okay, thanks. I read in the online manual it would be white or green (I think) so I was a little worried that it displayed orange.
I agree, the orange wheel is not described in the manual. The white and green wheel indicators are described in the Traffic Jam Assist (TJA) section starting on page 4-161. I believe TJA is something new for 2023, differentiated from Lane Keep Assist (LAS) and Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) functions included in both prior and current year models.
Per 4-161, "[TJA] performs headway control to maintain a constant distance between your vehicle and a vehicle ahead at a preset vehicle speed without you having to use the accelerator or brake pedal. Even further, with the steering assist function, when vehicle lane lines are detected, the function assists the driver in keeping the vehicle within the lane lines.
If lane lines are not detected, the function provides the driver driving assistance in keeping the vehicle along the motion path with the vehicle ahead."
This sounds a lot like using radar cruise along with LAS and LDWS except for the bolded passage above, which could be the blind leading the blind. It may operate at different speeds than radar cruise or its doing the same thing under another name--somebody else can get into that.
So what's with the orange wheel? I believe it is "amber" in the parlance of the manual, a malfunction warning of some type like other amber lights? Perhaps it means the TJA is not able to perform its function for some reason--see all the warnings about when it might not work properly.
PS: There were mutterings about Mazda adding lane
centering for 2023. This does not sound like that but somebody who drives one of these would know better.
