iPhone crashes car stereos, Toyota warns

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 models sold during 2009 and 2010.

The bug causes the hi-fi system to lock up when an iOS 4.1-based iPhone or iPod is plugged into a dock or cable connected to the stereo's USB interface.

The crash appears to be total: the unit displays nothing but "load..." on the screen.

iOS 4.1 was released back in September 2010, but the operating system has been updated several times since then. We're up to 4.2.1 now, and it's not clear whether it too has the same unfortunate effect on Fujitsu Ten's car radios.

As for ones that have already become locked up, Fujitsu Ten is working on a "field fix" solution, Toyota told its dealers.

Toyota UK told us there were no know issues of this kind of problem over here.

Thanks to reader Alex for the tip.