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Toyota, Lexus will offer low-cost automated braking system

First, a technology gets better, then it gets a lot better, then it gets less expensive, then it gets a lot less expensive. Advanced driver safety and convenience systems are about to make that last step thanks to Toyota. Centered around a pre-collision braking system, there will be three suites of driver aids known as Toyota Safety Sense C (TSS C) for compact cars, Toyota Safety Sense P (TSS P) for midsized and premium cars, and Lexus Safety System+ (LSS+) for the luxury brand. TSS C pairs a camera with laser radar to provide a pre-collision system that prompts the driver to brake if it detects an impending accident, and can supply additional braking force and automatically brake between seven and fifty miles per hour. There are also Lane Departure Alert and Automatic High Beam. TSS P pairs a camera with more precise millimeter-wave radar. Starting with the three functions in TSS C, it adds pedestrian pre-collision capability and adaptive cruise control. This one will be available first, coming on the new RAV4 Hybrid and Avalon. TSS - either C or P - will expand to three more vehicles by the end of the year. The wallop is in the price: TSS C will be a $300 option, TSS P will cost $500. Compare the Ford Fusion SE, for instance - it's Driver Assistance Package comes with Lane Departure Warning, Automatic High Beams, it has Lane Keep Assist, Blind Spot and Cross Traffic Detection that neither TSS has, but doesn't have any autonomous braking feature. It costs $1,200, but requires you to add the Technology and Luxury Packages for a total price of $3,165. If you want Autonomous Cruise Control, that's another $995, for $4,160 in total. Instead of $300 or $500 on the Toyota. Lexus' LSS+ will come first on the new RX then spread to four more models by the end of this year, and cost between $500 and $635 to add as an option. It also uses a camera and millimeter-wave radar for its vehicle and pedestrian pre-collision system, lane departure warning and lane keep assist, automatic high beam, and auto cruise control. The similar package on a BMW X5, with no pedestrian component, is $1,200. Toyota says both safety suites will eventually be on "nearly all" of it products and all trim levels by the end of 2017.

2020 Lexus LS 500h Drivers' Notes Review | Be it blue or red, it's excellent

This is not your grandmother's gold Lexus LS. It's not your other grandmother's hybrid, either. The 2020 Lexus LS 500h represents the biggest step forward in terms of driving dynamics, style and pure luxury for a model line that has largely been known for dependability and craftsmanship. It should satisfy those elements too, but now, there's a lot more to tickle the right side of the brain.  We got a chance to sample two different LS 500h versions: one blue, one red; one with a $12,250 Luxury back seat package, one without; one in Oregon and one in Michigan. The blue car hit the register with a sticker of $107,355, including enhanced accident avoidance tech, an adaptive air suspension, 20-inch wheels, a massive head-up display, a 23-speaker Mark Levinson system, and a few trim upgrades. The red car was similarly equipped apart from optional 19's and swapping a $3,730 Interior Upgrade package that basically has the same front seat and trim upgrades as the $12,250 Luxury package, but leaves the back seat be. Both provided far more equipment for the money than the German competitors would.  lexus-ls500h-red-1 View 4 Photos Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder: I already miss the Matador Red LS 500h we had in Michigan. I had it for a full week and genuinely enjoyed it. It's a hybrid, and a really good one, providing efficiency when you want it and plenty of power when you need it. I found all the modes genuinely useful. Normal is well balanced. I used Eco when I was stuck in traffic to safe fuel. The Comfort mode helped keep my carsickness-prone wife happy when we ran around town together. Sport is very satisfying, but not so hardcore to make it a niche use case. Sport+ is the best way to enjoy the lovely song of the 3.5-liter V6, but still wasn't so extreme to relegate it to the briefest moments of passionate driving. Once I got used to the placement of the mode selector — on the right of the instrument cluster housing, which helps keep your eyes forward — I made good use of it. The LS hybrid has that trick transmission — a magical union of CVT and four-speed automatic — as part of the Multi-Stage Hybrid System that won our Tech of the Year award as tested in the Lexus LC 500h back in 2018. It's a sweet complement to the soulful V6 underhood, and provides a nice experience when left to its own devices or when using the paddle shifters to switch among 10 effective gear ratios. It works quickly, smoothly, and efficiently all at once.

Lexus Eco Challenge rewards schools for clean water, briquette press projects

Teams from one New Jersey high school and one Michigan middle school reversed the old adage by thinking locally and acting globally. And that strategy won them the grand prizes in the most recent edition of the Lexus Eco Challenge. The future is indeed bright. The Toyota luxury-vehicle division gave out a half-million dollars in this year's contest. One $30,000 grand prize was awarded to the Pinelands Eco Scienteers from Little Egg Harbor, NJ, which produced and distributed low-cost briquette presses to rural villages beset by deforestation. The other grand prize went to the E.T. Electrical Team from Byron Center West Middle School in Michigan. That middle-school group raised money to send water filters to Haiti, Kenya and the Philippines. Lexus also awarded eight $15,000 first-place awards, with the winners including high schools from California, Florida, Missouri and Pennsylvania as well as middle schools from Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas. A special shout out goes to Daniel Boone Area High School in Birdsboro, PA, where students created an educational and public-relations campaign to publicize algae-based biofuels. In all, Lexus has doled out more than $4 million in Eco Challenge awards in seven years. Check out Lexus's press release below. Students Get Dollars and Sense in Lexus Eco Challenge - $500,000 Awarded to Teams Who Learn About Environment and Community Empowerment Two Grand Prize Teams Earn $30,000 Eight $15,000 First Place Awards Given to Innovative High School and Middle School Teams Students Bring Ideas to a Larger Audience and Make a Positive Impact on the World TORRANCE, Calif., (Feb. 24, 2014) – It's a win, win situation! Communities become a better place, and students, teachers and schools have the chance to share $500,000 in scholarships and grants through the Lexus Eco Challenge. This year, the $30,000 Grand Prize winners are the Pinelands Eco Scienteers from Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, and the E.T. Electrical Team from Byron Center, Michigan. The Lexus Eco Challenge is an educational program and contest that inspires and empowers young people to learn about the environment and take action to improve it. High school and middle school teams nationwide define an environmental issue that is important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report on the results.