Some Mazda owners in the Seattle area have recently had a bad thing to do. After listening to a specific radio station, the car's infotainment system turned out to be bricked. The Seattle Times reported that the problem began to appear on January 30 and affected many models from 2014 to 2017.
The survey found that when modulated to a local NPR radio station (KUOW 94.9), the in-vehicle infotainment system crashed at some point in time.
The symptom is that the screen freezes, gets stuck in the radio interface of FM 94.9, and then the car system gets stuck in an infinite restart.
(Photo via MazdaHandsFree)
Unfortunate owners were forced to contact the local dealer, only to be told that the "machine was damaged" and needed to be replaced before it could be repaired.
The problem was that a new CMU cost $1500 and, due to the shortage of chips in recent years, spare parts could not be obtained aftermarket.
The bug seems to be a legacy
Subsequent studies have shown that the problem is that the image files sent by KUOW 94.9 in the HD broadcast stream "do not carry the extension they should have."
The affected car system seems to need an extension (rather than a title) to distinguish the file type. Without an extension, the system crashes.
Mazda Connect (PDF screenshot)
The Seattle Times tried to contact KUOW and Xperi, which are responsible for high-definition broadcasting technology, responded that they were aware of the problem.
Mazda also told ARSTechnica that it has sent service alerts and repair recommendations to local dealers. In addition, even if the current supply is not smooth, the owner should be provided with a free replacement service.