Toyota & Lexus just made the rest of the industry look silly regarding safety

This past week every automaker but one pledged to be a good corporate citizen and roll out forward collision prevention (FCP) standard on most of their models by 2022. Volvo stepped right up. So too did the expensive German brands. One major automaker didn’t. That would be Toyota/Lexus. Instead, Toyota and Lexus say that 28 of their 30 models will have FCP standard next year. Not in six years.

In fact, two of Toyota’s newest models already have the technology as standard equipment. Presently, Toyota’s top car, the Camry, and top crossover, the RAV 4 make the technology available, but it is optional on mid-grade trims and standard on the top trims. One model year from now, it will not be an option you pay more for, it will be standard on all the trims.

We’ve reported on Forward Collision Prevention since it became mainstream. Subaru’s EyeSight system is widely consider the best in the industry right now, and on its popular Forester Crossover, it is an option costing about $1,100 on the trim that totals about $27K. Toyota had previously pledged to offer FCP as a $300 option on its popular, affordable models, but things move fast in the automotive industry. By the time Toyota would have gotten to that, it would have been 2017.

Toyota has been the automotive industry’s safety leader for many years. In 2015 Toyota/Lexus had the most Top Safety Pick-Plus-rated models in the industry. In a recent study by the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, Toyota had four of the nine top-ranked vehicles for real-life safety. There were only five other vehicles from the rest of the entire industry with a driver death rate as low as the four Toyotas.

Image courtesy of Lexus