Toyota Prius: Instruments of Distraction?

Read our Toyota Prius news report here.

One small but significant criticism applied to the Toyota Prius -- by a competitor -- is that the superseded model is not easy to drive. It doesn't operate the way a conventional car does. The argument goes that you can't just hop into a Prius and drive it.

Even if a Prius ingénue is familiar with the keyless entry system and keyless start (and can find the start button readily), will they twig that the car will move off without the petrol engine necessarily firing into life?

Will they find Toyota's foot-operated parking brake where the clutch would be in a manual car?

And will they 'suss out' that the transmission's Park mode is disabled by moving the shift lever to Drive or Reverse, not by toggling the separate button on the centre console?

Some do, some don't. It seems to depend on the breadth of experience in different cars.

All of these ergonomic features are potential hurdles for a new Prius driver, but Toyota has, with this latest version of the Prius, introduced new driver-aid technology. Question being, does it really aid the driver or just confuse the issue further?

We presented the Prius to two members of our editorial staff, Feann Torr and Stephen Ottley, to discuss the car's ergonomic pros and cons.

Kicking off with the steering wheel adjustment -- a feature that has been found wanting by others -- Torr agreed that the amount of reach and rake adjustment wasn't especially generous...

"But at the same time, I got in it and didn't adjust it at all, because the main thing I adjust the steering wheel for is to be able to see the speedo properly," he said, noting that the instruments in the Prius are mounted in the centre of the dash, well away from the line of sight through the steering wheel. On that point, Ottley was critical of the Prius and the Yaris, which is served by a similar configuration of instrument binnacle.

"This centre-set dash is counter-intuitive," says Ottley. "You've been trained your whole life to just look down -- and you see what's going on.

"Even if you're driving your partner's car, with a conventional dashboard, I think it would take time to properly adjust to [the setup in the Prius]."

The binnacle contained the multi-information display, a speedo, a fuel gauge and an economy gauge. All information was displayed by LED and the speedo read out in a digital format, rather than analogue. Both the economy gauge and the fuel tank were graphic displays and were obscured when Touch Tracer was in operation.

"My impression of 'Touch Tracer' is that it's a really cool, 'techy' feature that appeals to the video gamer in me," said Torr. "In terms of actual practicality, I don't like it so much, because it blocks [the view of the fuel gauge and economy gauge]. It's a 'techy' treat... it's eye candy, pure and simple."

Torr did commend the Prius for the location and ease of use for the switchgear on the steering wheel, making the Touch Tracer system redundant for him. "The actual steering wheel controls I found really good," he commented. 

"What's the point?" asked Ottley. "There are five buttons on each side... how can you not remember [the location of] five buttons?"

Torr was generally more accepting of the futuristic layout and presentation of the Prius driving position than Ottley was.

"These displays up here [in the instrument binnacle], I really like," said Torr. "I would prefer to have a tachometer, but I can understand why there isn't one. I found that sort of telemetry quite useful as well. Like, it looks good, but it's useful as well."

"These things are distracting," said Ottley. "All you want to do is look at them and go 'Ooh, am I charging, am I on power, what's happening?"

Torr agreed that the driving aid functions were distracting, but he felt they did serve the purpose for which they were designed.

"I found this meter has actually changed the way I drive this car and I'm driving it much more efficiently, because I don't ever want to go into using the petrol engine...

"When you're sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic... it's actually quite good. It depends what you buy the car for. If you do a lot of commuting at slow speeds -- a lot of the roads I go along are 40 [km/h]-limited -- so in that respect, it's really useful."

Ottley was more enthusiastic about the Head-Up Display (HUD) in the Prius. When it was suggested to him that his objection to the centrally-located instrument binnacle might be overcome if the HUD showed a wider array of functions than just speed and turn-by-turn navigation, to use two examples, he demurred.

"In today's speed-conscious society, just having the speed is not a bad idea. It keeps you focused on what you're doing."

"I find in traffic, you can't see it anyway, because the brake lights of cars are too bright," says Torr, taking the contrary position.

The Prius in our possession was the i-Tech flagship, with a large touch screen in the centre fascia, providing an interface for the audio system and satellite navigation.

"Touch screen navigation? I don't mind it," said Torr. "It's not the best on the market, but it works."

Neither bloke was especially impressed by the way Toyota had scattered buttons around the centre console and fascia (the two are integrated) for such things as drive modes and Transmission 'Park' selection. Nor did they care for the selector itself.

"Don't like it," says Torr of the gear selector, "It's too light." Torr also quoted a colleague who couldn't understand why the lever didn't remain slotted in a specific gate.

"Why is it different?" asked Ottley. "Why do they have to reinvent the gearshift?"

When the argument was put to Ottley that the gear selector is one example of the design features Toyota hopes will appeal to Gen-Y drivers brought up on computer video games, he flippantly respond: "This is an ageist comment, is it?"

"What Gen-Y people do you know who have 50 grand to spend on a hatchback? The truth about Gen-Y is they don't really care. A Gen-Y person is going to look at that and ask 'why is it like that?"

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