Where Does Your Automaker Fall in the Realm of Recalls?

Recalls. A word that no one likes to hear. Owners hate it, dealers despise it, and manufacturers wish it didn’t exist. Unfortunately, automotive recalls continue to be an issue, particularly those related to software defects. According to a Stout research report, in 2021 approximately 29 million vehicles were recalled in the US alone. Over six million of these were related to software and electrical components. 

To help conceptualize the impact of software-related recalls, Sibros created and released the industry’s first software-related recalls analytics dashboard. This dashboard utilizes public data provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to bifurcate recalls based on type, OEM, component, and more. At the moment, information is available for the US automotive market only, however Sibros plans to incorporate data from other major markets in the future.  

What Is the Recall Data Saying?

Using a wide-lense, the dashboard reveals that 5.6 million vehicles have been recalled year-to-date for software-related issues, versus 4 million for the same period in 2021. This 9% year-over-year uptick is due to vehicle design’s increasing dependence on software, a trend that is only expected to rise in years to come. Now, let’s take a minute to zoom in on some of the data.

In the 2021 calendar year, Mercedes Benz was the leader of the recall race, with over 1,773,000 vehicles recalled for software or electrical component issues. Hyundai came in second with approximately 726,000 units. Mercedes also had the highest software-related recalls by recall number, ten total. Kia was second with seven and Jeep came in third with six. 

The industry has seen a significant shift in 2022. As of October 17th, Kia is currently in third with 548,364 and Ford is holding onto the second largest number of units recalled with 964,036, though neither comes close to the OEM leading the software-related recall charge. With an impressive 3.3 million units recalled, Tesla is the clear winner of this race. There is, of course, one small detail that is worth mentioning. Although Tesla has over three times as many software-related recalls as Ford, they probably spent significantly less on recall rollout and repair. Why?

It’s Connectivity My Dear Watson

Tesla leverages over-the-air (OTA) update software, which allows them to remotely update and fix most software and electronic faults at the push of a button. This type of technology helps alleviate the cost and time-intensive challenge of contacting all impacted owners, getting them to a dealership, and scheduling extra service technicians to manually repair the fault. 

Of course, this is great news for Tesla, but what about other automakers? How can they reap the same benefits? Well, they can either throw time, energy, and resources into trying to build their own OTA solution. Or they can leverage a time-proven OTA update and data management solution like Sibros Deep Connected Platform (DCP). 

DCP was designed to connect and manage all software and data between vehicles, networks, and the cloud. This not only helps OEMs safely, securely, and reliably deliver feature upgrades and vehicle enhancements, but also enables early fault detection and remote recall fixes to reduce vehicle downtime and eliminate costs associated with recalls. 

The recalls dashboard was created in pursuit of Sibros’ vision of net zero software-related vehicle recalls by 2032. The second iteration of the dashboard is slated to include a remedy mechanism that includes the estimated completion time and rates of each recall. These will be based on whether the impacted vehicles are leveraging an embedded OTA solution or require an old-school dealer visit. To learn more about how Sibros can help your company eliminate software-related recalls by 2032, schedule a demo.