The Robot is Temporarily Unavailable.

[bogietrim]

“Some Driver Assist Systems Cannot Operate,” warning appeared - again.  To clarify, it has only happened twice and both of those occasions it was winter.

I rarely have to use my Hybrid Jazz early mornings and subsequently any below freezing frost there may have been has dissipated and the temperature has come up above zero Celsius before I need to drive.  However the two occasions the warning showed up I needed to make an early start with the car frosted on top of an already wet body surface.

So, I start the car and get all the warming up/de-icing systems working and set about clearing the frost/ice from the glass areas.  Upon setting off the driver assist system promptly dumps and shows an amber warning that some things are not working.  The absence of the systems affected - cruise control, lane keep assist, and other robot safety things -  does not make the car unsafe to drive and I just revert to old school human skills of actually looking out the window and paying attention.  No real problem – no need to stop.  The systems do recover in their own time, and for me it has been about 20 minutes on the dual carriageway.   I do like my cruise control and miss it very much!

Let me assure you that the windscreen is very clean and the camera system can see out, so I am puzzled as to what the problem is.  Google tells me that I am not alone in this scenario and it is definitely freezing temperature related.  Some articles on the subject say the “radar” behind the Honda grille badge is iced over, but I am not sure that system is on the UK Hybrid Jazz and it is solely a camera system with no radar – I could be wrong.

I am not super concerned as it is only temporary, but being an inquisitive fellow I like to know why things are the way they are.  Anybody else gets this problem or got any thoughts?

[ColinB]

In my Mk3, occasionally I get condensation or freezing inside the camera pod. This needs humid conditions inside the car (eg after heavy rain) so that moist air has got into the pod, which can sometimes freeze if it's very cold. Whilst the outside is clear, the cameras/lasers/whatever can't actually see out so the systems that use those sensors don't work. This doesn't seem to trigger any warnings, the systems just don't work. It goes away after a while as the car warms up, and sometimes you see a trickle of water down the inside of the screen from the tiny drain hole. Is this a possibility in the Mk4?

[Tombola]

This may not be a fault, perhaps when the car senses freezing conditions it shuts down some safety systems to allow for driver only input 

[Jazzfan49]

Mine does exactly the same thing but usually when humidity is high and temperature is low, message disappears when interior warms up.
 

[Kremmen]

I had it once and was definitely misting inside the camera pod

Only took a few minutes to clear once the windscreen vents started blowing warm air up the screen

[Lord Voltermore]

Happened to me a couple of times on early morning starts .And continued for a short time after the screen itself was fully demisted.    As others have said it  probably the lens of the camera  within the camera pod (which 'sees' lane markings etc  ) taking a bit longer to demist. 

[Lincolnshire Rambler]

On most frozen windscreen morning cold starts the jazz takes at least 10 mins of driving before the “safety control tech “ starts to work. So i guess its not uncommon . Pity all car manufacturers dont fit electric heated screens as im sure that could improve the camera heating etc

[Lord Voltermore]

I seem to remember a long time back some talk of improving camera pod demisting, possibly with extra vents. But it may not have been the Jazz.     

I use a 5 volt ceramic heating element to stop my trail camera lens misting up  overnight.   A tiny block about 5mm x10 mm and 1mm thick . heats up to about 50c .      I did briefly toy with the idea of putting one in the car  camera pod.   But there were too many potential risks and downsides such as overheating, and it probably wouldnt heat up fast enough to be much help. I can do without driver aids for a few minutes every now and then.
If any trail camera users are interested I will post more details. Its a DIY solution that works for me.