What Is Toyota Safety Sense 3.0?

Toyota's high-tech set of new safety features aims to help you avoid dangerous situations.

Bob Sorokanich | 

Mar 12, 2024 | 3 min read

Toyota

If you're shopping for a new Toyota, you may have heard about Toyota Safety Sense 3.0, a package of active safety features designed to help drivers detect and avoid dangerous situations on the road. This is a rundown of what Safety Sense 3.0 offers and which Toyota models have it.

Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 Can Anticipate Low-Speed Obstacles

The third generation of Safety Sense uses cameras and sensors to detect vehicles and obstacles in your car's path. In general, the car will first play an audio alert and flash a warning on the instrument panel. In certain cases, the car can assist the driver in steering away from an obstacle or automatically activate the brakes to slow or stop the car.

New with Safety Sense 3.0 — and not available on previous versions of the safety suite — is Proactive Driving Assist, which anticipates obstacles. Active at speeds of 20 to 35 mph, it can detect pedestrians, bicycle riders, and parked vehicles, providing light steering adjustments to help the driver maintain ample space to get around. This feature can also detect curves in the road and will gently slow the car if the driver seems to be heading too fast into a curve or corner without braking.

Safety Sense 3.0 Also Includes Improved Adaptive Cruise Control

Safety Sense 3.0 includes a plethora of features. Pre-Collision with Pedestrian Detection warns the driver as their vehicle approaches another vehicle — including bicycles and motorcycles — or a pedestrian and activates automatic emergency braking if the driver doesn't react.

Adaptive cruise control maintains a preset distance from the vehicle ahead. It can be activated above 20 mph, and newer versions can automatically handle stop-and-go traffic. Lane Tracing Assist works with adaptive cruise control to steer away from danger if a vehicle in an adjacent lane begins to drift.

Road Sign Assist uses a camera to detect speed limit signs and display them on the instrument panel. Automatic High Beams work above 21 mph and switch between low- and high-beam headlights automatically to avoid blinding drivers in nearby vehicles.

Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 Is Available on Some 2024 Models

For 2024, Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 is standard on many popular Toyota models, including the Corolla, Corolla Cross, Crown, Grand Highlander, Land Cruiser, and Tacoma.

The high-performance GR Corolla does not offer stop-and-go adaptive cruise control or Proactive Driving Assist.

Otherwise, most Toyota models offer Safety Sense 2.5 or 2.5+, which includes most 3.0 features except Proactive Driving Assist, and certain models don't include stop-and-go capability with Dynamic Radar Cruise Control. The 2024 4Runner makes do with an even earlier version, Toyota Safety Sense P, which does not offer steering-assisted lane-departure monitoring or road-sign assist.

Bob Sorokanich

Bob Sorokanich is a car-obsessed journalist and editor who manages to maintain an old Mini Cooper and a love affair with automobiles while living in New York City. When he's not thinking about cars, he's riding his motorcycle, and when he's not riding his motorcycle, he's anticipating his next joy ride.