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Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist function

8K views 18 replies 8 participants last post by  TableRocked 
#1 ·
I recently bought a 2018 Toyota Highlander. The Steering Assist Function feature of the Lane Departure Alert does not appear to be working properly when drifting to the left as the car continues to drift to the left without any noticeable vehicle assist. There is some small Steering Assist if I drift to the right. Lane Departure Alert is definitely turned on. Steering Assist is definitely turned on. I have tried all sensitivities. I realize that the Steering Assist feature is only intended to work when the vehicle is traveling above a certain speed. I am assuming that 40 mph and above is sufficient speed. The car beeps immediately upon lane departure in both left side and right side directions. I am assuming that Steering Assist should kick in around the time that the Lane Departure Alert beeps. It doesn't. I always have to manually correct on the left side, sometimes on the right side. I have driven several other vehicle brands with steering assist and have found all of their steering assists to be both immediate and forceful. Any ideas?
 
#2 · (Edited)
I seem to be having a similar issue with my 2019 Avalon Limited. I've double checked to make sure the steering assist function is on. All the indicators show that it is own. I have Lane Departure set for the most sensitive positions and it activates as I near the right or left lane markings, but the steering assist never seems to kick in.

On my previous car (2015 Genesis) the steering assist often kicked in before the LD warnings happened or just as soon as the happened.

Have you taken your vehicle in and asked about the problem?

I've only had my car a week, so haven't been back to the dealer yet.
 
#5 ·
'Normal' doesn't make it right. I've driven vehicles with the steering assist feature all the way from a cheap Jeep up to an Acura MDX and, except for my $44,000 2018 Toyota Highlander, they all work as both promised and described. Something is not right here. I'm going to contact the Dealer after Labor Day Weekend.
 
#8 ·
Before I bought the Highlander I ended up with I test drove a different Highlander. It didn't work on that Highlander either.

Also, if it was there was a problem with the sensor behind the mirror wouldn't that also affect the alert? The alert works great. It notifies me in both directions immediately upon hitting the lines on either side.
 
#12 ·
OK, so the LDA is actually working, but you do not feel steering push in the opposite to lane direction, to straighten the car?
It engages after 32mph. Also, again, in 2 weeks in ES 350, it does work both ways. Takes about 3 seconds before it does, it's not instantaneous, but it does.




LDW works less well when lane markings are old, or when the lane markings are raised dots, rather than 20-foot painted stripes. A vigorous program to renew road surface markings before they fade would benefit machine vision systems such as LDW, benefit drivers with so-so eyesight, and benefit all drivers in rainy weather. This is one very small reason why America’s infrastructure is no longer world class.
 
#9 ·
FWIW We rented a 2018 Camry LE before purchasing a different one (with BSM & RCTA) and found this "feature" to be useless in the city and inconsistent on the freeways on both cars. Ended up disabling the lane departure alert & steering assist. Toyota released a "feature" that was not ready to be released in my opinion. I made sure that this "feature" could be disabled before purchasing our LE.

In 2017 we went to look at the 2017 Honda Accord with the V6. Talked to a salesman about the V6 engine and it's VCM "feature" (vehicle cylinder management) where the ECU can deactivate cylinders to improve mileage. I told the salesman that this was an unnatural act for an ICE and asked if it could be disabled. He told me no, it was controlled by the ECU and could not be disabled. This ended our conversation and we left the Honda dealership and started looking at Toyota.

So now this is always a question I ask after a sales person describes some new wis bang "feature". Can it be disabled?
 
#10 ·
I came from a 2017 CR-V and on that vehicle it worked great. On gradual curves on interstates it would steer for me up until the limit of 30 seconds at which point I would get an on screen message that driver input was required. On my Highlander I have felt some steering but nowhere near as effective as the Honda system. I did ask the dealer and they said it was working fine. When I do get some assist it is very little and AFTER my car has crossed the lane and the lane departure warning has sounded. Very poor implementation by Toyota.
 
#13 ·
Interesting about the 3 second delay. One time the Steering Assist did work on a drift to the left came several seconds after the Lane Departure Alert went off. Unfortunately I was also several feet into the adjoining lane by that point in time. Fortunately there wasn't a car there. On a drift to the right the Steering Assist, when it works, is virtually instantaneous.

As for the quality of the lines in the road, if they're good enough for the Lane Departure Alert wouldn't they also be good enough for the Steering Assist? I understand the speed limitations and some of the other factors (embedded road reflectors for example).
 
#14 ·
I can only describe my 14 day experience with it. It did have delay, did not work on ill painted lines, did not work when you turn steering wheel sharply, like going into 90 degree turns.

And you didn't answer the question - is alert working but steering correction is not? As I do not believe they are independent features. If one works, the other one should work too.
 
#15 ·
Lane Departure Alert reliably and instantaneously works. Steering Assist never kicks in at the same time that I hear the sound of the Lane Departure Alert, and virtually never after I hear the Lane Departure Alert because I generally make a manual correction within 1-2 seconds. I say virtually never because the one time the Steering Assist did clearly work was several seconds after I heard the Lane Departure Alert, and after I had already drifted several feet into the adjoining highway lane.

Lane Departure Alert is an awesome feature. It is worth every penny I paid for it, and then some.

Steering Assist is a feature in name only. I hope Toyota didn't charge me for it because it's worth exactly $0, and not a penny more.

By the way, I've frequently tried to test the existence of the Steering Assist feature, especially on the highway where I'm going fast on straight roads with good lines. I heard the Lane Departure Alert so often that it started to give me a headache. Several times I even got the car to notice that I was wandering, in fact wandering so much that the car recommended that I pull over and get a cup of coffee (another cool feature by the way).
 
#16 ·
I've noticed that Toyota's implementation of Steering Assist is much weaker than Honda's Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS). LKAS, when activated (and it must be reinitiated each time you start the vehicle) will attempt to keep the vehicle centered in the lane, if it can pick up the lane lines/curbs under current driving conditions. When driving around mild curves, I can feel the steering wheel preemptively turn towards the curve.

On my Highlander, I don't feel as much steering guidance from the vehicle on similar curves on standard and on high sensitivity. I also get more false positives on the audio alert of an impending lane departure on certain roads that don't have long lane striping. It isn't clear to me if the high/standard sensitivity setting applies only to the lane departure system or also the steering assist feature. Either way, SA on the Highlander is something I wouldn't rely on, while Honda's LKAS seems like a mini-feature that would be utilized more in autonomous driving.
 
#19 ·
I was curious if anyone has asked the dealer to increase the level of steering correction strength from the system? I drove a 2019 Rav 4 XLE as a rental and that thing was stay within the lanes and had very noticable steering correction strength that I would love to see on my wife's 2018 HyHi
 
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