Toyota has announced that they will launch a range of newly developed active safety technologies next year. Designed to help prevent or mitigate collisions at a wide range of vehicle speeds, the technologies will be split into two Toyota Safety Sense packages, with pricing chosen to encourage their adoption. The “C” package is designed for compact cars, while the “P” package is for mid-sized and high-end cars. The roll out will begin in 2015, and will be available in most models in Europe, Japan, and North America by the end of 2017.
Toyota Safety Sense C features three active safety technologies. The first is the Pre-collision System (or PCS), which uses a both a camera and laser radar to detect objects in front of the vehicle. If the system believes that there is the possibility of a collision, it prompts the driver to brake using audio and visual alerts. When the driver brakes to avoid the obstacle, the system provides additional braking force. If the driver fails to act, the system will automatically apply the brakes, reducing speed by approximately 19 miles per hour in order to prevent (or reduce the severity of) a collision. PCS operates at the speeds where at least 80 percent of rear-end collisions occur, between approximately 6 and 50 miles per hour.