Malfunctioning software sparks huge recall of Toyota Prius cars
TOYOTA is recalling 1.9m Prius cars over a software fault that can cause the hybrid cars to stop.
The recall affects 30,790 UK-registered Prius manufactured between March 2009 and February 2014
The carmaker has received several reports of a bug in the software controlling part of the car’s hybrid power system, meaning switches in the engine can overheat and send the car into failsafe mode or even stop altogether.
Toyota has asked car owners to bring their vehicles in for a 40-minute software upgrade to fix the problem. It pointed out that no accidents or injuries have been reported as a result of the glitch.
The firm has had to conduct several recalls due to problems with its Prius range, including a braking problem in 2010 that affected almost half a million cars.
The recall also comes a week after Aston Martin said it was bringing in three-quarters of all the cars it had made since 2008 over fears that some of the parts from a Chinese subcontractor were made with counterfeit plastic.