Some Mazdas In Seattle Are STUCK on KUOW 94.9

[Kelly A]

"Review Geek", a tech site, reports on the cause and effect of the Mazda software issue that bricked sound systems:

I'm sure there's more to this technically than Mazda/Denso is letting on. That said; I think it's a mistake to blame HD radio for this anomaly. A station's PAD containing logos or album art not making it to a radio could be caused by many natural or man made factors. As Review Geek mentioned, this is on Mazda/Denso, not KUOW, and certainly not HD Radio as a whole.

They do bring up a good point regarding tech and in particular self-driving cars. Was reading an article in the latest Consumer Reports, recommending consumers don't spend the extra $10K option for Tesla's self-driving system. Apparently during tests, the vehicles with the option frequently mistook yield signs as stop signs, would pull into the left lane of an interstate while going too slow, then stay in the left lane, and would occasionally completely disengage without warning the driver first.

While my wife's Volvo was in for service last week, they gave me a fully-loaded service loaner which included self-driving option. Just for grins on the way home traveling on I-95, I switched on the auto-drive, and cautiously loosened my grip on the wheel. The vehicle stayed a good distance from the traffic in front of me, but when it saw brake lights ahead, it was unnecessarily heavy on the brakes. The other thing I noted, was traveling along at 65 (speed limit), the vehicle would slightly bounce back and forth in my lane. Almost like the sensors picked up the lane markings, then over correct to the other side, then over-correct back the other way. After a while, it set up an noticable oscillation. When I got home told my wife that I tried the auto-driving feature, but it's definitely something I wouldn't be comfortable with.

 

[24pulsar]

Johnson Controls is the manufacturer of the radios (or "CMU"s) in these Mazda vehicles. I wonder how, or if, they are addressing this.

 

[landtuna]

The idea of a car’s infotainment center dying over a single HD Radio file is ridiculous, to say the least. It’s also a bit concerning, given that modern cars are basically computers on wheels. If carmakers can’t build an infotainment system that’s properly secured against JPEGs, can we really trust them to make self-driving or keyless vehicles?

This is exactly what I was referring to when I posted yesterday about driverless vehicles.

 

[ZantennaG1]

could be caused by many natural or man made factors.

It was literally someone who had one job. PUT. THE. EXTENSION. ON. THE. IMAGE. And this whole thing could've been avoided. At the same time though, the radios themselves should have had a way to check itself against that particular line of code and just ignore the mistake.

As Review Geek mentioned, this is on Mazda/Denso, not KUOW

See my above comment. Someone at KUOW did not put the extensions in.

and certainly not HD Radio as a whole.

Agreed. HD radio is not very flawed as a whole, but putting new components on a 25 year old system causes trouble, and everyone should've taken more care.

 

[ZantennaG1]

They do bring up a good point regarding tech and in particular self-driving cars. Was reading an article in the latest Consumer Reports, recommending consumers don't spend the extra $10K option for Tesla's self-driving system. Apparently during tests, the vehicles with the option frequently mistook yield signs as stop signs, would pull into the left lane of an interstate while going too slow, then stay in the left lane, and would occasionally completely disengage without warning the driver first.

Huh, those are some weird tweaks that need to be made! By the way, a lot of drivers see the Yield sign and they literally come to a complete stop for minutes at a time. So the Tesla here is acting like a normal driver, unfortunately.

While my wife's Volvo was in for service last week, they gave me a fully-loaded service loaner which included self-driving option. Just for grins on the way home traveling on I-95, I switched on the auto-drive, and cautiously loosened my grip on the wheel. The vehicle stayed a good distance from the traffic in front of me, but when it saw brake lights ahead, it was unnecessarily heavy on the brakes. The other thing I noted, was traveling along at 65 (speed limit), the vehicle would slightly bounce back and forth in my lane. Almost like the sensors picked up the lane markings, then over correct to the other side, then over-correct back the other way. After a while, it set up an noticable oscillation. When I got home told my wife that I tried the auto-driving feature, but it's definitely something I wouldn't be comfortable with.

Thank you, Kelly, for your story about auto-pilot. I'll keep this in mind for sure. 👍

 

[PTBoardOp94]

It was literally someone who had one job. PUT. THE. EXTENSION. ON. THE. IMAGE. And this whole thing could've been avoided.

I'm with Kelly. I don't buy this explanation from Mazda at all. It doesn't make sense why a "file extension" would be used for something that is delivered in real-time through an RF link. There can be no file system on something that is ephemeral like that. I can't confirm this because the HD Radio PAD specification is proprietary and therefore inaccessible.

It is likely that KUOW sent some PAD data that made the Mazda radios freak out, but I'm pretty confident the "file extension" explanation was a rough translation from technical jargon to be more suitable for a press release, and it likely was something a little more subtle than someone who failed to append ".png" on a KUOW logo.

 

[notalent]

I'm pretty sure it wasn't "some person" at KUOW... Most of those things use an automated service to fetch image files from the internet... Nobody loads an image file for every single item that may go on air.

 

[kirkmanskorner]

It doesn't make sense why a "file extension" would be used for something that is delivered in real-time through an RF link. There can be no file system on something that is ephemeral like that.

And yet, I have an Inovonics SOFIA568 that happily shows me the file name of the logo and/or AE cover art it has received from the importer over the HD Radio broadcast. Some of these files are in fact cached on the receiver and thus would need file names.

A lot of things failed here. There is a defined naming scheme stipulated in the spec, which it seems Mazda's systems had no tolerance for deviating from. Some middleware (not naming names here) will dutifully try to use any arbitrary image file you throw at it for station logo without checking whether it fits the spec and simply assuming you've run it through Xperi's web app that checks the image file first. Some stations' logos change so infrequently that I'm sure there are many engineers who don't even know that Xperi web app exists. (Xperi probably forgot about it too, its HTTPS cert is broken or expired.)

I would lay most of the blame here on Mazda for not sanitizing inputs to their software, which caused a software crash and boot loop.

 

[Kelly A]

It was literally someone who had one job. PUT. THE. EXTENSION. ON. THE. IMAGE. And this whole thing could've been avoided.

You don't know that for sure. Neither do I. From a workflow standpoint; there is no person sitting at a desk adding PAD information to automation files on a daily or hourly basis. For news public radio stations, those logos are triggered by the program log. That's why I think there's more to this story that Mazda is saying.

At the same time though, the radios themselves should have had a way to check itself against that particular line of code and just ignore the mistake.

So you think a radio is going to be able to determine whether a file is mislabeled or missing something? Really? Computers do what they're told. They don't check the instructions first to make sure it's correct.

Agreed. HD radio is not very flawed as a whole, but putting new components on a 25 year old system causes trouble, and everyone should've taken more care.

PAD is nothing new. It's been available since HD radio started. It's only been the last 5-8 years where entertainment system manufacturers have started making screens that could take advantage of PAD.

 

[Kelly A]

And yet, I have an Inovonics SOFIA568 that happily shows me the file name of the logo and/or AE cover art it has received from the importer over the HD Radio broadcast. Some of these files are in fact cached on the receiver and thus would need file names.

I received a report from a former colleague who said this may not be just a Mazda/KUOW incident. Appears to be happening to Mazda radios in other markets too.

 

[24pulsar]

Makes me wonder what's causing this to happen all at once, given the age of these Mazda vehicles. Firmware EEPROM failure perhaps? That's set in with my 2012 Camry's infotainment unit and it exhibits very odd behavior as a result. Maybe an HD Exporter manufacturer pushed a buggy update? Or, quite possibly, they're all just possessed. I think I'll go with the latter.