#Fail: Lexus Navigation Systems Bricked By OTA Update

If you have a Lexus, it’s a safe bet that you’re not able to use your navigation system right now. That’s because an over the air update to these systems has rendered them useless. Or as the kids say, the systems have been “bricked” as in they are as useful as a brick as present. Here’s what The Verge has to say on this:

An unknown number of Lexus automobiles have seen their infotainment and navigation head units broken by a bug in an over-the-air software update from Lexus.

The glitch, which was confirmed by a Lexus spokesperson, was delivered in a routine software update. In affected cars, it can cause the dashboard screen to spontaneously reset itself and, as a result, both the radio and navigation system can be unusable. It affects cars equipped with Lexus’ Enform system with navigation.

It isn’t clear at this point if the problem will “fix itself” via another software update, or if it will require a trip to a dealer to fix. However, I did note that some owners have fixed this by unplugging the battery for several minutes to reset the system.

But what is clear is that Lexus owners are not happy:

Lexus social media channels have been flooded by frustrated owners, but the company has been unable to give any estimates for when the problem will be resolved.

Now any update you do to anything be it your PC, car, or phone has risk. But at least with your PC or your phone, you can back it up before the update and do a restore if things go sideways. It’s not that straightforward for your car. Thus the risk level is higher. Also I will point out that other car companies do over the air updates to vehicles. The best example of this is Tesla. So this could have happened to them. I hope that Lexus comes up with a plan and rolls it out to owners quickly as drivers of luxury vehicles are not the sort that you want to frustrate.

UPDATE: Lexus put out this Tweet describing how to fix this issue:

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