[LexisOwner]

The other morning, I found the front camera was frozen. The morning was very cold, less than 30 degrees. The setting was of the street signs which show the speed limits. Mine that morning remained blank instead of showing the speed limit. It showed instead the square box with a dotted line in the middle of it. Eventually, guess it warmed up enough outside because magically it once again did show speed limits based on the front camera seeing the street speed signs.

 

[KevinC]

I had that happen to me before as well, twice, in the same parking location. It showed as Speed Limit = 100 ! But like you described, it resumed normal functions once it timed out or saw a new posted speed limit.

 

[sp3ak]

I seem to be having the same issue. We've been below freezing a lot lately and it seems to take a while for it to register. While I know several people don't use the lane keep assist that also stops working when the camera is inop.

This morning after about 15-20 minutes of driving the speed limits did reappear but the LKAS didn't seem to work. Neither of those are a huge huge deal for me as I'm driving my usual route through town to work but it kind of sucks that around 32* it stops working until it's heated up.

Not sure if it's really worth complaining to the dealer about? I'm going to look through the owners manual again to see what it says or if it states an operating range.

 

[sp3ak]

At a quick glance at page 566 in the owners manual (plus some prior pages) they really only talk about it being too hot, not too cold. They say to use the defrost mode to blow cool air on it if it's too hot so perhaps I just need to do the same procedure to get it warmer.

 

[LexisOwner]

Believe it was about 15 minutes also. It seemed as if when I drove for a while and the vehicle warmed up, the sensor warmed up and it worked. Also, not really an issue in-town since I know what the speed limits are already, but still the first time it happened it kind of made me wonder what was going on.

 

[ptownoddy]

Many of the advanced Honda Sensing features don’t work properly in winter weather and the irony is that’s when you need them most! The slightest snow or ice in the bumper and that’s it for your radar so there goes cruise control and collision mitigation and who knows what else... I’ve experienced it repeatedly in snow. Ugh. Why not design these components with heaters and defrosters to combat this??

 

[Fired00d]

Like the OP I have experienced this recently... with the current cold temps in the Mid-Atlantic states and heavy frost a couple mornings I noticed this issue. Unfortunately it takes a little longer to clear the area at the top of the windshield where the camera is located and makes the system inoperable. It is a minor inconvenience IMO and as long as it returns to normal I rely on the old fashioned way of driving (being aware of signs as I drive ?). Technology is nice but it will have its limitations... it's up to us to maintain that technology (IE: keeping dirt, debris, snow, etc. away from/off the sensors).

@ptownoddy mentioned it would be nice to have the area of these sensors heated but I would hate to see what the cost of them being heated and cost to repair/replace when they failed would be.

 

[SGT Schultz]

I doubt the camera itself stopped working in cold weather. Anything's possible but I think it's most likely that your cars had some frost on the windshield right over the lens. It might not take all that much frost to diffuse the image enough for the camera to fault out.

As far as snow clogging the radar antenna, yep, happened to me in slushy snow.

I mostly don't care about these issues since I rely on my eye to see road signs, I never use LKAS, and I positively despise CMBS and am looking for a way to code it off permanently. A blocked radar will disable ACC, so when mine got covered in snow and slush I just changed the cruise mode from ACC to good ol regular dumb cruise control and kept on trucking till the snow fell off the antenna and the fault message cleared.

It's concerning how much people are getting used to relying too much on the car. I read on another forum that someone reported that LKAS malfunctioned and tried to steer him out of the lane and this person's first response was to wrestle with the system rather than pushing the MAIN button and shutting off LKAS. Maybe, as an instrument rated private pilot, I think about these driving aids differently. My flight training tells me that the immediate reaction to any autopilot abnormality is to hit the A/P disconnect button and to hand fly the plane; NOT to wrestle it for control.

It's also likely not a coincidence that the MAIN button in our cars is in the same location relative to our RH thumbs as the autopilot disconnect button in every modern general aviation and transport category aircraft.