well...
I guess it wouldn't be the first problem with crashing Toyota have had.
I'll get my coat
Motor maker Toyota has warned Australian car dealers that iOS 4.1 devices can crash certain vehicles' sound systems. Toyota made the claim in a "technical newsflash", local car site Drive reports. The warning covers eight types of Fujitsu Ten-made car stereo fitted to Yaris, Corolla, Kluger, Prado, LandCruiser, HiLux and Prius …
Certainly VW group cars (VW, audi, skoda, seat, bentley, etc) have the radio connected to the CAN bus for both speed dependant volume adjust ('gala effect') and for radio coding - when you disconnect the battery etc the radio checks that it's in the same car and re-keys itself. If the ECU has changed, it asks for a code.
Quite clever really. You just have to hope that it's a read-only implementation though :)
Too late--they already do and have for a while. Still, I doubt the world will end if the radio locks up. I suspect the worst it could do would be to hold the bus.
Most of the time, the communications that would be exchanged are minimal. However, in some later model GM vehicles, the radio is used to control various parameters and to play the door/headlight/seatbelt warning chimes.
because y'know, the stereo is directly linked to the ABS computer... Oh wait, no, it isn't a car can still function perfectly (albeit without choonz) without a stereo fitted.
Just the other day, my home PC crashed and because it was *in the same house*, it caused my central heating to roast the cat.
A good friend updated his iPod's firmware and this resulted in his brand new Kia Soul becoming obsolete. The steering wheels iPod-compatible controls and integration with the on-board stereo system become non-functional. The end result of this unfortunate episode was that he quit his job, moved to another province and went back to school. Seriously. I'm not joking.
"The same way that taking female hormones is a life-altering experience."
It IS? Oh, wow. When does this start to happen? Produced loads of the stuff for years now, but can't say I've noticed much life-altering.
Looking forward to the life-altering bits. Better hurry up, tho. Suspect I'll start seeing a drop in the levels soon, and that'll certainly be a change ...
"How long before a similar problem occurs that affects a more important system like stability control or abs?"
And how long before people who've not worked on safety-related systems think this is an insightful comment?
And how many times will it take till they learn that they don't know anything about it?
The answer my friends is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind....
(Yes, the one with the harmonica in the pocket, thanks.)
I'm in a big dispute with Toyota UK and has been escalated to Toyota Tech EU as I have no end of problems with a number of iOS devices. I also get crashes with an iPod Nano 5G. And not just that the Fujitsu system has other problems as well in which part of the output of the 8 speaker system is hardcoded to be 10dB less than other speakers. And then there is the lack of firewire equipment in the dealer network to do the upgrades on the service ports. It is a mess that Fujitsu system.
So really it's Toyota in-car stereos have a fatal bug, that just happens to occur when iPhones are plugged in, rather than it being the iPhone's fault that it crashes.
Millions of other iPhone accessories (including my 5 year old Mini) work perfectly fine with iOS 4.2.1, so it's just a case of Toyota coders making a mistake somewhere and needing to issue a patch.
What they're scared to say is, if you're an iPhone user, don't buy a Toyota.
Yup, came on just to post the same. Even *if* the device in question (let's keep it away from ifanning/ihating etc!) was the biggest abomination ever to connect as a USB device, the host should never ever crash..
Although, does anyone remember the Windows 98 / USB demonstration launch with Bill Gates? :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55xqB_pLjlk
This is what happens when dumbarse engineers don't code for "graceful failures".
You read the documentation, or reverse engineer it, then code around that, accounting for returned data that is not what you expect. How you deal with it from here can vary, you might bring up a specific error alert, you might just show a generic failure lamp, or you might ignore it.
Whichever way, it's more graceful than crashing.
At least it's just that *little* bit more graceful than literally crashing the car into things...
One thing you can't doubt about the engineers (or products) that Toyota uses, they know how to pick them.
There isn't "A" CAN bus on most cars - there are usually several of them.
Yes there is routing between them, but the safety critical systems are on a separate bus to engine controls and a separate bus again for user interfaces.
They also run at different speeds, etc.
This is why I only use SD cards or USB flash drives with MP3's on them. If it doesn't play my stuff in the store, then I don't want to deal with it. This apple chip crap is getting irritating. We're re-doing our product line because of a new IC from apple. Means the old stuff isn't supporting the new stuff coming out.
I love the IPod, but not the store replacable battery or the constant updates to garner more money. Even the mobile cords on the new IPhones are requiring chips in the cabling to work with it.
No reset button? No deadman switch that forces a reboot when a key press isn't handled within 30 seconds? My car stereo, TV, and even WiFi clock radio has that. Does the car's battery run dead because the stereo doesn't power off?
Where's the deadman switch for automotive quality control?