I almost hate driving this car in the winter when it's snowing. It's my first time with collision avoidance and all these sensors in a car. As soon as snow collects around the emblem the system is disabled. Any ice that's on the front and I keep getting messages that someone is in front of me. I have to stop, pull over, and clear the car off. Those of you who have other cars is this common?

 

chances are that it's very common and just doesnt affect Acura's...will affect all cars that use a big sensor in the grille.

 

Had the same problem with my Murano. Try spraying the emblem with some de-icer before heading out and see if that helps.

 

Turn off parking sensing feature while driving. There are buttons to the lower left of the steering wheel. This happened to me today with the snow here in Chicago. I was going nuts. Hope this helps.

 

Yup, just turn all that crap off and it shouldn't bother you.

 

Good tip! The sensors drove me nuts the first time taking it through a conveyor carwash. The whole time, the screen was going crazy with these objects approaching warnings. Forgot to turn these off.

 

Thanks everyone. I did turn the sensors off to stop the madness. I just wanted to know if it was something common with all these sensors in the car. Thanks

 

The same could happen with dirt or mud on the sensor too. just like lane departure sensors in snow...worthless! All the more reason NOT to ever depend on such sensing systems. OMG we're developing a driving society were eventually nobody will turn their heads, check mirrors, stop screwing with video screens, maintain safe distances, worry about staying in a lane and backing up without looking back through the window. Sensors can and do FAIL!.......

 

It’s too late, man, have you seen how people drive??

As per the OPs concern, I drove my RDX in the snow for the first time today. Going through the heavy snow I did get a message that some of the driving aids have been disabled. No false alerts or anything like that. No big deal, I don’t rely on them anyway. As the snow slowed and the front cleared, the aids turned back on. Frankly I didn’t think it was anything to get excited about.

 

The Adaptive Cruise Control and the Collision Mitigation Braking System, make use of the radar transceiver mounted behind the emblem. Radar uses a range of radio frequencies which are known as "microwaves" due to there short wave length.

The transceiver behind the grill transmits a radio signal and then determines the time it takes to bounce off an object and return back to itself. Using this information it can determine how far away the object in front is located.

The problem you are describing occurs because microwaves are absorbed by water. That is the principal behind Microwave ovens. The energy in the microwave radio signal is absorbed by the water in your food and causes it to heat up. As you probably already know, objects which don't contain water allow the energy to pass through unobstructed. For example glass or china cookware. Interesting enough is that water, in the form of "ICE" is transparent to microwaves.

So your problem will not occur every time you are driving in a snow storm, but rather it will occur when heavy wet slush which is thrown up by car tires begins to collect on the Acura emblem. When the radio waves from the radar are totally absorbed by the wet slush, then nothing can reach the vehicle in front of you to reflect back to your RDX. When the system sees that nothing is coming back, it will consider there is a system failure and disable it. It should never report false alarms about a vehicle ahead of you and apply the breaks.

The audible parking sensors are another story. They operate somewhat like radar, but they transmit a high frequency audio tone (instead of radio waves). This audio tone will be reflected back by snowflakes, or water droplets on the bumper sensors, and notify you that you are very close to an object.

In your first post you said "Any ice that's on the front and I keep getting messages that someone is in front of me.". I assume these messages are coming from the parking sensors and not the CMBS (i.e. radar) system.

I had my 2016 RDX for 4 years before getting the 2020 model. I had this problem occur 3 times with the 2016, and once already with the 2020, so I speak with a little experience about the problem. I'm reluctant to even call it a problem because it is occurring due to the laws of physics. Possible putting a good coating of wax on the emblem could help prevent the wet slush from sticking to it.

 

The easiest solution is to turn it off when it is snowing. We learned how to drive before all the tech starting making people lazy.

 

Not our new 2020 rdx but I have a 2018 Sequoia that has auto braked twice on me almost causing the car behind to rear end..... This is with no one in front for at least a hundred feet (during bad snow/weather days)

 

Ah...so much for those "safety features"...... I guess safety depends on PERFECT weather conditions....what a joke! Technology for the sake of technology. If a driver can't maintain a safe stopping distance or doesn't like to check mirrors or turn a head when changing lanes or backing up then maybe they shouldn't be operating a 4,000 lb moving mass!! We're creating a driving culture where few care to practice good "safe" habits but rather depend on bells and whistles and beeps.

 

Unrealistically that would be great, but realistically the world is overall safer with the safety features they are putting in cars, the amount of distractions today are insane