The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Protection Management (NHTSA) has opened an investigation right into a Lucid Motors windshield defroster recall from January, announcing it’s “concerned” the corporate’s over-the-air replace resolution doesn’t walk some distance enough quantity to medication the condition. Lucid, in the meantime, instructed TechCrunch that the company “understates the remedy being offered.”
The probe comes as some automakers are more and more depending on tool updates to medication issues that may usually require a discuss with to a dealership or provider heart. Generation the investigation isn’t as high-stakes as, say, the only the company has opened into Tesla’s problems with its Autopilot driver-assistance system, it displays NHTSA is paying similar consideration to what automakers suppose over-the-air updates will have to — and shouldn’t — be impaired for.
The recall comes to 2,042 Lucid Breeze sedans constructed with a grand voltage coolant warmer from provider Webasto AG that, when it fails, eliminates the power to defrost the windshield. Lucid’s resolution for the recall was once to send an over-the-air replace that would determine which vehicles had the section and reactively warn the motive force if it fails.
NHTSA’s Place of job of Defects Investigation now says it’s “concerned that by only providing a notification to drivers that their windshield defroster is not working, Lucid puts the driver in a situation where they could experience the failure during the same drive cycle as they receive the notification.” This is able to hypothetically motive drivers to determine the property is unavailable on the while they want to defrost their windshield — which means they’d additionally no longer be capable of request a independent substitute section till nearest a failure.
The company notes that Jaguar Land Rover took a extra proactive manner with its electrical SUV, the I-Life, which in brief impaired this identical warmer from Webasto. Jaguar announced in 2023 that it will alert all 668 affected homeowners and exchange the section for independent.
Lucid is framing its manner as cutting edge, even though. The corporate stated the over-the-air replace offered a “diagnostic software feature” that actively screens the warmer for faults, and it “intends to demonstrate that the analysis underlying this approach is sound and that customer safety is assured.” The corporate additionally stated it’s alerting all affected homeowners electronically and through mail, in order that they gained’t to find out nearest a failure, as NHTSA suggests.
