Car giant Lexus, has apologized to car owners for continuing problems with the infotainment system, thought to be related to a faulty software upgrade.
Purple screen of death
One Lexus owner, two Lexus owners? Not sure, but a lot of owners of recent models (2014 and later) are complaining of a ‘purple screen of death’ as their infotainment system either continually restarts or just turns itself off. Lexus is the luxury car division of Toyota.
The infotainment system is used for satellite navigation (if included), climate control and listening to the radio or your own music. It appears that an update sent wirelessly to automatically upgrade the system contained a line of faulty code and this is causing the problems. The problem has been reported for the latest 2016 version of the Toyota Land Cruiser as well.
“Errant data broadcast by our traffic and weather data service provider was not handled as expected by the microcomputer in the vehicle navigation head unit (centre display) of 2014-16 Model Year Lexus vehicles and 2016 Model Year Toyota Land Cruiser,” explained a spokesperson for the Japanese car manufacturer.
Solution – Head to your nearest Lexus dealer
So far Lexus have yet to be able to fix the problem remotely and have advised car owners to visit their local garage for a system reboot. “The correction is a forced reset and clearing of the errant data from the system,” Lexus confirmed.
They added that, “Toyota and Lexus owners experiencing these issues should visit their dealer for a complimentary system reset and a confirmation of the system. We regret any inconvenience.” They have helpfully added that no appointment is necessary.
It is not yet known whether the problem is confined to just those vehicle in the US or a wider issue. The fault appears whether the vehicles are stationary or moving.
Some people have suggested disconnecting the battery, which forces a system reset, as a method of remedying the problem, but others noted they had tried this and it had only produced a temporary fix to the problem, which would then return within a few hours.
Lexus has enjoyed being known for reliability and this is an unfortunate blemish on their stellar reputation.
