Toyota Safety Sense Makes Its PH Debut In The Hiace Super Grandia Elite

We here at Go Flat Out love advanced safety systems for vehicles, especially those that work really well and are precisely calibrated for the chaotic roads that the Philippines is known for. Systems like Subaru EyeSight and Honda Sensing have penetrated the market really well, equipped in many of their cars plying our roads today. Recently, Mazda locally introduced their i-ACTIVSENSE with the all-new Mazda 3, and now, Toyota is following suit with the local debut of their Toyota Safety Sense in the new Toyota Hiace Super Grandia that was launched today.

Toyota Safety Sense, just like the competing systems mentioned, consists of the usual automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, and automatic high beams. These features are meant to prevent an accident from happening, as well as add convenience to the driver with its adaptive cruise control feature, especially on long drives. Here is the breakdown of how each major feature of Toyota Safety Sense works.

Pre-Collision System (PCS) – detects the possibility of a collision using various sensors and reacts accordingly, also taking into consideration the countermeasures taken by the driver. Upon detection of a possibility of collision, the driver will be warned with beeps and visual warnings. When the possibility of a collision is higher and the driver applies brakes, the brake assist system will apply additional pressure to the brakes as needed. When an even greater possibility of collision is detected and the driver did not apply brakes, automatic brakes will be activated to prevent the collision.

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) – when driving at cruise control, the vehicle drives at a constant preset speed and will adjust within the set cruise speed upon detection of another vehicle in front to maintain an appropriate distance.

Lane Departure Alert (LDA) – detects driving lanes and alerts driver when the vehicle departs from its designated lane. This feature operates at a vehicle speed of more than 50km/h, with a road width of more than approximately 3.0m.

Automatic High Beam (AHB) – while the headlight’s high beam setting is in use, the system automatically switches to low beam upon detection of vehicles at a certain distance in front or oncoming vehicles on the opposite lane. The system will return to the high beam setting once the vehicle in front is at an appropriate distance or the oncoming vehicle has passed.

Like what we always mention in our reviews, these features are only meant to assist the driver. Ultimately, the driver is still responsible for the vehicle.

TSS is only offered on the Super Grandia Elite, for now. Apart from TSS, the Super Grandia Elite features a 10-seater interior. Its second rows use the same 4-way electronically-adjustable captain’s chairs with ottoman’s from the Alphard luxury MPV. It has a starting price of P2,875,000 with an additional P15,000 charge if you want the two-tone paint.

Toyota Motor Philippines promises that TSS will be made available to a wider range of vehicles from their line-up. Here’s to hoping that one day, these advanced safety features will now be standard on all cars sold in the Philippine-market, as these really prevent an accident from happening in the first place.