This isn’t a software issue. The electronics in mobile equipment that is exposed to cold enviroments needs to be engineered to handle it. Truck engines, transmissions and heavy equipment engines and transmissions have their electronics heated and cooled to keep it running.
They just had poor designs and not enough thought went into the protection of the electronics.
Lucas Train Systems, LLC.
Anyone who would claim that it was knows very little about either hardware or software. When the processor runs, the software executes. When the processor stops running due to cold weather, that's a hardware issue, not a software issue. As you say, designing electronic equipment for its operating environment (with reasonable safety margins for extremes) is critical.