Poll:Civic Touring Infotainment Issue

[Soma]

I'm glad I didn't enable Honda Link.

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[t3hub3rk1tten]

It just gets funnier and funnier (or less funny and less funny). If I recall, this has happened to others. It started when I started my car with a verbal notification that my brakes had a problem. It told me how to safely stop the car. I feel so sorry for any older person who may have got this fancy new car and is getting all these notices. Someone who isn't tech savvy would have to be frightened to death of their own car - not knowing it's all glitches and Honda Induced BS (The HIBS System?). Honda should really, really be ashamed at this point. There is absolutely no excuse for this level of programming incompetence. There is no trust in the warning systems in this car. The car will cry wolf, what, thousands of times and then Honda will blame the driver when there really is a problem and the owner, by habit from the thousands of false alarms, ignores the real problem? Completely ridiculous.

Sorry about all the glare in the photos - my goal was to simply document the newest pile of crap the car was giving me.

I had the same problem: http://www.civicx.com/threads/tpms-abs-brake-system-acc-freak-out.1002/

It only happened once or twice when the car was a week or two old, I haven't seen it in almost a month. Hopefully for you it goes away soon! You can ignore the head unit warnings and just go by the lights on the dash. If they're not on, you're fine. I didn't get any verbal warning, but I think I turned those off in the settings. When it did show up, I had to swipe down to see them, so it wasn't exactly bothering me.

You'll notice that the systems it warns about are the same ones that stay lit on the meter for a few seconds longer when you start the car (because they're doing self tests). It is probably a timing problem, the head unit starts up, asks the meter what systems have a warning, and then it displays them. Meanwhile those systems are just in self test, and their warnings go away on the meter but not on the head unit. I wouldn't call it programming incompetence, just a failure in integration testing.

 

[david1pro]

Great explanation, t3hub3rk1tten, and I agree you are correct. Thus I never even went to the dealer, as I'm tired of them for the moment. But man, I still feel bad for those who aren't that tech savvy, who haven't turned off the verbal warnings (mine were on by default) for new messages, that start their car and get all this crap. They'd be scared to drive. It also really calls into question the maintenance minder, which is our only source of info as to when things need done (the near 600 page manual is completely void a a maintenance schedule).

I see this as a complete safety issue:
Cop to the old man stopped on the busy interstate: "Why are you stopped here - you are causing a danger to others."
Old man: "I think my car just told me it is a driving bomb... it just said everything was suddenly broken! I'm afraid to move it!"

 

[milosays]

It just gets funnier and funnier (or less funny and less funny). If I recall, this has happened to others. It started when I started my car with a verbal notification that my brakes had a problem. It told me how to safely stop the car. I feel so sorry for any older person who may have got this fancy new car and is getting all these notices. Someone who isn't tech savvy would have to be frightened to death of their own car - not knowing it's all glitches and Honda Induced BS (The HIBS System?). Honda should really, really be ashamed at this point. There is absolutely no excuse for this level of programming incompetence. There is no trust in the warning systems in this car. The car will cry wolf, what, thousands of times and then Honda will blame the driver when there really is a problem and the owner, by habit from the thousands of false alarms, ignores the real problem? Completely ridiculous.


Sorry about all the glare in the photos - my goal was to simply document the newest pile of crap the car was giving me.

I'm at my Honda dealer now in Honolulu for a '16 Civic Touring i purchased and received on 1/31/15. Ive had the same issues randomly occur, namely the small yellow 'email envelope' icon at the top of the audio display, showing HondaLink issues with 1) Low tire pressure or more recently 2) EVERY safety system having 'problems' e.g. ABS Problem, Brake System Problem, TPMS Problem, ACC Problem, CMBS Problem, Charging System Problem. That last warning happened on 1/27 and all 7 warnings including Tire Pressure Low came up. The dealer has just told me in consultation with Honda Service Tech Support, that this is an issue specifically with Apple iPhones. Apparently, the iOS software has an incompatibility with HondaLink regarding "frequently changing frequencies" (whereas all other phones or systems use a static frequency) that the Honda system cannot quite handle yet. So the system essentially freaks, and gives off random warnings. This happened before a previous service and the dealer told me NOT to use HondaLink and deleted the app off my phone and supposedly disabled it in the car. However, if you use the wifi feature in the vehicle, the HondaLink system can re-enable and start giving off the false warnings again. My dealer told me that this is the last time they will clear the warnings for free, subsequent clearings of the warnings will be charged. (yes, I am having issues with that stance). The dealer told me Honda is aware of this issue, and is happening on multiple vehicles, however a fix is not forthcoming for at least a few months.

A more pressing issue for me, possibly rooted from iPhone use, is that when I attempt to connect my phone to the car, the display will crash, freeze, or both, forcing me to turn off the car and restart or if possible reboot (audio power 'button' for 5 seconds) multiple times. My system has started recently crashing so hard that it resets any customizations, such as main screen icon (Navigation, Audio, Smartphone, Info, Settings) going back to default positions after I had changed them. My rear and lanewatch cameras will also freeze and crash the system if my iphone is attached. Hopefully it's not a widespread apple carplay issue, as Ive already tried multiple handsets and also clean software installs. I've asked the dealer to wipe my software and reload it as well as install the 16-001 TSP audio amplifier fix. Will keep this updated as info comes to me.

Looks like these issues are specifically related to iphone software.

 

[david1pro]

The dealer has just told me in consultation with Honda Service Tech Support, that this is an issue specifically with Apple iPhones.

That's total BS because I don't have an iPhone and no iPhone has ever come close to my car (I'm not even sure I'd permit it, on principle, but that's another issue ). However, I've had all these warnings come up, telling me nothing is working correctly on my car.

My dealer told me that this is the last time they will clear the warnings for free, subsequent clearings of the warnings will be charged.

That's also total BS. Your car is throwing all these warnings at you - which are significant warnings, by the way - the car isn't saying "the radio's too loud, honey." They should clear them every time and find a solution to the problem. I'd be calling corporate complaining that your dealer is telling you that they will not honor taking care of a problem where your car is telling you it's completely malfunctioning. Things like this make me hate Honda's customer service (yes, the dealers are independently owned, but they are none-the-less, representatives of Honda)

 

[lightthief]

That's total BS because I don't have an iPhone and no iPhone has ever come close to my car (I'm not even sure I'd permit it, on principle, but that's another issue ). However, I've had all these warnings come up, telling me nothing is working correctly on my car.


That's also total BS. Your car is throwing all these warnings at you - which are significant warnings, by the way - the car isn't saying "the radio's too loud, honey." They should clear them every time and find a solution to the problem. I'd be calling corporate complaining that your dealer is telling you that they will not honor taking care of a problem where your car is telling you it's completely malfunctioning. Things like this make me hate Honda's customer service (yes, the dealers are independently owned, but they are none-the-less, representatives of Honda)

People and their feelings about Apple.
The conclusion is the same though.
The line that it's about your phone is complete BS.

All the warnings show up because some failure early on in the software start up prevents the rest of the software from starting. It seems there is a check that looks to see if those other checks came back successfully and if they don't it assumes they failed and then throw an error.

It gives the impression that a million systems are broken or not functioning correctly , when in fact they are fine just unable to communicate that they are fine back to the infotainment system.

Your dealers techs should know this but they don't. Either Honda hasn't told them or the people at Honda they are working with don't know themselves.

 

[ICanLiftACivicUp]

People and their feelings about Apple.
The conclusion is the same though.
The line that it's about your phone is complete BS.

All the warnings show up because some failure early on in the software start up prevents the rest of the software from starting. It seems there is a check that looks to see if those other checks came back successfully and if they don't it assumes they failed and then throw an error.

It gives the impression that a million systems are broken or not functioning correctly , when in fact they are fine just unable to communicate that they are fine back to the infotainment system.

Your dealers techs should know this but they don't. Either Honda hasn't told them or the people at Honda they are working with don't know themselves.

Makes me wonder if they are using all default/unspecified constructors in their code.....

Which also makes me wonder what their process is for writing code anyway.

 

[astein244@]

Ive sold 7 Touring Civics in the last 45 days. One had the original Sound cutting out issue but all of the other ones are 100% happy with no issues

 

[scoder]

Makes me wonder if they are using all default/unspecified constructors in their code.....

Which also makes me wonder what their process is for writing code anyway.

Yeah I'd love to meet the guys who QA-ed this software, too.

 

[mjones5]

I was going to buy but there are complaints and comments all over the internet about various infotainment system issues. I will wait, or buy a 2015 Accord. I want the Civic but these kinds of issues would drive me crazy.

 

[firemist32]

I've had touring a few weeks now and almost 700 miles. No infotainment issues for me (knock on wood) using sirius/ apple car play/ bluetooth regularly

 

[RDMerBC]

Yeah I'd love to meet the guys who QA-ed this software, too.

I've wondered at times whether they ever really QA'd it in the car -- driving in the car.

 

[dick w]

I've wondered at times whether they ever really QA'd it in the car -- driving in the car.

Be sure they did. The better question is how many open issues they had the day the production pipeline had to start flowing. I bet it was in the hundreds, minimum. But when that worldwide production system is scheduled to start, a few infotainment bugs don't seem to carry any weight. "Do we idle hundreds of millions of dollars in factory investment and thousands of workers, or roll the cars out with some infotainment bugs? No brainer. The owners will get over it…"

I'm not defending it, just saying it's probably a significant part of the calculus that's leading to this on most auto manufacturer's infotainment systems.

 

[RDMerBC]

Be sure they did. The better question is how many open issues they had the day the production pipeline had to start flowing. I bet it was in the hundreds, minimum. But when that worldwide production system is scheduled to start, a few infotainment bugs don't seem to carry any weight. "Do we idle hundreds of millions of dollars in factory investment and thousands of workers, or roll the cars out with some infotainment bugs? No brainer. The owners will get over it…"

I'm not defending it, just saying it's probably a significant part of the calculus that's leading to this on most auto manufacturer's infotainment systems.

I think you're probably right about this. The big wheels have to keep on turning.

It's understandable, but very exasperating for those of us who are dealing with these "fly in the ointment" issues. Many lines of code in this car, and many bugs it seems. I'm sure they're working on fixes as that is also in their best interest. All these warranty repairs, some of which are failing to cure the problems, or seemingly creating new issues, must eat into profitability. And they erode Honda's reputation for reliability, at least in some minds.

We're all used to doing software updates (patches) for our various devices. It's become the norm. I wonder if Honda will get to the point where they release updates for owners to run themselves. I notice Garmin does this for yearly updates to the map and other info for their Honda nav component. It's a download and transfer to an empty flash drive, plug it into the Civic, then run the update from the touch screen in the car. Of course if the car's touch screen itself is on the fritz, other measures may be needed.

As long as it's under warranty (and an extended warranty is looking like a better idea every day), Honda has to keep fixing it until they get it working as advertised.

Honda may feel some pressure from the safety authorities, as a randomly beeping, flashing, error-message ridden infotainment unit does lead to the safety issues associated with distracted driving.

I've probably answered my own question there. Since some of the car's many computer functions can steer and stop the car (in some models), the associated safety precautions would seem to dictate the updates be done at Honda, and they would remain liable.

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