Odd Incident with Voice Command System

On the way to work today, I was pulling out a Dunkin Donuts and wanted to change from AM to FM on the radio. When I hit the button on the steering wheel to give it a command, it didn't give me the usual beeps for confirmation. Instead, it immediately increased the volume on the radio to an extremely loud level. So loud, that I reached over and quickly shut the audio system off.

Let it sit for a minute, then turned it back on. Tried the voice command button again, with the same result. Everything else seemed to work fine. As long as I made my changes manually it was OK. So I didn't attempt voice command again for the rest of the trip. At the end of the day, I started the car and voice command was back to normal. All worked fine. This morning it was still working fine.

One of the things that had me worried when choosing this car was the inordinate amount of functions controlled electronically. I realize this is a growing trend in automobiles, and the Prius particularly, with its need to balance power from different sources, would have even more circuits than most cars. Still, it was always there in the back of my mind, and all I could do was hope that Toyota had all the angles engineered to protect the electronic parts from their usual enemies - heat, water, humidity, chafing from wire harness movement, etc. etc.

As long as I can fix these anomalies with a "reboot", I'm OK with that. Anyone who has worked with a Windows based computer has learned to grin and bear it. Perhaps this was my first BSOD, so to speak. But I'm still a little worried. Any previous gen Prius owners experienced anything like this?

 

Just the one time. No problem since. Would appreciate your posting back about it if you take it to the dealer. What they say and exactly what they do to fix it.