[HN Gopher] Jeep software update bricks vehicles, leaves owners ...
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       Jeep software update bricks vehicles, leaves owners stranded
        
       Author : croes
       Score  : 93 points
       Date   : 2025-10-13 16:08 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thestack.technology)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thestack.technology)
        
       | gnabgib wrote:
       | Discussions (270 points, 1 day ago, 286 comments)
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45558318
       | 
       | (103 points, 2 hours ago, 69 comments)
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45568700
        
         | araes wrote:
         | This is kind of a meta commentary on this subject, yet
         | something seems wrong with the HN rankings lately.
         | 
         | The link mentioned has 270 points, and 317 comments, was posted
         | only a day ago, and yet now cannot be found.
         | 
         | Managed to eventually find it using Hacker News Rankings.
         | Here's the chart. [1]
         | 
         | [1] Jeep pushed software update ... ,
         | https://hnrankings.info/45558318/
         | 
         | Story rises fast, makes it to number 2, then suddenly begins a
         | rapid fall with no halting all the way down to 299, where it's
         | no longer being tracked. (HN Rankings only tracks to 300)
         | 
         | There's no mark of a [Dead] story. No comments that the story
         | is not appropriate. Comments appear reasonable and polite. The
         | graph looks like vote manipulation and story burying.
        
       | YeBanKo wrote:
       | Here is a very interesting thread with owners
       | https://www.4xeforums.com/threads/wrangler-4xe-ota-update-10...
       | Some interesting observations:                   * vehicle loses
       | power while in motion             * some owners reported not
       | accepting the update, but it still proceeded to update
       | * off hours support told them call on Monday
       | 
       | Jeep has been riding on their reputation for while. If you still
       | loyal to this brand, then it's on you guess.
        
         | flaminHotSpeedo wrote:
         | Out of curiosity, what do you mean by Jeep riding on their
         | reputation?
         | 
         | Based on everything I've seen and heard, Jeep's reputation is
         | for unreliable vehicles that are increasingly difficult to
         | repair. This seems pretty on-brand for that reputation.
        
           | freeqaz wrote:
           | Recent reputation, yes. But their old reputation was very
           | positive. They made cars that would survive in any condition
           | (which is why they were popular for military uses).
           | 
           | These days, you're in one of two camps: Either you still
           | believe (because you're ignorant or value the Jeep brand more
           | than you value a reliable vehicle) or you've read the recent
           | reviews and steer clear.
           | 
           | Jeep has been duking it out for the bottom of Consumer
           | Reports ratings for a while now, yet they still seem to sell
           | cars. As they continue to betray their loyal customer base
           | though, I imagine this will change. I wish American car
           | companies were better!
        
             | treesknees wrote:
             | I think you're conflating a few things. Jeeps, as
             | manufactured during World War II, were produced by Ford and
             | Willys. The Jeeps of today, manufactured by Stellantis,
             | carry on the name (and arguably the general shape) but are
             | completely different vehicles.
             | 
             | They "seem" to sell cars? Well, yes. The Wrangler and the
             | Grand Cherokee are consistently near the top of list of
             | most popular SUVs, year after year.
        
               | nostrademons wrote:
               | The point of buying the brand is to conflate reputations.
        
             | water-data-dude wrote:
             | Don't forget the third camp who just really like OLD jeeps!
             | 
             | Somewhere in the ballpark of a week ago there was a car
             | show near where I walk my dog (some charity event). Overall
             | not that interesting - there were a lot of flashy low
             | riders with the crazy hydraulics and stuff - but there was
             | also this really cool jeep truck-thing from sometime in the
             | 1950's, a Jeep Forward Control[0]. They had pics of it when
             | they first got it, absolute rusty mess! But goddamn, I'm
             | not even a car guy and I was impressed. Labor of love.
             | 
             | Then my cousin has a more modern Jeep and lemme tell you:
             | not great. I wonder what happened to that company? Garden
             | variety enshittification, or is there an interesting story
             | there?
             | 
             | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeep_Forward_Control
        
           | nostrademons wrote:
           | Depends how old you are. Up through the 80s, Jeep still had a
           | reputation as a rock-solid, durable brand. (The reality
           | probably changed sometime in the 1970s, but it takes time for
           | word to get out.) A lot of people's mental model is set
           | somewhere in their 20s/30s, and they never really update it.
           | So a lot of baby boomers still think of Jeep as a reliable
           | car.
        
             | grogenaut wrote:
             | Among my dads friends (lawyers) in the 80s none of them
             | would buy a jeep because they consistently died between 60k
             | and 80k miles. one of them had one but he expected to only
             | put 30k on it on his property. We had to pull it with a
             | tractor on multiple hunts because the 4wd system wouldn't
             | work.
        
             | flaminHotSpeedo wrote:
             | That's what I was getting at, though I wasn't sure if my
             | perceptions matched the general consensus (which it seems
             | they do).
             | 
             | If a manufacturer has been broadly considered as unreliable
             | for the past 20-40 years (JK's came out in 2007, and I
             | still heard some people talking about jeeps as being
             | reliable in the TJ era, though I'd personally disagree), I
             | think it's fair to say they have a reputation of being
             | unreliable.
        
       | ChrisArchitect wrote:
       | [dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45558318
        
       | donatj wrote:
       | My new Honda was very insistent I give it access to my Wi-Fi or
       | share internet with it through my phone. I have declined this
       | request.
       | 
       | Everything currently works fine. I would rather have a working
       | vehicle with potentially outdated software than one that does not
       | work. I have no desire to invite problems where there are none.
        
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