Mors

I'm close to purchasing a 2014 RX 450h and thought I wanted PCS, but am not sure about the false positives. For all of you that have PCS, do you get false positives causing alarms and braking to happen for no reason? I ask because I am probably going to special order one and am debating on adding this feature or not.

On a quick side note - it appears that the automatic braking will happen on all RX's except for the RXh AWD. Why not? I don't know, and Lexus people couldn't answer my question either.

thank you

BertL

I've had PCS on my 2013 RX450h for about 18 months. No "false positives", and the side benefit of radar cruise control is great and I use it often even on 50MPH long surface streets I frequent. I would only have a Lexus with PCS going forward.

(FWIW, I ordered my 2014 Mercedes with Distronic Plus, which is the more sophisticated version of Lexus' PCS even with the 2014 RX PCS improvements I've read about. I wouldn't be without it and it sets the standard in my book. My MBZ gives off a bit more warnings than my Lexus does, but I've also had the opportunity for the MBZ to do its thing and alert/do it's seatbelt pretensioning/brake the vehicle when a %>€£*# made a right against his red without stopping, into a line of us going through our green light. Was breathtaking, and I stopped without any issue or damage, but being in the real life situation where everything kicked into gear sold me for life on what is possible as mfgrs put this type of capability into their vehicles. Most people won't pay the high bucks it costs today, but I will, and with some of us doing so, it will hopefully help the price go down as volumes go up in the future, and these safety systems become more of the standard than the option.)

Good luck with your order. Exciting!

BertL

...as to auto braking, I can't answer why Lexus won't do it on an AWD. It's too new for any practical experience here on the boards. You could try calling Lexus Customer Service and see if they can answer it, or maybe see if the Technology Specialist at your dealership can track it down. Will also be interested in the response.

Mors

Thank you! Always very informative Bert! I actually wanted the system for the Dynamic Cruise Control more than the PCS, but thought I'd ask about it because I'd hate to have to turn it off after I paid for it. Definitely will get it unless I just break down and take something on the lot. Glad your close call turned out to be JUST THAT. More on what you said about MBZ, I do feel Lexus is behind on some things and wish they'd leap ahead more; however, I think I want a Lexus more than the other luxury brands due to reliability (or at least that's what's in my head). I haven't owned a german car - just US and Lexus. Definitely will stick with Lexus over the long haul. I emailed Lexus asking why the AWD doesn't auto-brake and the person told me they couldn't find it, but sent it on to do more research and should have an answer in a couple of days. I contacted them back and still no answer. I guess I'll try locally to find out.

Looks like I'm either going to special order one or have an obsidian/black luxury get hauled in from somewhere. I just didn't want black interior. I'm going to look at a black/black car this weekend to see if I'd be alright with it. Otherwise, I'm going to special order a Black/Gray non luxury, but add some luxury options to it.

kitlz

I can also confirm no false positives with PCS after almost four years. And like BertL, it's saved me from other drivers' stupidity a few times already. There are warnings in the manual stating it may engage when driving over narrow iron bridges, while passing another vehicle on a curve or if it detects a metal object in the roadway. So far I haven't come across those conditions. Dynamic radar cruise control is nice but it's only useful on desolate roads. Very rare by me. The shortest distance is also 100 feet. I barely use it.

Mors

Thank you too, Anita. Glad to hear it. I'm getting more excited. Can't wait - although, my bank account may be saying another thing.

Tom558

I really wanted the Dynamic Cruise Control and PCS but due to a variety of issues we ended up with a new 2014 off the lot. Very happy with it but our NEXT Lexus will have these features.

RXSF

Im not even sure my pre collision system is working Ive never had it intrude

kitlz

RXSF, PCS didn't engage on its own. I pressed on the brakes suddenly and it took over. Let's hope you don't have the need to use it.

Kyrra

I was wondering about this same thing too (was going to post on it).

What exactly does the lexus PCS do? The material on their website isn't exactly clear how it behaves, availability, or pricing.

As well, I echo the OP comment of, how well does the PCS system work for you? And also, why does it seem that Lexus dealers don't order their cars with PCS? Our sales person was trying to downplay its usefulness and it felt like he was partially dissuading my from considering it (I didn't push it that much, just in passing).

BertL

Kyrra,

You don't find a lot of direct answers on "how does PCS work for you", as hopefully most people have not been in a potentially dangerous situation where the vehicle engages the safety system -- hence why my earlier post I tried to give a feeling of it with a situation I was in with my MBZ. I agree It is strange the website does not list the price, but it is a marketing site after all so it's hard for consumers to figure them out sometimes PCS with Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (the predecessor to the 2014 version that has braking as well), had a MSRP of $1500 on my special-ordered 2013 RX450h. Not a cheap option, and hence why I suspect it's almost never found on new vehicles sitting on the lots, and some salespeople may try to talk you out of it so you buy what they have available -- only those of us that are research hounds and special order tend to have it.

PCS at a high level is an intelligent radar system added to the front of the vehicle, that if it senses you're going to possibly hit something, sets the vehicle up for the impact hopefully lessening damage to it and occupants. It goes further than the standard safety systems, and is integrated with them. The 2014s take PCS a bit further with helping brake the vehicle if need be. PCS has the side benefit that normal Cruise Control gets an additional capability that allows you to set a MPH, and if you approach a vehicle going slower than you, it will slow itself down (within certain MPH limitations) and follow the vehicle in front, and automatically speed back up to the set MPH if they get out of the way or say you go over to pass them. That alone is of high value to me. Rather than go into the intricacies of what PCS is and how it operates, here's a few places you can review with the detail:

• Check out THIS SECTION of the 2013 Owner's Manual
  • Starting around p296 is about Dynamic Cruise Control
  • Starting on p343 is about PCS -- it will refer to other standard safety systems which are described in this same section of the manual, before and after PCS if you're so inclined to investigate
• You may also want to do a Google Search on "Lexus PCS" -- many different articles and YouTube videos -- most of other Lexus models that may be helpful

RXSF

The HUD is supposed to flash "BRAKE" in the event that it is about to intrude. At some point in the near future, I will try to test this out in a controlled environment

Kyrra

Thanks for the answer BertL. I guess my issue is that companies like Volvo have some great marketing material for their City Safety system that explains when it will auto-brake, along with demo videos to show how it all works. It feels just like Lexus does not have strong of a collision prevention (auto-braking) system than a few of the other auto makers currently have.

It looks like IIHS tested the Lexus ES, but they didn't have the best of results compared to some of the other auto makers: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/news/deskto...ash-prevention

BertL

I don't disagree with your impression. Lexus has catching up to do. As I referenced earlier, my MBZ convertible with Distronic Plus exceeds what Lexus provides. In the end though, to be fair, we should probably try to compare similar vehicle types across mfgrs and the capabilities of each in a given MY. IMHO, no mfgr at any single point in time has all the latest and greatest in every single one of their current MY vehicles, and they don't all put every bell and whistle in every one of their models. It's always a bit of a moving target -- some mfgrs (like Lexus unfortunately) seeming to take a lot longer to integrate new functionality into existing models than others, although with the RX the last couple of years, it's evident Lexus has started improving in that regard (e.g. integrating BSM as an option on the 2013 and enhancing PCS with braking on the 2014s, vs waiting for the 4th gen RX to introduce such things.). I like that Lexus is speeding up, but they're still in catch up mode to be sure.

kitlz

I'd be afraid to do that even in a controlled environment I wasn't aware of the flashing in HUD. Guess it didn't happen because I jumped on the brakes first. Let me know how it goes.