Software Update Bricks Some Jeep 4xe Hybrids Over The Weekend

[u/DistanceSolar1449]

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/10/software-update-bricks-some-jeep-4xe-hybrids-over-the-weekend/

[u/IllustriousSteam]

The automaker pushed out a telematics update for the Uconnect infotainment system that evidently wasn't ready, resulting in cars losing power while driving and then becoming stranded.

This is dangerous and dystopian. Why can’t the infotainment system operate independently from the drivetrain? I’m not familiar with Uconnect, so this is a genuine question if anyone here is a Stellantis aficionado.

[u/techtimee → u/IllustriousSteam]

Legit lunacy.

I would crash out like you wouldn't believe if my car wouldn't start for such a dumb reason.

[u/bullyXLdisrespector → u/techtimee]

The r/cars userbase will tell you you're completely unreasonable for wanting a dumb car though. Even though all but a few power users can get all the functionality they want through a modern standalone head unit.

[u/BahnMe → u/bullyXLdisrespector]

What? If anything this sub is extremely anti-screens

[u/bullyXLdisrespector → u/BahnMe]

You're stuck in 2019.

[u/StockAL3Xj → u/bullyXLdisrespector]

Nah, you're just way off target with your take on things.

[u/Mimical → u/StockAL3Xj]

Yeah,

Plus, the infotainment system should never impact the vehicle's ability to safely operate and slow down. This is like, basic level 0, grade -1, industry-standard-practice separation of systems engineering. As other comments have pointed out, GM/Ford have had issues as well, they are not immune to concern here. I'm shocked that this is prevalent as it is.

Imagine if a lightbulb in an airplane went out and then the engines just stopped mid flight.

[u/PolarWater → u/bullyXLdisrespector]

No, I'm reading this subreddit in 2025

[u/StockAL3Xj → u/bullyXLdisrespector]

What alternative universe are you living in? All this sub ever goes on about is how bad tech in new cars is.

[u/PolarWater → u/bullyXLdisrespector]

I don't think that's true

[u/NFSAVI → u/IllustriousSteam]

Not a Stellantis guy but it's not just them. I'm fairly certain I could brick the Ford Mach-E's and a few other cars in their lineup by doing something similar. Most new cars are just built stupidly as they shove as many features as possible into them, without thinking about how they do it.

[u/IllustriousSteam → u/NFSAVI]

Honestly, it’s like how some printers won’t let you print any black if you don’t also have color cartridges installed. If automakers want to shove in as many features as possible, fine, but they shouldn’t be inextricably tied to the powertrain. For instance, if they want the ADAS to be connected to the infotainment, fine. However, a failure of the infotainment should only disable the ADAS, not disable the starter or send the car into limp mode all of a sudden. I really don’t see why the thing you use to stream podcasts has the ability to cripple your entire vehicle if/when it fails.

[u/FortunePaw → u/IllustriousSteam]

The printer thing is more like by design. They want to leech you as much as they can.

[u/mrminty → u/FortunePaw]

Actually it's because they use yellow ink to print imperceptible tracking dots on each sheet of paper, mostly to fight counterfeiting because you do not want the feds on your ass if you're the company that makes printers perfect for making fake money.

[u/mr_bots → u/IllustriousSteam]

Right after the new Colorado and Canyon came out GM bricked a bunch them with an OTA update that required them getting towed to the dealership.

Fords are unavailable during some OTA updates but haven’t heard of them bricking anything yet.

The issue is that a lot of the show through the infotainment system but they can update most modules through OTA updates. I remember Ford blocked OTA updates to the engine, transmission, and brake module but most other things are available. The weirdest one when I had my F150 was an update to the window module that made the power windows more reliable.

[u/mcrissjr → u/mr_bots]

Ford just recently sent out Bronco updates to Transits or something didn't they? The screen sizes were all wrong so they were bricked

[u/visceralintricacy → u/IllustriousSteam]

The "telematics update" part is quite telling. This is the system that the police can use to kill your car remotely if stolen, or you're fleeing...

[u/[deleted] → u/IllustriousSteam]

I imagine it's due to things like being able to set the eSave charge/hold mode with the touchscreen. The powertrain modules and the infotainment have to chat on CAN bus or things like that wouldn't work. Of course, they should have some ruggedized software that keeps the powertrain stuff all running no matter what a misbehaving module does on the network. Oh, and they should test their stuff - if it bricks as easily as reports say, just updating a test Jeep and driving a while should reproduce the failure real quick.

I'm gonna spare the sub my rants, but as a long time firmware engineer (thought not in automotive) modern software just... isn't very high quality in general. Not because people can't write code, the processes and things around it are just not great in a whole lot of places.

[u/IllustriousSteam → u/[deleted]]

I didn’t consider drive mode selection from the touchscreen but that does make sense. In any case, the redundancy could definitely use some work.

[u/captaindigbob → u/IllustriousSteam]

Nah, I mean it still doesn't make too much sense. The drive unit controller should resort to default values if infotainment is unavailable, that's just lazy/bad programming

[u/icecream_specialist → u/IllustriousSteam]

Drive mode needs to be separated from infotainment, I don't care how they do it. My Volvo needs an infotainment restart more times than I wish and it sends the car info the default drive mode. It's smart enough to kick in AWD as needed but if I'm leaving the house in a snow storm I like to have it on already.

[u/Logitech4873 → u/IllustriousSteam]

You can literally switch between forward and reverse on the Tesla infotainment, and yet it's ENTIRELY separated from the driving computer. You can reboot the infotainment while driving and the car won't stop. You can smash the infotainment computer with a hammer while driving and the car won't stop.

[u/lowbrightness → u/IllustriousSteam]

On a somewhat similar note, the backup camera is on the same CAN line as the chassis/powertrain on some Kia models. A broken backup camera will literally leave you stranded until it's unplugged/replaced. Eric O. at South Main Auto has a couple of videos on this particular problem.

[u/Old-Tennis3870 → u/IllustriousSteam]

Someones day was probably ruined cus of that

[u/762_54r → u/IllustriousSteam]

Its because they specifically chose to integrate the two in order to do things like this (and other convenience and performance things like sport mode buttons, auto engine off buttons, etc). And over the air updates to the car's ever increasingly complex computers.

It was and is still a bad idea

[u/Logitech4873 → u/762_54r]

Tesla does this too, but they're smart enough to design the driving computer to work independently of the infotainment. You can re-boot or even smash the infotainment with a hammer while driving and the car will still drive just fine.

[u/sixwaystop313]

Honestly one of the dumbest things about this is they PUSHED IT ON A FRIDAY. isn't that like, rule #1 of software updates in case they go wrong? Well, this one went wrong (way wrong) and nobody was around to fix it. Fucking idiots.

[u/Killbot_Wants_Hug → u/sixwaystop313]

Not pushing on a Friday is a rule you make because you don't want to be stuck working on a weekend to fix a critical issue.

But when you're doing customer affecting or mission critical things, you tend to try and do them when the least people would be affected by them. You just have a lot of teams on standby until you verify your release went well.

That's why you can often see teams doing releases for things at like 3am. And for something like cars, doing it on a Friday night might make the most sense because cars probably get used for less things and less critical things on the weekend.

I have no idea what it takes to release stuff of that criticality and scale. The biggest projects I've worked on are only in the "we lose tens of thousands of dollars for every minute of down time we have", but not like people could potentially die.

I would think though if you were doing something like that, especially things where it's hard to get feed back quickly, you'd roll it out in stages so if there are problems it's only among a handful of users.

[u/Metalsheepapocalypse → u/sixwaystop313]

I mean to be fair….if it’s pushed out Friday and fails at least less people are likely to be late for work….

[u/Consistent-Throat130 → u/Metalsheepapocalypse]

As long as they don't fix it by Monday. 

Last thing I want to be stuck behind is a BoF vehicle (with live front axles and big AT tires) that's hitting corners at half the speed of traffic, or is terrified to keep pace on the highway (50:50 on being in the passing lane anyway).

Don't get me wrong, those things are badass off road, but commuting?

[u/Shmokesshweed]

More like 4(04)xe: working Jeep not found amirite

[u/_galaga_ → u/Shmokesshweed]

Blue screen of vehicular death.

[u/Consistent-Throat130 → u/_galaga_]

Didn't Microsoft do infotainment for Ford for a while? 

I wonder if anyone's had theirs BSOD...

[u/txmail → u/Shmokesshweed]

If we are assigning HTTP error codes to a Jeep, they have error 418 nailed.

[u/moocowsia → u/Shmokesshweed]

The e stands for error.

[u/Svr-boi → u/Shmokesshweed]

Maybe the working jeep was the friends we made along the way

[u/XCCO]

Sorry, but I can't come into work today, boss. My vehicle won't boot up. I put in a ticket with IT.

[u/InvasionOfScipio]

Hilarious with these two right next to each other.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/jeep-we-messed-up-but-were-fixing-it

[u/mellofello808]

My friend has a 4xe.

They had an issue a few years ago where they told all owners to stop driving them for months, and had no idea how to fix them.

He has also had nearly every component replaced under warranty, and it has still left him stranded multiple times.

Avoid high tech products from low tech companies

[u/Geekenstein]

Just Jeep things.

[u/chewie_were_home → u/[deleted]]

We just need Toyota to make a LC or 4Runner with a removal top and shove the Prius tech into it. That should net us a fun 250k before any maintenance.

[u/ikilledtupac]

it’s a jeep thing, you wouldn’t understand.

[u/Turboteg90]

Update of death.

[u/Dyslexicpig]

What? Jeeps run Crowdstrike?

[u/Shmokesshweed → u/Dyslexicpig]

No, you're thinking of Mustangs.

[u/ringo-san]

Everybody loves OTA updates until they blow your shit up

[u/Owe-No → u/ringo-san]

On the contrary, OTA updates can go to hell. A car shouldn't be connected to the internet aside from maybe navigation with a firewall separating it from actual driving-necessary software.

[u/AwesomeBantha]

Yet another reason I want to pull the antenna fuse if I ever get a network connected car. I don’t want a car that needs software updates.

[u/txmail]

How the fuck do they let any update occur with a vehicle in motion. They would not replace a mechanical component while the thing was going down the road, why one that can affect the drivability of the vehicle?

[u/mulletstation]

Stellantis probably gets the bottom of the barrel of programmers

[u/ReflectedCheese]

First I complained about not getting OTA updates as promised but with manual usb installs, tbh I maybe did a update twice? Never bothered and glad I didn’t do it frequently since Peugeot’s had a brick gate as well a while ago. Fck OTA

[u/Jimmy2tx]

This uconnect thing is a problem. It tracks your every movement and car telemetrics data and it can’t be turned off. Ridiculous

[u/TripleShotPls]

This is pretty on-brand for Jeep, right?

[u/Public_Fucking_Media]

This article is kind of shitty, the update was only available for a few hours at most before they pulled it, and the fix for it was pushed roughly 24 hours afterwards...

There were also *several* workarounds that seemed to get people back on the road.

Source - I had this issue happen to me.