0. Our team can walk you through the technology so you know what your Toyota is doing and, just as importantly, what it still expects from you.