Other driver assistance problem on the 2010 Toyota Prius
4 crashes 4 of the 38 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other driver assistance problem gets reported
Owners of the 2010 Toyota Prius report other driver assistance problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 2,500 miles and a quarter after 122,500 miles, from 30 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 45,000 miles. It is the 16th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 200 miles at the tenth percentile to 177,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 176,918 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
60% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 182 miles | 3,250 miles | 30,500 miles | 123,136 miles | 177,100 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 4 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$1,800 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2015 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
When I am braking/slowing and turning and hit a curb or chunk of ice, or driving straight and hit a chunk of ice, my 2010 prius brakes will completely go away. This has happened 4 times during the past 3 weeks of winter weather. *tr
I have a 2010 prius. When I am braking and hit some bumps in the road, my car lurches forward with brief spurts of acceleration. This has nothing to do with the gas pedal. It seems that others are having similar issues (http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-care-maintenance-troubleshooting/72662-acceleration-problem-our-2010-prius-gen-v-5.html#post1052091). This could be dangerous, especially on a wet road. And the roads are so terrible in los angeles, that I experience this problem more often than I would like. Hopefully enough people report this problem that toyota takes action. *tr
On thursday, january 28th my wife drove our 2010 toyota prius to work. The was a slight coating of snow on the ground. Less that one block from our house, driving at no more than 10-15 MPH she applied the brakes to stop at a stop sign. She reported that the brakes seemed to lock (not the normal ABS feel) and she lost control of the car, which then slid/skidded into a curb which punctured the front passenger tire. The car appeared to have only a punctured tire which was changed by a aaa service truck. After the tire was changed and the service truck left, I attempted to drive the vehicle to a nearby tire dealer. As I tried to drive the car, I heard and felt a loud scraping noise that sound and felt like the brakes were still engaged. Even though I was now on clear pavement if I at all tried to apply the brakes,the ABS went on, but in an aggressive manner. The ABS also went on a couple of times even without me putting my foot on the brakes. The tire dealer said he thought we might have been the frame and told us not to drive the car. The car was towed to a nearby body shop to be inspected by our insurance company, state farm. As of…
Also reported on the 2010 Toyota Prius
Other brake problem
Loss of braking
ABS module or sensor failure
Other speed control problem
Master cylinder or brake booster failure
Headlight failure or clouding
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 38 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other driver assistance problem happen on the 2010 Toyota Prius?
Across 30 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 2,500 miles and a quarter after 122,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other driver assistance problem on the 2010 Toyota Prius?
38 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed