I90 East bound approaching Erie PA

Um... the video timestamp at the bottom shows December 3...

 

So brave. Thanks for sharing!

 

Jason Lee, You weren’t expecting real time were you?

 

This past week was my first round in truly bad winter driving with my gen 4 TRD OR long bed. The OEM BF Goodrich Trail-Terrain without 3MPSF were good, ability to aim lights down good, and same with the vehicle dynamics. It was interesting to learn the robots will attempt to steer beyond conventional or past stability control.

Something that stood out I found annoying is not much ice at all triggers parking support warning but also which sensor. The back arrow button kept bringing the error/alarm back. For some trips I make I think it will be wise to disable that.

 

Trail dust on back bumper triggers warnings as well.

 

I don't think I saw any XtraCab 4x4s listed at the Toyita dealer in Erie, where it apparently snows. I think I saw one XC 4x4 SR listed somewhere in PA, I could be over looking trucks. When you can't find the most basic truck Toyota makes but with 4wd, my interpretation is Toyota has a supply problem. They always have and always will with their non-4door trucks.

The above posts are why I want an SR and the least amount of sensors, which don't work in inclement weather anyway and are an annoying distraction behind the wheel. Wasn't there a study last year that stated most saftey system didn't work in low light conditions? These systems aren't any good, and are only expected to work in perfect conditons by design.

I haven't noticed any other manufacturers saftey alerts needing to be canceled after the alert. Is that a Toyota thing?

 

Mercedes and Audi enhanced "safety" suites absolutely run home crying for mama in bad weather. Or dirty sensors.

Speaking from ownership experience.

 

I’ve disabled all of the driver assistance for the winter. I do like using it on long drives when the weather is good.

 

Hypothetical Do you just stay in when the car beeps to alert you it's unsafe to drive? What do you do? Do you face a greater liability if something happens after the car warns you?

Do you ignore the warnings and drive? If so the saftey system didn't need to be their in the first place.

 

Typically, the in-car messaging is something along the lines of "XXX system is unavailable." And then a warning about driving carefully. Or something about functions being limited.
The first one to go in bad weather is always going to be the low-mounted front sensors for radar cruise.
On one car, the wing mirror pods would turn into popsicles, thus shutting down lane change assist.
Nothing mission critical for safely getting from point A to point B.

I'm completely avoidant of new tech car since I stopped needing to haul clients and keep up appearances, etc. Perfectly fine driving the "ancient" 100 series or the Disco 2 in shitty weather. My 1st Gen has manual hubs and lacks ABS so she says put away during winter.

 

For the majority of my life I drove rear wheel drive w/o abs, collision avoidance, lane assist, traction control, etc, and I’m perfectly comfortable not using them in any situation. I would argue that everyone who uses them eventually finds themselves in situations where they need to turn them off but never finds it necessary to turn them on. Sure, they’re convenient but unless you’re paying more attention to your phone than the road, they’re not vital.

I’ll go further and say that lane assist is nothing but a built in argument. It’s either correcting me when I give a semi a wide girth when passing, or complaining that I need to put hands on the wheel when it can’t detect any lane drift. It also likes to follow tire tracks when there is light snow or mist on the road. If you haven’t also experienced these shortcomings than you’re probably not paying attention.

Driver assistance is convenient when conditions are good but no one should be completely reliant on it.

 

My PCB takes a break when its raining hard.

 

I purchased TRD OR specifically without the Upgrade or Premium package because I specifically didn't want parking sensors. Like you, I didn't want any sensors. The only sensor my OR has that the SR does not is the Blind Spot Monitor and the Rear Cross Traffic Alert. I don't spend all that much time with the gear selector in R, so it's only activated a few times in parking lots. Both these systems work in the dark. The Lane Departure Steering Assist does not engage on snow covered roads, but does work in low light. Where I live, roads are covered with a red volcanic pumice that covers the truck with the same. The cameras and sensors see through it so far. According to Toyota, all Tacomas, including the SR, come with Toyota Safety Sense including Proactive Driving Assist and Lane Departure Steering Assist. The point being is that it's becoming nearly impossible to avoid paying for these systems. Of course you can turn them off.