Owners of some Jeep Wrangler 4xe hybrids have been left stranded after installing an over-the-air software update this weekend. The automaker pushed out a telematics update for the Uconnect infotainment system that evidently wasn't ready, resulting in cars losing power while driving and then becoming stranded.
Stranded Jeep owners have been detailing their experiences in forum and Reddit posts, as well as on YouTube. The buggy update doesn't appear to brick the car immediately. Instead, the failure appears to occur while driving—a far more serious problem. For some, this happened close to home and at low speed, but others claim to have experienced a powertrain failure at highway speeds.
Jeep pulled the update after reports of problems, but the software had already downloaded to many owners' cars by then. A member of Stellantis' social engagement team told 4xe owners at a Jeep forum to ignore the update pop-up if they haven't installed it yet.
Owners were also advised to avoid using either hybrid or electric modes if they had updated their 4xe and not already suffered a powertrain failure. Yesterday, Jeep pushed out a fix.
As Crowdstrike showed last year, Friday afternoons are a bad time to push out a software update. Now Stellantis has learned that lesson, too. Ars has reached out to Stellantis, and we'll update this post if we get a reply.