satiger

iTrader: (1)

My LS is equipped with DAM. There is no on or off switch so it must be active all the time when car is in motion. Few times in the past I tried to 'make it work' by turning my head left/right for spilt second or closing eye (!) again for a second or so with no apparent success aka didn't see/hear any warnings.

This week on my way back to home from work, was driving on highway at about 70mph. LKA/DRCC wasn't active. Decided to check my phone for office email notification, not to read entire email. Before doing so made sure I am on straight road and no traffic in front of me. There was one may be 1/2 mile in front of me.

Phone was on my lap, glanced the home screen for few seconds by tilting my head down, may be for about 2-3 seconds. Once done, I was rising my head up and simultaneously saw warning flashing on the dash and I believe head audio warning as well. These happened so fast which I didn't expect, didn't realize what was going on until after few minutes later. When I looked at the road, there was a car may be about 200 feet in front of me but still moving.

This warning is not from adv pre collision avoidance system as that won't get triggered with 200 feet or so gap. I have tested that once by going closer to parked vehicle within 15 feet of it (waiting to take left turn) and turning quickly to the right. At that time pre-collision system with red color warning sign on the dash appeared with loud audible warning sound.

So this time around I know it wasn't pre-collision system but DAM got activated. This was my first experience with DAM. Its hard to mimic to make it work. It must be tracking/monitoring iris movement and or its field of vision. Thinking further on this, there is no learning/teaching to be done by the driver, in other words any driver of different height (eye positon would change vertically) and eye structure (small vs big) could drive the car and it still detects and monitor!.

Considering mine is 2014, such technology development and testing would have began at least by 2010!. But I did see some 2009 LS600s with DAM, so development could be dated back to at least 2005!!!.

I am impressed.

ALK

I have a 10 LS 460 L with driver attention monitor . but didn't experience it . I think it tracks the eye movement . I did not feel it working maybe because i wear glasses. but the pre-collision saved me a lot of times .

Mbbarron

Super cool! Is pre-collision standard on a 2013+ and the APCS is an option or are they both options? How does the pre-collision work exactly?

comotiger

PCS is not standard. It requires the radar sensor that provides dynamic cruise control (DRCC) as well as collision sensing.
APCS is the next level, where, in addition to the radar sensor, there are the stereo camera sensors to detect pedestrians and other objects and the DAM to monitor driver alertness.

When the radar sensor senses a collision maybe imminent, PCS will give audiovisual alerts and provide brake boost. However, if collision is unavoidable, PCS will start applying the brakes in 2 sec pulses to mitigate the effects of the collision.

I am attaching pages 312-318 from the 2014 owners manual that describes these systems in detail.
OMPCS.pdf

comotiger

Hi satiger,
We are both trying to figure out what if anything the DAM does. In reading the description of the system carefully, I am pretty sure it is just monitoring the driver's eyes and face, and if they are not facing forward, and the steering wheel is not being turned, AND a collision is possible, ONLY then will the PCS system be activated. So my understanding is that DAM works thru the PCS system, not independently of it.

DAM will provide its warnings thru the PCS alarms as shown below. There are no special DAM-specific lights or beeps.



Read this section from our manual about the DAM. It will only activate if a collision is possible. So, if you were on an empty highway and twisted away to remove your face out of the field of the DAM, it will not sound any warnings.



This section below clearly states that the DAM system functions thru the PCS. If you disable PCS, DAM may sense your face is turned away, but it will not activate any warnings.



The section below states that the DAM is just a sensor. It needs the PCS system to send warnings to the driver.



This last section again states that the DAM provides pre-collision alert braking under certain conditions. DAM cannot operate on its own.



So, to make a long story short, IMO, these are the reasons why we are having a hard time figuring out if the DAM does anything at all!