Posted on 02/10/2022 5:38:19 AM PST by BenLurkin
Some Mazda owners out in Western Washington... are faced with having to listen to nothing but National Public Radio after an errant signal broke their radios.
Over the last couple of weeks, a number of owners of 2014 to 2017 Mazdas all tuned their HD Radios to 94.9 KUOW, one of the Puget Sound’s public radio stations.
Seattle Times interviewed owners, including Dave Welding, the driver of a 2016 Mazda hatch:
Somehow the signal the station sent to the modern HD Radio that’s part of the Mazda infotainment center had, as Welding puts it, “fried” a major component.
The component dealers say is involved is the Connectivity Master Unit. It’s a $1,500 part that controls video and audio signals for the infotainment system.
[T]his issue...also breaks functions like navigation, Bluetooth, the clock, reverse camera and the car’s information menu.
Perhaps even more annoying than being stuck on a single station is the fact that some radios are stuck in a distracting boot loop. One owner described what it’s like:
“The lower right field of my vision was seeing like a TV screen going on and off,” he says. Over and over, the screen showed the Mazda logo, then there would be a flash, then the logo split into five new logos.
Mazda confirmed...that something in the radio signal impacted the software of 2014-2017 Mazda models.
“Between 1/24-1/31, a radio station in the Seattle area sent image files with no extension, which caused an issue on some 2014-2017 Mazda vehicles with older software,” the Mazda statement said. “Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) has distributed service alerts advising dealers of the issue.”
KUOW is working with Xperi Holding Corporation, the parent company of HD Radio, to figure out what the station did wrong.
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
I enjoy listening to the Thom Hartmann show
What’s the problem?
Lol. Good thing my Mazda is from 2013.
can you hear me now...
Amazing, glitches, mistakes, accidents, errors, ALWAYS somehow manage to learn and support progressive entities and ideas.
Did I mention I am in real estate? May I interest you in some beach front property, or perhaps a bridge that is zoned for toll services?
My Honda resets Calendar and clock since 01/01/2022...
At each start it is:
Jan 1st, 2002 4:00
Uh, maybe look at the preceding sentence?
"...a radio station in the Seattle area sent image files with no extension
Now that is impressive software coding when something as simple as an image file without an extension wipes out most of your electronics.
Western Washingtonians' heads would have exploded if the radios were stuck on the "Joe Rogan Experience." Then Mazda would have to pay the Sunshine Cleaning Company for a lot of car interior jobs.
I hope they don’t have to listen to the “Shweddy Balls” episode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPpcfH_HHH8
So basically, ANY outside actor with only nominal expertise can break a component of those cars. I am ready to go back to my ‘66 Dodge Dart with the solid state AM radio. (Tubes are a bridge too far.)
They’re just trying to get us used to only having one channel to listen to, like people in N. Korea.
It could be worse. You could be trapped in a time loop and be stuck in an airport with nothing on but CNN.
Back in the 80’s and 90’s we had those DIN sized radios, super easy to replace. Now we have technological overkill for it’s own sake, and the people who squeeze it out take no responsibility for their sloppy work.
What’s the frequency Kenneth?
That would be my version of Hell, having to listen to NPR for all eternity.
Indoctrination via the Outer Limits. A liberal is one who is possessed with the sneaking suspicion that everyone but them and their victim class are hateful persons guilty of racism, homophobia, transphobia, gynophobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia - and CRT and Climate Change denial and example white privilege, and should be thereby punished upon such presumed guilt and undergo deprogramming. Implement broadcast signal in 10 seconds...
Any reference to NPR immediately makes me think of that skit. Well played.
Should be:
Feb. 2, 1993 6:00
PERFECT article for NotTheBee.
Anyway, from the article, it sounds like the car owners must have tuned to NPR before getting blasted and damaged...so hard to feel sorry for them.
“So basically, ANY outside actor with only nominal expertise can break a component of those cars.”
The worst part is that the companies can force a ‘firmware update’ that sets off a code and forces you to go into a dealer. Luckily they only do that during slow times at their dealers and it is a way to smooth out the flow of customers, as they can do other repairs while they have the cars, rather than having to deal with the usual repair traffic where people bunch-up their repairs and overload the dealers, similar to the ‘lunch rush’ for anyone in the food business.
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