Vehicles of almost every sort have been getting bigger and bigger over the past decade. In fact, even the entry-level cars offered by companies like BMW are nearly the same size and weight as their mid-size cars of ten years ago. Nowhere is this gigantism more visible than in the pickup truck segment, where even previously ‘small’ trucks like the Dodge Dakota have inflated until they now dwarf their predecessors. In turn, full-size trucks have fought their own battle of the bulge, getting heavier, wider and taller.
Toyota has not been immune to these market forces. The first generation Toyota Tundra was a mid-size pickup marketed to the full-size crowd, and when Toyota realized that they could cram more buyers into a larger vehicle, the 2007 Tundra re-design greatly increased the capacity of the truck in almost every dimension. While size does matter, all of that increased mass is nowhere near as easy to park as it used to be. Aren’t pickups supposed to be parked on vast, empty mesas with nothing but tumbleweeds and the occasional herd of cattle for miles? Well, Tundra commercials might want you to believe that, but in the real world, most trucks are parked in driveways and city streets with very real obstacles and space constraints. Anyone who has looked out the rear window of their truck trying to judge how car away they are from the car behind them when all they can see is its roof knows exactly how frustrating parking can be.
Toyota’s solution to this problem has been to add another set of eyes to the Tundra’s bumpers – or more specifically, another set of eyes and ears. The 2007+ Tundra can be ordered with sonar parking assistance. Special sensors are mounted on both the front and rear bumpers, and these sensors help the driver know how close they are to the vehicles, garage doors or fire hydrants around them while they are parking. How does it work? The sensors transmit highly focused sound waves at regular intervals from the bumper. When these sound waves come into contact with a solid object, they reflect back towards the sensor. Since the speed of sound is fairly constant through air, a computer uses the time it took for the reflection to be returned in order to calculate the distance between the bumper and the object. This is exactly the same principle employed by submarines using active sonar underwater, except that water transmits the sound waves much better than air, allowing for better range.
In the passenger compartment of the Tundra, an indicator gauge on the dash lets the driver know how close they are getting to the car that is either in front of or behind them. When they have reached the smallest gap that the system considers safe, a buzzer sounds to indicate that the driver should stop. While the system is effective when dealing with stationary objects like parked vehicles, posts and garage doors, the sensors are not quite sensitive enough to pickup smaller objects moving past the sensors. This means that small children, animals or all-terrain vehicles might not generate a proximity warning buzz in time to stop the vehicle safely. While parking sonar is definitely a useful tool when it comes to navigating the Tundra, it is not a replacement for caution. Drivers must still do their best to ensure that there is no one behind or in front of their vehicle when parking.
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Parking Sonar is a good facility but I wanted to detect 3 inch diameter small (3
foot )poles that cause most reverse hits.Will this sensor detect these?