Gen 4 Infotainment re-booting itself while driving?

My dealer immediately volunteered to swap the head unit when they discovered that I already had current software. The new unit arrived in less than a week and I took the car back today for the swap. Of course I lost all my nav addresses and a few other preferences. Most of the preferences were quick to set back up. HOWEVER, I have been unsuccessful in getting Pandora or Messages to work yet. iHeart Radiio works and blutooth audio streaming works. I have weather and traffic updates. Not sure what is going on here. I need to do a little more research and troubleshooting. BTW, the unit never did reboot after my reset from pulling the fuse.

 

And the random reboots only occurred that weekend. Coincidentally, maybe?, there was a "coastal flood warning" in effect for the Houston/Galveston area at the time. There may have also been flash flood warnings and assorted water-related road closures.

My hypothesis now is that it's a bug in the software that handles the HD radio data for traffic and weather. It might also apply to people who get that data from Entune.

 

Evidence to back up my suspicions:
Lexus nav systems broken by 'errant' traffic and weather data - The Verge

@PriusTeam it's not fully fixed even on version 010182

 

... and that was published in June, so it past the editors desk on, what date would that be?

 

Add my car to the list of head unit crash and reboots. Happened last week. I checked the firmware versions and the system already has the updates listed in the TSB. Sounds like they have more work to do.

 

I think you meant to tag @Prius Team with a space.

 

That's correct! Hi there.

If anyone is still having this problem on a regular basis, I'd love if you could send me a private message with your information (name and phone number at least) so I can inform our complaints department. At the very least then we'll have a record of the issue on file, even if there isn't anything immediately we can do to fix it.

 

With over 70,000 Gen 4 sold in the US alone, wouldn't Toyota have access to Reports of folks who have returned to the dealerships to have this fixed?

There must be many thousands of warrantee claims by now.

I will try to create a poll on this.

 

Sending PMs to Prius Team gets Toyota US ear directly. Why is a poll needed? They obviously want actionable details.
I think those in this thread having problems should all PM Prius Team, especially since that is what thy asked for.

 

Of course, but if they don't know they have a infotainment crisis on their hands by now, there is something fundamentally wrong with their organization.

Having a multi-billion dollar organization "listen" like this does not make me feel better.

 

Some articles in the Automotive press might help, and a poll might merit a line or two in one of them.

 

When you are depending on dealerships to provide the information?
I suspect most dealership customer reps do not know what to tell a customer about how to contact Toyota.

 

Dealers get paid when they do warantee work. Who do yo think writes the checks?

 

Toyota's a big company, and I'm just one small part of it. I work as part of the Marketing team, and I divide my time between Prius and Mirai. Due to a quirk of scheduling, most of my time is spent on Mirai - which means that I'm not as embedded with the Prius team and I don't have a good offhand knowledge of what's on their radar and what isn't, at least not yet.

There's a strong possibility that this issue is already widely known among the people who need to know about it, but I know whose desk I have to drop it on in order to be 100% sure...and I also know that as soon as I do, they're going to ask me for specific details so they can do individual follow-up as needed. That's why I made the request.

 

Most of your time is spent on a vehicle that is not sold in all states and is not selling well?
I guess we know that Prius is not a high priority for Toyota then.

 

That's not entirely fair. One employee's time allocation does not extrapolate to the assignment of importance or investment in the broader scope.

I for one appreciate the quick response and continued involvement in this community, particularly since PC is outside of Toyota's corporate domain.

 

I appreciate their involvement. It is just discouraging that there are indications that Toyota US, at least is not really dedicated to promoting their hybrids. They are concentrating on a vehicle that does not have the US infrastructure to support operation.

 

I totally respect that, but here is the thing.

The Mirai and the 4th Gen Prius use the same head unit, correct?

The sales numbers an the Prius are greater, of course. Why not ask their team what they are seeing to inform what you will almost certainly see with the MIrai.

I put the poll in the wrong category, but between it and the individual posts you have been reading, a whole lot of people has had problems.

What's more, a great many people having problems are just living with them and griping -- not good for Toyota and not good for the Miria.

In the limited sample that is Prius Chat posters, you already have may stories of people putting in warrantee claims, and at least one of dealer swapping out a head unit to fix.

With 70,000 plus Gen 4 Prius sold, someone has data.

Not good.

 

I would encourage anyone with this issue to do as @Prius Team requested and DM them. I did, and got a call back from someone at Toyota Corporate the next day, who opened a ticket promptly for me and asked that I call them back with the ticket number every time I have the issue. The more people who open tickets like this the more attention is put on it and the more Toyota will have to pay attention to it.

 

That's pretty much what I was going to say.

This is what I would recommend. The more we get this stuff registered with our complaints department, the easier it is to make a case that action needs to be taken.