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Lexus RX gets Top Safety Pick award from IIHS

Lexus’ newly refreshed 2020 RX crossover has received a Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And as with many vehicles that pass IIHSÂ’s increasingly tough muster these days, thereÂ’s a caveat: It applies only to versions equipped with certain headlights. That metric was also what caused the RX to narrowly miss out on notching a Top Safety Pick+ designation, the highest possible. IIHS rated the base headlights and one of the premium headlight options — both static LED projectors — as acceptable, but it gave a poor rating to the available curve-adaptive LED headlamps, saying they created too much glare. Elsewhere, the RX aced crash testing, earning good ratings across the board. IIHS says this was the first time it put the luxury crossover through its passenger-side small overlap crash test, noting that Lexus made changes to the bumper and front-end structure to improve protection for front-seat passengers. It also gave a superior rating to the RXÂ’s vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, which avoided collisions in track tests at both 12 and 25 mph. Both the RX350 and 450h hybrid version received light refreshes for 2020, including the latest version of Lexus Safety System +. It includes new features such as daytime bicyclist detection and low-light pedestrian detection, adding to the existing pre-collision warning and adaptive cruise control. This is the fourth IIHS safety award for the brand in 2019, following Top Safety Pick+ awards for the ES, UX and NX.

Lexus Teammate advanced driver assist tech headed to 2022 LS 500h in the U.S.

Toyota showed off a new advanced driver assist system for the Mirai and Lexus LS in Japan on Thursday this week. At that time, there were details, but no indication of whether the system would make it to U.S.-bound Toyota and Lexus products. We have answers today. This Level 2 driver assistance system will be deployed in the U.S. in the 2022 Lexus LS 500h when it launches later this year. Lexus is naming it “Lexus Teammate,” making it obvious from the start that this is no fully autonomous vehicle. The system is your teammate; itÂ’s not taking over, and instead the two of you work together. With Teammate activated, the vehicle can accelerate, brake and steer to maintain the lane and follow/keep pace with other vehicles. ItÂ’s able to change lanes on its own to go around slower vehicles and can also navigate interchanges. Lexus says itÂ’s usable on “limited access highways,” and notes that itÂ’s only “partial hands-free” in operation. The company also notes you must keep your eyes on the road for it to work — thereÂ’s a camera that monitors the driver and makes sure of this. “We are very proud of Lexus Teammate, which is the culmination of five years of close collaboration between our technical centers in Japan and the U.S.,” says Derek Caveney, executive engineer at ToyotaÂ’s Integrated Vehicle Systems team. “We conducted simultaneous development and rigorous testing in both markets with the goal of achieving industry-leading advanced driver assistance functionality.” Lexus isnÂ’t saying what other vehicles we should expect this system to be in next, but both the LS 500h and LS 500 (sometime shortly after the hybrid) will have it this fall. In addition to the highway assist, Lexus announced a parking assistant. Named Advanced Park, itÂ’s able to assist in hands-free parking for parallel parking or backing into a space. ItÂ’ll control steering, acceleration and gear changes when parking itself, and youÂ’ll be able to watch how itÂ’s doing using the 360-degree camera tech. Just press a button, and your Lexus should park itself. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

US buyers show little interest in big hybrids

The idea of producing large, luxury-vehicle hybrids is turning into a "what were they thinking?" exercise in futility, USA Today reports. General Motors is discontinuing hybrid versions of the Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon SUVs, while Mercedes-Benz and Toyota's Lexus division are doing the same with their S-Class hybrid and LS hybrid sedans, respectively. The culprit? Big price increases for fuel economy improvements that border on the unimpressive. Granted, the Escalade hybrid gets 31 percent better fuel economy than the standard version, but that still maps out to a combined fuel-efficiency rating of just 21 miles per gallon. That can be seen as a worthwhile increase, if it didn't cost over $8,000 extra. The 2014 Escalade Hybrid, for example, starts at $74,425 while the non-hybrid can be had for $66,295. Meanwhile, the Lexus full-size hybrid costs $6,000 more than the regular version but only gets 1-2 mpg better combined fuel economy. The result of all these high costs? Low sales. Through April, GM sold 82 of its hybrid SUVs and pickups, down from 541 a year earlier. And the LS hybrid sales were in single-digit territory for April. That isn't stopping Lexus from promoting its hybrids as the right solution (with the wrong facts), though. There are still automakers giving big hybrid vehicles a shot, though. Nissan's Infiniti division is selling a hybrid version of its QX60 and says an impressive 10 percent of QX60 buyers choose the hybrid, which costs just $3,000 more. Looks like money talks. Featured Gallery 2015 Cadillac Escalade: First Drive View 35 Photos News Source: USA TodayImage Credit: Copyright 2014 Brandon Turkus / AOL Green Infiniti Lexus Mercedes-Benz Hybrid lexus ls gmc yukon mercedes-benz s-class infiniti qx60 chevrolet tahoe