What Is Proactive Driving Assist?

Over the years, manufacturers have developed all kinds of innovative safety systems to keep drivers, passengers, and other people on the road safe. Proactive Driving Assist (PDA) by Toyota is one great example of this. With the primary goal of avoiding collisions, the PDA system proactively adjusts the vehicle’s speed, steering, and other factors to prevent potential collisions.

What Exactly Does PDA Do?

This safety feature is all about helping you stay in control during different situations. It alerts you to road changes and lane departures, provides braking assistance, and helps you stay in your lane. The Proactive Driving Assist system can also adjust your speed, helping you maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you.

How Does PDA Work?

Toyota’s Proactive Driving Assist uses a front-facing camera mounted on the windshield. This camera has a wide-angle sensor and high resolution that helps it identify vehicles, pedestrians, and other objects on the road. A millimeter wave radar embedded in the vehicle’s front grille also helps the vehicle measure the speed and distance of other objects on the road.

What Are PDA’s Four Primary Scenarios?

The PDA system is designed to provide support during four common driving scenarios, namely the following:

Braking/Steering Support in Response to Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Parked Cars

Proactive Driving Assist prevents collisions with pedestrians, cyclists, and parked vehicles by gradually decelerating your car when it detects any of them nearby. It can also gently steer the car away from the person or object ahead as long as it detects sufficient space in the opposite direction without leaving the lane.

The system activates this feature when your vehicle speed is around 20 to 30 mph, and it works even when you press down on the gas. This should be heavily documented in the vehicle. You don’t want people driving around thinking the car will avoid accidents.

Braking Support in Response to Preceding Vehicles

When the PDA system detects a car in front of you, it might gently apply the brakes to help you maintain a safe following distance. However, the system isn’t designed to apply maximum braking power, so you’ll have to apply the brakes if you need to decelerate faster. Furthermore, this feature only activates when your vehicle speed is at least 15 mph.

Braking Support in Response to Corners

Proactive Driving Assist also prevents collisions at intersections or corners by gently slowing down your car. If it deems your current speed too fast as you approach a turn, it’ll perform curve braking assistance and decelerate your vehicle. The gauge cluster will show an image of a street sign with a curvy arrow in the middle of a roadway. In order for this feature to work, your vehicle speed should be around 15 mph or more.

Steering Assist

This safety feature involves adjusting your vehicle’s steering force based on certain conditions. When Proactive Driving Assist detects you driving in a straight line, it’ll increase the steering force required to turn the steering wheel to stop your car from wobbling.

When you’re driving on a curve, the system can either increase or decrease the resistance in the direction you’re headed, making it easier for you to enter, follow, and exit the curve.

How To Use Proactive Driving Assist

One of the great things about Toyota and Lexus’ Proactive Driving Assist system is that it’s easy to use. The exact process can vary depending on your vehicle’s year, make, and model, but in general, here’s how to use it:

Activate the PDA System

You’ll have to turn on the PDA system first. To do so, simply select the Proactive Driving Assist option on your dashboard. On some vehicles, you’ll have to use the directional pad on the steering wheel to navigate the menu and turn on this feature.

Adjust the Settings

Once you’ve turned the system on, you can now adjust the settings according to your preferences. You can set how sensitive the PDA system responds to different driving conditions. You can also change the speed and following distance to your liking.

Activate the Lane Tracing Assist

To help you stay in your lane, you can also activate PDA’s Lane Tracing Assist. This feature helps you stay in your lane by using the camera to detect the lane markings. When the system finds you accidentally leaving your lane, it’ll adjust the steering accordingly.

This also forces you to use turn signals when changing lanes because if you don’t activate your turn signals yourself, the car will do it for you.

Activating the Lane Trace Assist will force you to use turn signals when changing lanes because if you don’t activate it, the car will do it for you.

–Anthony Harlin, ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician

Use the Dynamic Radar Cruise Control

The Dynamic Radar Cruise Control is a feature specifically designed to help you keep a safe following distance. It uses radar technology to detect other vehicles on the road and adjusts your speed to make sure you aren’t too close. It’s a great safety feature for city driving, especially in heavy traffic.

Stay Alert

It’s tempting to let technology take the reins, but safe driving is still your responsibility as a driver. The problem with self driving vehicles is that if you do something enough times and experience no issues, then you tend to believe that it’ll always be fine. You end up letting the car drive while you aren’t paying attention.

Which Toyota Models Offer Proactive Driving Assist?

Unfortunately, not all Toyota models come with the PDA system. It’s mostly offered in recent models, such as the following:

• 2024 Toyota bZ4X
• 2024 Toyota Corolla
• 2024 Toyota Crown
• 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander
• 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser
• 2024 Toyota Mirai
• 2024 Toyota Prius
• 2024 Toyota Tacoma

Some 2023 Toyota models such as the Corolla, Prius, and Crown also come with PDA but don’t have the Steering Assist feature.