A method for determining a safe state for a vehicle includes disposing a camera at a vehicle and disposing an electronic control unit (ECU) at the vehicle. Frames of image data are captured by the camera and provided to the ECU. An image processor of the ECU processes frames of image data captured by the camera. A condition is determined via processing at the image processor of the ECU frames of image data captured by the camera. The condition includes a shadow present in the field of view of the camera within ten frames of image data captured by the camera or a damaged condition of the imager within two minutes of operation of the camera. The ECU determines a safe state for the vehicle responsive to determining the condition.