Honda and Acura EVs Are Going Dark
There is a certain special kind of terror that comes with driving a modern electric vehicle when the digital facade decides to quit. We have spent the last decade being told that the future is software defined, but as it turns out, the future also includes staring at a void where your speedometer used to be. Honda and Acura are currently learning this the hard way as they issue a massive recall for over 65,000 units of the 2024 Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX.
According to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, these battery electric SUVs are suffering from a software error in the radio control module. This is not just a case of your Spotify playlist glitching out. We are talking about the actual instrument cluster and the center infotainment screen failing to transmit data properly. Imagine merging onto a highway and having no idea if you are doing 55 or 85 because your dashboard has the personality of a bricked smartphone. Even worse, the rearview camera image can disappear entirely when you shift into reverse, which makes the car fail federal safety standards for rear visibility.
This situation is particularly awkward because the Prologue and ZDX are built on General Motors Ultium platform. While the badges say Honda and Acura, the nervous system is very much a Detroit product. It seems that the digital handshake between the hardware and the software is having a bit of a mid-life crisis. Honda has reported nearly 150 warranty claims related to this issue already. While there have not been any crashes or injuries reported yet, having your primary source of vehicle information go dark while you are in motion is the kind of thing that leads to very expensive insurance claims and a lot of frantic blinking.
The fix involves a trip to the dealership for a software update to the radio control module. It is a bit of a bummer that a software problem requires a physical visit in an era where over the air updates are supposed to be the norm, but sometimes you just need a technician to plug in the OBD-II cable and tell the computer to behave. Owners can expect a letter in the mail starting April 20, 2026. Until then, the official recommendation for an intermittent blackout is to pull over and restart the vehicle. It is basically the car version of turning your router off and back on again, except your router does not weigh five thousand pounds and travel at highway speeds.
If this kind of digital uncertainty makes you want to trade in your current ride for something a bit more reliable, you might want to check out OptiCar. It is a marketplace where you can shop for millions of vehicles across the country, giving you plenty of options if you decide that your next car should actually tell you how fast you are going.
Ultimately, this recall is a stark reminder that the more we lean into the software defined vehicle, the more we are at the mercy of a few lines of code. It is one thing for your phone to crash while you are playing a game, but it is a whole different level of stress when your car decides that the speedometer is an optional luxury. Honda is moving quickly to patch the hole, but for now, Prologue and ZDX owners might want to keep a GPS speedometer app open on their phones just in case the dashboard decides to take a nap.
