T i m wrote:
On 07 Jun 2021 18:14:31 +0100 (BST), Theo
wrote:
The bars are fiction - they're an indication of the battery status but not a
direct measure of it.
I'm surprised. I know (from personal experience) it's difficult to
accurately indicate the current SOC of a battery but you would have
thought that with all the engineering that Toyota obviously put into
even the first Prius, it would have a fairly accurate battery gauge?
It's not an EV, so it doesn't need to show you accurately how many miles
you've got. It's just really three states: 'low, I'm going to start the
engine', 'a few levels of normal' and 'high: I've got plenty,
thanks'. You don't need to care - when it gets low it'll kick in the
engine.
I'm sure there are rules that determine 5 bars is between 42 and 51% SoC or
whatever, but you don't need to know them. You also don't care if it says
'empty' or 'full' - 'empty' does not mean 0% and 'full' does not mean
100%.
It's the same with laptops and others these days: 0% does not mean
the battery is at 0V.
You can read out the SoC with OBD if you want the
actual numbers.
That makes even less sense then if 'better' information is available
but not used?
You're overthinking it. You can, and I usually do, drive it with the screen
turned off. I don't care what the battery SoC is - it's a car, it worries
about that.
I guessed it would but I was (only) wondering if the braking role was
a direct function of the pedal position / hydraulic pressure in that
it went though the 'electric' then 'mechanical' braking no matter how
fast / hard you pressed the pedal or if the electric was bypassed (as
opposed to not having time to come in) if you did a rapid stop. Not
because of the outcome (as you say, it should / would stop like any
other car), but the process behind the scenes.
No idea - the pedal position goes into the ABS ECU, the comms to the
hydraulics and motor ECUs come out. I don't know what that software does.
Not sure about the Gen3 but it's easy on a Gen2 - motorway offslip with
nobody behind you so you can brake through it gently down from 70mph.
Gotcha. So not that long / difficult then?
Each bar is about 50Wh so about half a large laptop. It doesn't take a lot of
0.5mv^2 where m = 1tonne to capture that. In normal town driving you might
capture 25-50Wh every 5 minutes. It's more limited by the motor capacity in
that you typically need to brake in a short-ish distance.
The newer ones have
it blended more smoothly so it's harder to tell what it's doing.
Do you feel they have done that with advanced software or are you
aware of significant advances in the drivetrain / rolling gear?
The motors are much more powerful so it's like you have a bigger engine -
put your foot down and you get full engine power plus full motor power at
the same time. It doesn't last for long (at least on the non-plugin
versions with the small batteries) but makes up for the smaller engines.
More recent Prius have 1.8 engines over the original 1.5, which is now found
in the Yaris. That helps with acceleration and possibly motorway efficiency
as it's not running quite as hard.
Interesting ta. I might make a replica one with an Arduino to put in
the Meriva. ;-)
I'm sure there's some fun to be had with writing a fake display app for
Android Auto or Carplay. On that note, I should try this one:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...l.app&hl=en_GB
(I tried an app called PriiDash on a Windows tablet - gave me lots of stats
which were nice but ultimately distracting. Only worth doing if something is
broken really)
I think other Toyota hybrids have a similar screen, possibly more hidden in
the entertainment system. Almost all new Toyota autos are hybrids these
days (apart from the diesels and the sports cars), so probably wouldn't be
too difficult to hire one.
I'll see what's about (I'd want to have at least a day driving it
'normally' myself, rather than blagging a test drive etc).
Forgot to mention, the Aygo still has a miserable 'X-shift' computer-clutch
that everyone else abandoned a decade ago. So if you hire and get a small
auto you might end up with that. All the other auto 'normal cars' in the
current range should be OK.
Theo