Infotainment Glitch

[mandrake079]

Since buying my new HS PHEV in August 2025, I've driven almost 9000 miles, including a trip to Copenhagen and back, throughout which the car has operated flawlessly, with only a simple puncture (caused by a nail) to complain about.

Last week, I drove to the north of Scotland and back, just over 400 miles each way. On the way up, everything was working perfectly when I pulled into a small cafe, just off the A9 at Dalwhinnie, for lunch. On returning to the car, the infotainment system wouldn't initialise properly. Some elements (climate controls) seemed to be working, but Apple Carplay wouldn't connect to my phone (or vice-versa), music and radio weren't working, and although I could program my destination into the car's satnav, the car couldn't actually work out where it was on the map. It was able to recognise and respond correctly to numbered speed limit signs, but failed to recognise or respond to national speed limit signs. I tried re-starting the car several times but without success, so pressed on to my destination. The car itself was driving perfectly.

On arrival at my destination, the system still wouldn't start up properly, so I performed a 'factory settings' reset - I didn't at that time know that you could restart the infotainment system by pressing the Home button. This seemed to work; everything started up as usual and I drove around the far north for the next three days without incident.

On the way home, the first 80 miles passed normally, until I pulled into the same cafe at Dalwhinnie and parked in the very same spot as before. Returning to the car, the infotainment system again failed to initialise fully, with exactly the same set of symptoms - no Carplay, no radio, no GPS and only partial road sign recognition. I drove another 50 miles or so, did another factory reset which set everything back to normal again, and the rest of the drive home and two days since have passed without any sign of a problem.

It seems too much of a coincidence for the same problem to appear in exactly the same location so I figure some other factor must be at play. Could this, for example, be interference from a power line or radio source (though there's nothing obvious nearby) or something in the car's map database which is causing the system to glitch? Has anyone else experienced something similar? The system version is R55, as delivered.

I haven't named the cafe because it's exceptionally good and I'd hate to discourage anyone (including me) from visiting, so I hope that's not the conclusion.

Patient: "Doctor, it hurts when I do that."
Doctor: "Don't do that..."

 

[SRP1]

It could be some sort of interference. Could it be anything to do with the nearby whisky distillery? Lol

 

[Noel]

The PHEV is a pleasure to drive. However, the software, to use a technical term, is flakey. Sometimes it all works flawlessly, and at other times it doesn’t.
I’ve purchased two new MG’s, in the last two years, from the same dealership, and after a previous visit, when I raised my voice in the showroom and pointed out the negative effects of fobbing off customers, then the relationship has improved markedly.

Further thoughts. Considering that the car searches for radio stations, and stores them on the initial set up. Perhaps the fact that those stations were not available in the distant location, where you stopped. When switched the system off and on again it could not locate the original stations, your “reset” initiated a new search, and the system then remembered the available stations.
Upon your return the same thing happened. Perhaps the same situation caused the other services to fail?

 

[mandrake079]

Further thoughts. Considering that the car searches for radio stations, and stores them on the initial set up. Perhaps the fact that those stations were not available in the distant location, where you stopped. When switched the system off and on again it could not locate the original stations, your “reset” initiated a new search, and the system then remembered the available stations.
Upon your return the same thing happened. Perhaps the same situation caused the other services to fail?

Thanks for taking the time to think about it. It’s certainly a possibility, although the first reset deleted the stored stations and I didn’t add any before the second failure. We also drove to Denmark last year without any problems. It’s the fact that both glitches happened in the exact same place that intrigues me. I’m still inclined to think it was either localised radio interference or something in the satnav database. The database theory isn’t all that far fetched, as my wife and I once had identical TomTom units which worked perfectly but would always reset when crossing one particular roundabout - we never found out why!

 

[fx860e]

Thanks for taking the time to think about it. It’s certainly a possibility, although the first reset deleted the stored stations and I didn’t add any before the second failure. We also drove to Denmark last year without any problems. It’s the fact that both glitches happened in the exact same place that intrigues me. I’m still inclined to think it was either localised radio interference or something in the satnav database. The database theory isn’t all that far fetched, as my wife and I once had identical TomTom units which worked perfectly but would always reset when crossing one particular roundabout - we never found out why!

Firstly, I know that this will sound all a bit paranoid…….

A few years ago when I had to stay at Telford over a weekend, I used my Tom Tom to get through the town and into the outskirts to where I was staying.

I had to use the Tom Tom a few times while I was staying there, and noticed that suddenly, in some areas, it would throw my position into nearby housing estates and surrounding areas, even open fields and rivers. Then as I carried on driving it would suddenly all start working again, until I returned around the same area the next time.

In talking with the people I was staying with, they asked if I was anywhere around the nearby MOD Donington military base, which I found out later when I googled it I was, in fact there are at least three such bases around there.

I have never got to the bottom of it, and have not needed to return since, but have wondered if some military bases jam GPS or other signals for security reasons.

Forgive me, I know that I could be paranoid, but were you near any military bases at the time?

If you want to go completely ‘over the rainbow’ and ‘down the rabbit hole’, remember that this is a Chinese built car, and if the software seems a bit flaky when it comes to the various wireless components it has, and they seem to be a bit susceptible to outside signals, well……remembering Huawei a few years ago…….

OK, I think I’ll stop there to save any shred of a reputation I may have left.