(February 12, 2014) Toyota dealers will reprogram software in about 713,000 Toyota Prius cars in North America that are being recalled to fix a hybrid control unit glitch that can cause the cars to automatically shut down and enter a limp-home failsafe mode. The software update also affects 997,000 cars in Japan and another 130,000 in Europe.

The global recall involves the third-generation of the hybrid vehicle, the flagship of the carmaker's gasoline-electric fleet.

It is the biggest global recall of the world's best selling hybrid.

Toyota says the software update should take about 40 minutes, but if the update doesn't take, a control module would then need to be replaced, a fix taking about three hours. Dealers will be notified today, Toyota said.

Sources: Media reports