Thanks for your response.
To answer each of your 4 suggestions individually:
1. Have you tried something more accurate than a finger tip to touch the screen......like a soft tip stylus ?
I don't have a tiny soft tip stylus, but my fingers are tiny enough that I don't think they are the problem, especially given that I can reliably get certain menu items on the screen to work just by accounting for the distance of the calibration being "off".
2. If a "factory reset" option is present, have you tried that yet?
I'd definitely LOVE to try a "factory reset" but don't know of any (either in the software or a hardware button).
3. Have you considered having a dealer look at this ??
I have not taken it to an official Toyota dealer yet. Hopefully an inspection would be free or affordable. I'm always cautious about bringing cars to dealers.
4. A reset of the entertainment head will NOT happen when the battery is disconnected. If it has such a thing it likely is a hidden tiny little button.....or an item on a menu somewhere. Some systems have a way to calibrate and some don't. If the problem is caused by a component going bad, a recalibration might not help.
I will continue looking for a reset button and will also email people who work on these components. (I wouldn't want to try to disassemble my dashboard without knowing first that what I'm looking for even exists.)
Thanks so much for helping me think through this!