Automakers such as Ford, Volkswagen, Stellantis and Honda have issued recalls in recent months involving rear-view cameras and their images.
It’s not typically seen as a life-threatening automotive defect, but it’s annoying nonetheless. Here are the most recent recalls:
- Ford Motor Co. recalled nearly 110,000 vehicles in May after discovering that rearview camera images were not displaying correctly due to electromagnetic interference from cellphones.
- The Volkswagen Group recalled more than 80,000 vehicles in June due to delayed or disabled rear-view camera images.
- In the same month, Stellantis recalled nearly 1.2 million vehicles in June due to rearview camera images conflicting with radio systems.
- Also in June, Honda Motor Co. recalled nearly 138,000 vehicles due to rearview camera images not displaying.
Neither automaker shared the same supplier for the defective parts that led to these recalls.
The supplier may not be the root of the problems automakers are having with backup cameras, William Wallace, associate director of public safety at Consumer Reports, told Automotive News. There is a federal safety standard on backup cameras that makes it much easier to trigger a recall, Wallace said.
“There are no gray areas like there are with many other vehicle systems,” Wallace said.
That means every mistake made in implementing rearview camera technology is more likely to trigger a recall than other issues, Wallace said.
The auto industry is transitioning from hardware-based vehicles to software-based vehicles, said Art Hyde, director of the University of Michigan’s automotive engineering program. In the past, backup cameras and their images were operated by a simple switch, the former Ford chief engineer said. But today, software and hardware are intertwined.
“I think it’s very difficult to test software,” Hyde said. “Particularly, you have to test not just the software alone, but the software in the context of the hardware.”
The shift to advanced technology in cars is a good thing, but it means the auto industry is on a learning curve, Hyde said. As companies continue to work to build vehicles rooted in software, these recalls are to be expected.