Kick to open tailgate - another automation design failure (1 Viewer)

[richord]

We just had a cold snap and snow. My garage door froze shut and jammed as it was opening. I went behind my GX to help lift the garage door and my rear tailgate decided I wanted to open it. I guess my foot went under the bumper. I had to jump aside before getting crushed by the tailgate opening!

It jammed right against the garage door! There doesn't appear to be any sensor to prevent it from opening if it hits something.

Fortunately, the tailgate hit the wood on the door not the steel ribs.

I guess I should consider myself fortunate. I could have been on the evening news. "Man is murdered by Lexus SUV".

P.S. i did not accidently push the key fob button. I didn't have the key on me just the digital card.

 

[munkeeboi]

you should have just pushed back against the tail gate. it has a pressure sensor so that it won't crush anything. It doesn't have a radar or anything, but once it hits something, it should stop.

 

[cmfhsu]

Bummer - sorry to hear.

I imagine it does have a safety mechanism, sensed by the current required to run the motors, but it only kicks in after a pretty significant amount of load. Otherwise, as the mechanism ages, it would prematurely stop as the gears start to get gummed up.

It's one of those safety mechanisms that prevents death, but not injury.

 

[richord]

you should have just pushed back against the tail gate. it has a pressure sensor so that it won't crush anything. It doesn't have a radar or anything, but once it hits something, it should stop.

I did push back but it kept trying to open. It took a lot of force to get it to close.

 

[munkeeboi]

Hopefully there isn't any damage. If you don't use this (or maybe just during the winter months), I think you can turn off that option in the infotainment settings.

That, or remembering to not carry your keys when opening the garage

 

[oldseniu]

You are not alone! I also found the door kick sensor was too sensitivity and I could could literally open the door by walking close by to the rear! I decided to disable the function as it is more a nuisance than convenience. That is been said, my old Mercedes sedan has the same feature and it worked flawlessly. I am not sure why Toyota couldn't design this feature properly.

 

[SkyHigh]

I turned mine off to avoid stuff like this.

 

[Capt CF]

I need to turn mine off as well. I have almost gotten hit in the head at least a dozen times hooking up my hitches/trailer and plugging in the trailer lights.

 

[CaryGX550]

I need to turn mine off as well. I have almost gotten hit in the head at least a dozen times hooking up my hitches/trailer and plugging in the trailer lights.

Same experience here, it was driving me nuts when hooking up a trailer. Turned it off eventually.