Every year, dozens of heavy and light vehicles are flagged for safety problems so serious that they require immediate repair to correct a known defect. The number of recallsThe number of vehicles affected has been increasing over the last few decades - in 2023 alone, more than 30 million vehicles were recalled.
According to U.S. statistics, more and more safety recalls reveal the need to fix an electronic problem: malfunctions related to the software are now responsible for more than 1 in 5 car recalls, according to an analysis released earlier this year of a decade of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall data by the law firm DeMayo Law. A separate estimate by Envorso, an American consulting firm that specializes in the strategy of software for the automotive sector, highlighted an even more dramatic impact: The total number of vehicles affected by recalls related to errors of software jumped from almost 15% of all vehicles recalled in 2023, to almost 42% of all vehicles recalled so far this year. In other words, more than 12 million vehicles have been recalled due to problems with software by the end of October. Earlier this year, Stellantis recalled more than one million vehicles in the US due to a problem with softwarewhich prevented the rear-view cameras from working properly.
An investigation by the Detroit Free Press, published earlier this year, also revealed that millions of used and aging cars currently on US roads are not being repaired, despite dangerous defects identified by car manufacturers and the federal government. The investigation also concluded that the manufacturers of these cars are making little progress in repairing their older models with safety problems, putting a growing and vulnerable group of drivers at unnecessary risk.
The continuation of the original article via Detroir Free Press can be read here.
