Toyota Motor North America Inc. has announced that the second generation of its Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) package of active safety features will begin rolling out as standard equipment on certain Toyota vehicles beginning in mid-2018.

The updated safety package will add new technologies and capabilities that enhance protection for drivers, passengers, and others who share the road.  

“At Toyota, we are committed to making high-level driver assistance systems more widely available and even more affordable across a broader range of our vehicles,” said Chris Nielsen, executive vice president of product support and chief quality officer of Toyota Motor North America. “The second generation of Toyota Safety Sense takes our industry-leading suite of safety technologies to the next level, delivering new advanced and intuitive protections that are another step toward a future without traffic injuries or fatalities.”  

As with the first generation TSS, the upgraded system is designed to support driver awareness, decision making, and vehicle operation over a range of speeds under certain conditions. Packaged together into an integrated system, it helps to address three areas of accident protection: preventing or mitigating frontal collisions, keeping drivers within their lanes, and enhancing road safety during nighttime driving.  

The second generation TSS has been expanded to help improve driver situational awareness while providing additional protections for a pedestrian or bicyclist in front of the vehicle. According to Toyota, here are the new or updated technologies: 

- Pre-Collision System (updated): Enhanced deceleration capabilities and the ability to help detect a collision with a pedestrian in front of the vehicle during the day and at night and bicyclist in front of the vehicle during the day.

- Lane Departure Alert (updated): Enhanced with “road edge detection” to increase the vehicle’s ability to help drivers stay in their lane.

- Road Sign Assist (new): Designed to display road sign information in an easy-to-understand format on the dashboard meter display and head-up display if equipped. The vehicle’s onboard camera can detect and recognize certain common road signs in the U.S., Japan, and Europe (road sign type varies by market).

- Lane Tracing Assist (new): Provides steering support to help the driver keep the vehicle centered in its lane when Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is in operation. 

- Full-Speed Range Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (updated): Enhanced forward recognition and acceleration/deceleration performance across a wide range of speeds. (Full-Speed Range Dynamic Radar Cruise Control isn’t available on vehicles equipped with manual transmissions.)