Ex Toyota Employee Wants to Warn You About the 2025 Camry (2024)

Toyota started shipping the refreshed 2025 Camry in the spring of 2024. A Toyota dealership employee who goes by “Junior” on TikTok was one of the first people to get one. He’s since left the company, but now he is trying to get Toyota’s attention with two concerns about the car: The first is an overzealous lane-keep assist mistaking indents on the road for painted lines. The second is having to restart the car every time his phone (which is also his key fob) disconnects.

First of all, Junior is a major fan of the automaker, and belongs to a longtime Toyota family. He said, “Love Toyota. Love the brand, love Lexus, everything about Toyota. No hate, no harm—just want the issues fixed.”

Secondly, Junior had some issues with his 2020 Toyota Camry and–because he was still an employee–he was able to report them directly to the company. The automaker listened and fixed them in a software update for all owners.

Junior’s experience here makes sense. One of the secret ingredients to Toyota’s reliability is “Jidoka” which means “building a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.” Any Toyota employee, even a worker on the factory floor, can stop everything if they spot a problem.

But now that Junior is no longer an employee, he is having trouble getting Toyota’s attention. He said he’s posted to X (previously Twitter), tagging the automaker. He’s also shared a video on TikTok, hoping Toyota will respond. “I just want these issues addressed because they’re both things that can be fixed with software.”

So what exactly are his issues? He said when the car spots “little rivets” or “little indents” on the road, it assumes they are lane lines. “If you’re going 50 miles an hour on the highway, it thinks that [is] the line … So it tries to shift you over.”

Junior is not exactly clear what “rivets” or “indents” he’s referring to. It sounds like he’s talking about the rumble strips in the breakdown lane. But perhaps it is lines of tar laid down to fix cracks in the pavement. Or perhaps is is the rows of road reflectors some states us. Either way, it sounds like a dangerous problem.

The second issue is a major hassle. “Every time you go to connect your phone, it won’t connect…And you have to turn the car off, disconnect the digital key, and then reconnect it, or you just plug it in wired.” The software glitch is even more of a pain because of Toyota’s “digital key” program which allows you to download an app to your phone and use it instead of a traditional key fob.

Multiple TikTok viewers commented that they have the same problems. One person said, “Literally the same 2 issues I have!! Thought I was the only one omg but other than those 2 issues I lovee the car.” Someone else said, “I have the same two issues. I love the car so this would help!”

For the 2025 model year, Toyota upgraded the Camry with several software upgrades. But TikTok viewers with other model years report similar problems. One owner said, “My 2024 Camry does the lane thing! It’s so annoying!! I LOVE Toyota and have had 3 Camrys.” Someone else commented, “My 2022 Camry has the same radio reboot issue and the dealership is trying to tell me I have to possibly pay for a diagnostic fee and pay out of pocket for the rental car while the cars in getting looked at.”

Next, read our review of the 2025 Toyota Camry’s updates, or watch Junior’s entire TikTok video embedded below: