Cold weather and sensors

Been having some chilly temps out here on the west coast and today started the tacoma and saw the pre collision system and lane departure alert lights where one on my dash but were yellow ir orange… typically have the lane departure turned off but was on this am. Got going and after 20 min or so the lights turned off, i turned my lda on and off no problem. Im wondering if the sensor could be affected by cold or frost? Is this normal. Its been cold here all week but today was the only day this has happened. Happened once previous about a month ago. I mean its cold but nothing like the cold that many tacomas see…new truck and want to know of this is something thats normal or not. Thanks in advance

 

Most likely cause was dirt on the radar sensing element (Logo badge in grill) which got washed off, or condensation on the windshield obstructing the camera's view. Not unusual in winter.

 

Was there frost on the grill?

 

Im sure there was, there was frost all over the truck. Its been frosty every morning this week and it’s only happened today. Maybe I parked a bit further back than usual and was more exposed? Hoping it’s a frosty sensor and nothing more

 

It gets cold here in Delaware. A couple of times this Fall, the system displayed the camera was inoperable/not working even though I did not have the TSS turned on.

What I learned is...the camera is on without activating any TSS features. The pre-collision system is the error I see in the console which is part of the camera that senses impending collision.

Once the truck warms up, the system operates as advertised.

 

Good to hear that. Thats what i was hoping

 

LDA operates by the windshield camera. PCS is primarily grille sensor but also uses the camera to corroborate.


... You had frost on your windshield. No biggie

.

 

I had the same errors this morning when starting my frosty truck. As soon as I operated the windshield wipers and it cleared the frost from the camera the orange dash "error" lights went away. Made me realize that the pre collision feature needs the camera to operate (as Mr Lobster mentions above). That surprised me as I just figured it was the grill radar sensor that was used. I did some searching and found this write-up: https://www.mossytoyota.com/toyota-pre-collision-system/
TL DR: The sensor in the windshield uses a camera and a laser to detect obstacles and measure distance. The radar grill sensor is used by the system for pedestrian detection.

Interesting - I didn't realize how complex this system was!

 

I posted this before...the camera works in conjunction with the "Garnish" which acts like a radome, sending a signal back to the camera.