Toyota just announced a big(>500k vehicles) safety recall yesterday that includes a stop sale for vehicles currently in the pipeline. For Priuses, it only affects Limiteds and XSE Premiums that also have the Panoramic View Monitor(360 cameras) that's part of the Advanced Tech Package(not quite 20k vehicles produced so far, and only 120 currently on lots). There have been instances of the backup camera video momentarily freezing up or blanking while reversing. The issue is in the software/firmware of the Parking Monitor ECU. No fix is available yet, but it will just be a software update when it's ready. Owners will receive notification letters by late December. My Prius is affected by the recall, so I'll be keeping on top of it. Don't know if this applies to all Priuses worldwide, or only North American models. Again, this is a Toyota/Lexus-wide issue, not a Prius-only issue. And it's not a super dangerous situation as long as you visually double check when reversing(which you should be doing anyway).
Lol... All our Gen2 cameras do that every once in while, not sure about other generations... And because of that Prius drivers don't back up solely with their back up camera.
The difference is that it wasn't federal law to have backup cameras back then. That's the reason for the stop sale. To comply with the current regs, the cameras have to always be functional.
From page 26 of the NTHSA Part 576 Recall Report: "Toyota conducted vehicle testing to confirm if (1) the interruptions, or (2) the abnormal camera optical alignment data could occur on a vehicle during actual customer usage, and what the phenomenon was if the conditions occurred. For (1), the testing and analysis found that, if the vehicle is shifted into reverse within 0.7 to 2.6 seconds after ignition on, a vehicle speed is detected during the first image frame process, and the first image frame process occurs within 1.1 to 1.4 seconds after shifting into reverse, then the rearview image could freeze for up to 1.8 seconds. For (2), the testing and analysis found that two 23 millisecond camera optical alignment data writing processes occur randomly during the first 12.5 seconds after ignition on and if the Parking Assist ECU powers off during either of these two data writing processes, the data for camera optical alignment becomes an abnormal value, causing the rearview image not to display on the next ignition on." So it appears that one of the following conditions must occur for the problem to occur: 1) You shift into reverse and let the car start moving within 3 seconds or 2) You start the car and do something to turn off parking assist functions with 13 seconds. For this one, the problem occurs the next time you turn the ignition on. Thus, you should be OK if you don't make hasty moves.
It is about time for Arene. These problems won’t go away until the Arene framework is used, which will debut in the 2026 RAV4 in early 2026. Even if there is a problem then, it will be a matter of a simple OTA update.
