Driver Safety: What’s the Difference Between Toyota Safety Sense and Honda Sensing?

Toyota Safety Sense and Honda Sensing offer similar abilities. But, which is best for your driving?

by Dan Mayfield

Published on October 30, 2022 1:49 pm

2 min read

Every manufacturer now has some sort of branded driver’s safety aid software. For Honda and Toyota, these systems are now an integrated part of their vehicles safety, just like seatbelts or airbags. These are different than General Motors’ Super Cruise, which is a hands-free driving system. Instead, these assistance features intervene to help you avoid a crash.

But, in the hyper-competitive world of advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS, what’s the difference between the popular Honda Sensing system and the Toyota Safety Sense?

What is an ADAS system?

Most cars, trucks and SUV you can buy today are packed with cameras, radar, LiDAR or other sensors to figure out what’s around you. Every manufacturer calls ADAS something different. Vehicles use these to find lane markers on roads, to read signs, and to make sure there’s nobody in your blind spot. They’re all advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS, and they work to help you become a safer driver. Sometimes, they will beep at you or give your steering wheel to gently nudge you back into your lane, literally.

Most companies offer some sort of system, though not all work the same or offer the same features. Both Toyota Safety Sense and Honda Sensing offer these features. The biggest difference is that Toyota uses both a camera and radar, while Honda uses a sophisticated camera. These systems are the precursors to self-driving cars, according to Popular Mechanics.

What is Toyota Safety Sense?

Toyota Safety Sense uses both a camera and a radar system to find, for example, people, other cars or bicyclists. The system provides pre-collision warning, dynamic radar cruise control, lane departure alert, automatic high beam assistance, lane tracing assist, road sign assist, and something called Proactive Driving Assist. The Proactive Driving Assist can gently tap the brakes if you’re going into a curve too fast, or even help add some steering support to help you avoid other vehicles or pedestrians.

What is Honda Sensing?

Honda first launched its Honda Sensing on the 2015 Honda CR-V. Today, the Honda Sensing suite of technologies includes Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) with Forward Collision Warning (FCW); Road Departure Mitigation (RDM) with Lane Departure Warning (LDW); Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS); and Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) with Low-Speed Follow (LSF). Some newer Honda models also include Traffic Jam Assist (TJA), Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR), and a driver attention monitor.

Honda’s newest system uses a single camera and can identify pedestrians, bicycles, and other cars. You can also customize many of the features, such as the road departure system that can be turned on to assist to turn the steering wheel, nudge the steering wheel, or simply give you a ding. The Traffic Sign Recognition feature can recognize speed limit signs and display that info in the instrument cluster.

Which vehicles offer Toyota Safety Sense?

A gray 2023 Toyota RAV4 is parked. — The 2023 Toyota RAV4 | Toyota

Most Toyota vehicles get Toyota Safety Sense. Overall, these 13 offer it standard:

4Runner

Avalon & Avalon Hybrid

C-HR

Camry & Camry Hybrid

Corolla, Corolla Hatchback, & Corolla Hybrid

Highlander & Highlander Hybrid

Land Cruiser

Toyota Prius & Prius Prime

RAV4 & RAV4 Hybrid

Sequoia

Sienna

Tacoma

Tundra

Which vehicles offer Honda Sensing?

Most Honda vehicles, too, come with Honda Sensing. Overall, nine of the brand’s vehicle come with it, including:

HR-V

CR-V

Passport

Pilot

Ridgeline

Odyssey

Civic Insight

Accord

Writer - Sedans & Coupes

Dan Mayfield

Dan joined MotorBiscuit in 2022 with over 20 years of experience in journalism and a lifelong passion for anything related to the automotive industry. He grew up wrenching a 1949 Ford pickup truck and an MGB with his dad, learning how not to wire a fuel pump (he inadvertently set the MGB on fire).

After earning a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from the University of New Mexico, Dan has contributed his expertise to a range of local outlets, including the City of Albuquerque, US Eagle, and the Alliance for Local Economic Prosperity.

On weekends, Dan spends Saturdays enjoying “cars and coffee” chats and, on Sundays, he’s watching the Route 66 Cruise roll through town. He also races motorcycles, and it’s not unusual to find him elbows-deep in his latest cafe racer build.

Taking advantage of the local desert terrain, Dan also enjoys exploring and driving off-road in his trusty Ram Rebel pickup truck, which provides personal insights into his contributions to our Trucks, SUVs, & Crossovers coverage. Dan strives to give our readers unique information about the dynamic automotive market, reading anything that has to do with cars, trucks, bikes, 4X4s, and, in his words, “everything with a motor.”

Dan has earned a number of accolades from the Public Relations Society of America, and is a University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism Fellow.