No, a recall is usually only issued when there’s risk for human harm. A free maintenance alert (IIRC that’s what it’s called) will just execute the repair at the company discretion, usually when the part has already failed and when the car is in for periodic inspection and maintenance.
Companies are usually reactive rather than proactive with recalls, which makes me wonder if they’re facing a wrongful death claim due to someone running over a kid because of the faulty cam.
My Honda CR/V was recalled (twice) due to software bugs that would randomly prevent the battery from charging properly. The only risk I faced was being stuck in a parking lot somewhere and having to get the car jumpstarted to get it going again. Once the car was running it ran fine. There was absolutely no safety risk, but they were formal NHTSA recalls.
For context, at the time of that rule being made, there were on average 210 fatalities and 15,000 injuries caused by backover crashes per year. Americans, with our love for big SUVs and trucks with terrible sight lines, basically made not having a functional backup camera into a risk for human harm.
A recall is actually a formal process mandated and managed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). When a recall is announced, the manufacturer is required to inform all impacted owners of the defect, and keep NHTSA updated on the status of the notices and all other aspects of the recall. Depending on what the recall is for the fix could be pretty much anything to an over-the-air software update, to having a software update applied at a dealership, to a full replacement of faulty hardware. All at the manufacturers cost.
If it wasn’t for the government managing the recall process then most manufacturers wouldn’t admit that these sorts of faults were very widespread, and certainly wouldn’t fix them for free.
“~5% of 2024 and 2025 models may have a faulty rearview camera system that shows a blank or distorted image.”
Man, I’m surprised the chosen course of action is to recall. It feels like just covering the repair for affected folks would be way easier 😅
That’s what a recall is.
No, a recall is usually only issued when there’s risk for human harm. A free maintenance alert (IIRC that’s what it’s called) will just execute the repair at the company discretion, usually when the part has already failed and when the car is in for periodic inspection and maintenance.
Companies are usually reactive rather than proactive with recalls, which makes me wonder if they’re facing a wrongful death claim due to someone running over a kid because of the faulty cam.
My Honda CR/V was recalled (twice) due to software bugs that would randomly prevent the battery from charging properly. The only risk I faced was being stuck in a parking lot somewhere and having to get the car jumpstarted to get it going again. Once the car was running it ran fine. There was absolutely no safety risk, but they were formal NHTSA recalls.
I stand corrected.
If people reported this problem to the NHTSA, Honda basically could only choose whether or not to do the recall voluntarily.
Faulty rearview cameras are considered recall-worthy in the US, as they are a required safety feature for every new vehicle from May 2018 onwards.
For context, at the time of that rule being made, there were on average 210 fatalities and 15,000 injuries caused by backover crashes per year. Americans, with our love for big SUVs and trucks with terrible sight lines, basically made not having a functional backup camera into a risk for human harm.
Edit: fixed a typo
A recall is actually a formal process mandated and managed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). When a recall is announced, the manufacturer is required to inform all impacted owners of the defect, and keep NHTSA updated on the status of the notices and all other aspects of the recall. Depending on what the recall is for the fix could be pretty much anything to an over-the-air software update, to having a software update applied at a dealership, to a full replacement of faulty hardware. All at the manufacturers cost.
If it wasn’t for the government managing the recall process then most manufacturers wouldn’t admit that these sorts of faults were very widespread, and certainly wouldn’t fix them for free.
Interesting, thanks for teaching me something! ☺️