Toyota Tundra

The Toyota Tundra is equipped with a relatively broad range of modern active safety features including a radar/camera fusion system. Autonomous emergency braking (AEB), an active lane support system, blind spot monitoring, manual speed assistance function, and a basic (indirect) driver monitoring system are all fitted as standard.

The Tundra’s AEB system can detect the full range of road users including other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists in forwards-travel. Reverse AEB is not offered.

Performance testing of the crash avoidance features fitted to the Tundra revealed mixed performance.

In car-to-car AEB testing, the Tundra avoided most rear-end collisions at low and higher speeds when approaching stationary, moving and braking vehicles.

Auto brake functionality when turning across the path of an oncoming car, however, proved challenging.

Car-to-pedestrian avoidance - both in daylight and at night - was good. Weaker performance was seen when attempting to avoid a collision with a child pedestrian.

Varied performance was seen in car-to-cyclist testing. The system performed well when cyclists were travelling in the same direction as the Tundra (full points scored), but had limitations in scenarios where the cyclist was crossing in front.

Crash avoidance was reliable when approaching a stationary motorcyclist from behind. When approaching a slowing (braking) motorcyclist, an impact occurred when the Tundra was following closely at a distance of 12 metres. At greater following distances (around 40 metres), the Tundra’s AEB system successfully avoided a collision.

The AEB system fitted to the Tundra does not function in turn-across-path intersection scenarios with an oncoming motorcyclist.

Lane departure warning (LDW), lane keep assist (LKA) and emergency lane keeping (ELK) are standard features. The Tundra’s lane support system can detect solid and dashed line markings on the left and right, and provide some steering input to assist in redirecting the Tundra if wandering from its intended lane. This system works by recognising line markings and the vehicle’s position but does not consider the presence of a ‘threat’ vehicle in an adjacent lane.

The manually-set speed assistance function (cruise control) on the Tundra worked reliably, and its indirect driver monitoring system (DMS) added a basic safeguard. The more advanced attention and fatigue-detection capabilities are however absent.

Overall, the Toyota Tundra achieved a SILVER grading. While it offers a broader set of safety features than the Toyota Landcruiser 79 Series and Chevrolet Silverado 1500, its performance sits close to par with its established Toyota stablemate, but does not reach the more rounded and consistent safety performance of the Ford F-150 or RAM 1500.