Automaker Scandals and Legal Issues

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These 23 vehicles are most likely to be in a fatal accident

Two Teslas are on the list

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With constant testing by groups such as the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), cars and trucks are safer than they once were. But some makes and models tend to be in more serious accidents.

A new study by automotive marketplace iSeeCars.com has highlighted the most dangerous vehicles on American roads, revealing alarming statistics about fatal accident rates. 

The analysis, based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analys...

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  1. Feds launch investigation of Tesla self-driving system
  2. Golf cart deaths from flooding illustrate dangers of lithium-ion batteries
  3. Honda, Acura recall recent models to fix steering issue
  4. Car seat belt reminders are getting louder and more insistent
  5. Tesla robotaxi fails to impress

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    NHTSA opens probe into Tesla steering issues

    The investigation involves the 2023 Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover utility vehicle

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into complaints about steering issues in the 2023 Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover utility vehicles.

    The agency said it has received some complaints from Tesla owners who reported either losing power steering control or complete steering control. One owner said the loss of control resulted in a crash.

    During the pandemic, Tesla began modifying software so it could use different semiconductors when supply chain issues created shortages. Tesla has recalled some Model S and Model X cars to address power steering problems attributed to a software update that didn’t go quite right.

    ConsumerAffairs reviewers have on occasion, mentioned various issues related to steering their Teslas.

    ‘Awkward and dangerous’

    Lars, of Manhatten Beach, Calif., told us he considers the new yoke steering wheel in his 2022 Model S “awkward and dangerous.”

    “I'm not sure how they got this approved but it is super disappointing,” he wrote in a ConsumerAffairs review. “I'm sure there will be some people who like it, but it is not safe.”

    Amanda, another Tesla owner from Atlanta, told us she has issues with the quality of her Tesla, including how the steering wheel was put together.

    “My vehicle also has some screws missing in the steering wheel but they don't allow you to go to the service center for this,” Amanda wrote in her review. “They've had issues with steering wheels falling off, but there's no one to tell you if your car is safe.”

    It’s not certain that the current investigation will lead to a recall. Federal agencies like NHTSA cannot order a recall but only request the company to issue a voluntary recall. As part of its investigation, NHTSA is asking Tesla owners to submit complaints about any steering issues.

    You can file a complaint with NHTSA here. ConsumerAffairs would like to hear about your issues here.

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into complaints about steering issues in the 2023 Model 3 sedan and...

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    California Tesla crash draws more scrutiny

    The fatal accident follows the recall of 363,000 vehicles

    The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has asked for more information from Tesla and California authorities who are investing a weekend accident in which a Tesla plowed into a firetruck parked on a freeway.

    One person was killed and another critically injured in the accident that occurred just days after a recall of nearly 363 thousand Tesla vehicles equipped with the company’s advanced driver assistance feature, which Tesla markets as Full Self-Driving Beta.

    That followed a notice by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) warning that in rare cases cars equipped with the technology could be in violation of state and local traffic laws. It said there could be an increased risk of an accident if the driver fails to intervene.

    According to the most recent reports, it is not known what caused the accident or if the car was being operated in self-driving mode. While suspicion has focused on self-driving technology in other Tesla crashes, Matas Buzelis, the president of the Association of Automotive Intelligence and an automotive expert at carVertical, says it’s a complicated issue.

    Safer than human drivers

    He cites data provided by Tesla, along with government safety statistics, that show vehicles using a self-driving system caused 9.6 times fewer accidents than cars driven by humans.

    “Perhaps there are situations when the autonomous system can’t really match the human driver in certain environmental perceptions,” Buzelis told ConsumerAffairs. “However, computers and sensors monitor so much more processes simultaneously when compared to human drivers. And that is the key to safer traffic.”

    John Uustal, a founding partner of Kelley | Uustal Trial Attorneys, is a good bit more skeptical of the technology and says that the safety of consumers needs more attention. He says labeling the driver-assist technology as Autopilot is dangerously misleading.

    "It’s crazy because Tesla admits that the driver needs to maintain control,” Uustal told us. “It’s not Autopilot. Tesla calls it Autopilot to drive sales, but this technology is killing innocent people."

    Time will tell

    Buzelis says the truth may become clearer as Tesla sales grow and there are more of these vehicles on American highways. He says if there is a direct correlation between more cars on the road and accidents, he expects accidents to go down, not increase.

    In the latest crash, the Tesla Model S slammed into a firetruck that was parked in one lane of the freeway to protect first responders who were working another accident scene behind it. The Tesla did not change lanes to avoid the truck.

    The NHSTA is currently looking into how Tesla’s autopilot system detects and responds to vehicles parked on highways and has opened a number of investigations into Tesla car accidents where Autopilot was suspected of being used.

    The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has asked for more information from Tesla and California authorities who are investing a we...

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    Tesla app issue locked hundreds of drivers out of their vehicles

    The issue occurred shortly after the automaker updated its app

    Things are back in order now, but scores of Tesla drivers had a rough start to their weekend. Electrek reported that a failure within a Tesla mobile app left hundreds of drivers around the world locked out of their Tesla vehicles on Friday. Electrek said the outage came after Tesla pushed a new update to its mobile app.

    Why does a mobile app have the power to create so much havoc? It’s because owners often rely on their phones to perform several vehicle functions, including unlocking the car. Tesla CEO Elon Musk was upfront about the disruption. He addressed the error on Twitter on Friday, saying that the issue was a “500 server error” to connect their Tesla Model 3 on the iOS (Apple) app. 

    Outages of Tesla’s systems are relatively isolated, but Electrek reports that there have been some significant examples in the not-so-distant past. Back in September 2020, there was a complete outage of Tesla’s customer-facing servers and its internal system for several hours.

    Frustration continues to mount for Tesla owners

    Musk probably can’t wait for 2021 to be done and over with it. Just this year, his company has had to face seat and brake issues, a recall of 130,000 cars because of touchscreen problems, and autopilot systems running amok.

    Even though its 2021 score in the J.D. Power 2020 Initial Quality Survey moved it out of the dead last position among automakers, consumers still claim that Tesla’s customer service is lacking.

    “I have had my Tesla Model S Performance now for over a year (15,000 miles) and it has been the worst experience that I have ever had in my 40 plus years of having cars,” Matthew of San Marino, Calif., wrote in a recent ConsumerAffairs review. 

    “From taking delivery of the car to this moment has been so stressful and it is impossible to get anyone to help in customer service. The car was not available to pick up when I went to pick it up. They had emailed me and told me it was. This happened twice. The manager of the Burbank Service Center was rude and did not want to be bothered listening or helping me.”

    Things are back in order now, but scores of Tesla drivers had a rough start to their weekend. Electrek reported that a failure within a Tesla mobile app le...

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    Honda pauses production at most U.S. facilities due to supply-chain issue

    The automaker said it’s working to ‘limit the impact’ of the situation

    Honda said Tuesday that it’s pausing production at its factories due to a supply-chain issue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    The automaker said most plants in the U.S. and Canada will stop production while some will operate at reduced levels. Workers won’t be laid off and will have the opportunity to continue working at affected factories. 

    "We continue to manage a number of supply chain issues related to the impact from COVID-19, congestion at various ports, the microchip shortage and severe winter weather over the past several weeks,” the automaker said. “Our purchasing and production teams are working to limit the impact of this situation and are adjusting production as necessary in order to carefully manage the available supply of parts and meet the needs of our customers.” 

    Last summer, Honda halted production at some of its U.S. factories due to a cyberattack that impacted the company’s customer service center. The carmaker noted that the “timing and length of production adjustments could change” as it works to mitigate the current issue. 

    Honda said Tuesday that it’s pausing production at its factories due to a supply-chain issue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The automaker said most p...

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    Porsche issues ‘stop sale’ on vehicles with Sport Chrono package

    Certain cars were found to emit more nitrogen oxide than permitted under current regulations

    Porsche has issued a “stop sale” on vehicles equipped with its Sport Chrono package. The stop sale involves older cars built between 2012 and 2016, including certain 911, Boxster, Cayman, Cayenne, and Panamera models.

    The automaker said it found that some cars equipped with the Sport Chrono package emitted more nitrogen oxide than permitted when driven in "Sport Plus" mode, rendering them illegal to be sold in the U.S. 

    A spokesperson for the automaker told Business Insider that it’s working on a software fix and "testing every model derivative" to figure out which of the models are affected. 

    “Not every model line we've tested is affected," the spokesperson said. "So, it really goes down to us testing every model derivative. We're being cautious."

    Not a safety issue

    The cars affected “were developed and sold years ago,” the spokesperson said, adding that Porsche's current model line isn’t affected by the issue. 

    "To be clear, our dealer partners are buying all used Porsche cars as they usually would, and the cars in customers' possession remains safe to drive — what the dealers have paused is selling the specific cars in their inventory affected by this until the software on these cars can be updated."

    At this time, the automaker isn’t sure when it will resume selling cars equipped with the Sport Chrono package. The company said it will apply a software update to the affected vehicles once it’s able to hone in on the issue. Eventually, Porsche plans to issue a fix for customers’ vehicles as necessary. The company stressed that the issue doesn’t pose a safety risk for current owners. 

    Porsche has issued a “stop sale” on vehicles equipped with its Sport Chrono package. The stop sale involves older cars built between 2012 and 2016, includi...

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    States that legalize weed see initial spike in traffic accidents

    While accident numbers eventually do go down, researchers say neighboring towns and cities may be more affected

    Since a number of states across the country have begun legalizing the sale of marijuana, researchers have been evaluating the ways the decision has affected consumers’ day-to-day lives.

    A recent study conducted by a team from Monash University found that states that legalize marijuana see an uptick in traffic fatalities in the months that immediately follow the legalization. While these accidents do tend to decrease over time, neighboring towns are affected more.

    “The effect of cannabis legislation on traffic fatalities is a growing public health concern,” said Dr. Tyler Lane. “The results suggest that legalizing the sale of cannabis for recreational use can lead to a temporary increase in traffic fatalities in legalizing states. This spills over into neighboring jurisdictions through cross-border sales, trafficking, or cannabis tourists driving back to their state of residence while impaired.”

    What’s happening on the roads

    The researchers evaluated traffic information from three states that legalized the recreational sale of marijuana -- Oregon, Colorado, and Washington -- and then looked at nine neighboring cities. Information was gathered from 2009 through 2016.

    The researchers compared traffic fatalities in states that legalized weed with those who have not, and they found that in the six months following legalization, there were around 170 additional traffic-related deaths among the three states.

    The study showed that traffic fatalities went up by one for every one million residents in Oregon, Colorado, and Washington, but after the first year of legalization, the numbers went back to normal. However, the increase in accidents remained in cities that bordered the states that legalized weed.

    The researchers call this trend “cannabis tourism,” which involves residents traveling across state lines to legally purchase marijuana, and then driving back to their hometowns -- usually after smoking their purchases. Moving forward, the researchers suggest that lawmakers need to consider the wide-reaching effects of legalizing marijuana, and how they may go further than originally anticipated.

    “Our findings suggest that policymakers should consult with neighboring jurisdictions when liberalizing cannabis policy to mitigate any deleterious effects,” Dr. Lane said.

    Reaching more people

    Legalizing marijuana is a popular topic for many legislators nationwide, and following the 2018 midterm elections, Utah, Missouri, and Michigan voters are pushing for a more widespread use of the drug in their states.

    Not long after that vote of confidence, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that it was looking to legally sell food and drinks with CBD oil.

    The FDA is “aware of the growing public interest in cannabis and cannabis-driven products” and plans to “continue to take steps to make the pathways for the lawful marketing of these products more efficient.”

    Coca-Cola could be the first brand to jump on the bandwagon, as the soda company has shown interest in developing drinks that contain CBD.

    CBD has been found to help those suffering with epilepsy, muscle cramps, pain, anxiety, and depression, and it can also be effective for those trying to lose weight or lay off alcohol. Because of this, Coke says these products would be marketed as “wellness beverages.”

    Since a number of states across the country have begun legalizing the sale of marijuana, researchers have been evaluating the ways the decision has affecte...

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    Just a ‘thermal’ issue: is the auto industry getting lax about spontaneous combustion complaints?

    Faced with complaints that its cars are randomly igniting, Hyundai says regulators should focus on all auto brands

    It took the quick-thinking of a good samaritan for a Nashville city official to escape his burning Kia in the nick of time.  

    “Hey, there’s fire coming underneath the car,” Nashville City Councilman Jonathan Hall recounted a passing driver shouting at him on the highway. Hall told local news that he pulled over, jumped out of the car, and heard a “boom” sound shortly after.

    In Denver, Cindy Titus thought a case of road rage was prompting a truck driver to abruptly cut in front of her and slam on his brakes. Then the brakes and steering on her 2013 Kia Sorento suddenly failed. She realized the truck driver was trying to give her a warning.

    “My car was on fire,” she recently recounted to her local news channel. She grabbed her dog and got out.

    The disturbing story of a man who died in another Kia last year in Cincinnati shows what could have happened if those warnings didn’t arrive in time. Carol Nash’s son Keith borrowed her 2014 Kia Soul to go grocery shopping. In the apartment parking lot, she later told reporters, she heard the sound of an explosion.

    Keith couldn't open the doors; his brother said that they had automatically locked themselves shut. The family says that Keith burned to death while trapped in the vehicle.  

    A “thermal incident”

    For consumers, such encounters are terrifying and, in the Ohio case, deadly. But for Kia and Hyundai, the two automakers whose cars have been hit with what safety groups say are a disproportionate amount of spontaneous fire complaints, there’s no reason to panic.

    Both automakers have so far refused to issue a full recall on what independent watchdogs say are the fire-prone defective models;  the 2011-2014 Kia Sorento and Optima models, the 2011-2014 Hyundai Sonata and Santa Fe models, and the 2010-2015 Kia Souls. (Hyundai owns a 33 % stake in Kia  and the cars share many of the same manufacturing components as a result.)

    In a recent public statement responding to growing questions about its cars, Hyundai somewhat defensively announced that it “welcomes a more comprehensive review of non-collision fires among all automakers.”

    Kia, meanwhile, steered clear of Hyundai's “all fires matter” defense, instead offering a promise to hire investigators of its own to look into the issue, which it characterizes as a “thermal incident.”

    “KMA recognizes that customer safety is paramount and is committed to addressing every thermal incident,” the company said last month.

    The brands have previously recalled some of suspect vehicles over engine issues, but the recall notices issued last year didn’t mention the spontaneous combustion complaints.

    “There was no reference to the word fire or even ‘thermal event’ which is their favorite way of saying it,” says Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, the safety nonprofit that has taken a lead in identifying complaints about the Kia and Hyundai cars.

    And the subsequent repair work on the cars recalled for engine problems  didn’t make the fire complaints go away; the Center for Auto Safety has now counted nearly 250 complaints describing fires that ignited without warning in the Kia or Hyundai vehicles, an increase of 85% from when the nonprofit first warned consumers about the problem earlier this year.

    The group says that 103 additional complaints were filed to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) between June and October and is continuing to demand that Kia and Hyundai recall a total of 2.9 million vehicles.

    In response to the safety petition and complaints, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee invited the CEOs of both companies to testify on November 14; neither agreed. The Senate Commerce Committee ultimately opted to delay the hearing. A new date has not been set.

    “Discussions among the committee and two auto manufacturers about participation at a future date remain ongoing," a spokesman for the Commerce Committee said of the postponement.

    The rare but frightening spontaneous fire

    Leave it to Tesla fanatics to publicly debate whether a car randomly catching fire is a valid thing to complain about.

    It started with a post last June from actress Mary McCormack, which described her husband’s frightening ordeal in his Model S in Los Angeles.

    According to a video and Twitter post, McCormack’s husband was driving down Santa Monica Blvd when the undercarriage of his Model S caught fire “out of the blue.”  

    “Thank you to the kind couple who flagged him down and told him to pull over,” McCormack wrote on Twitter, accompanied by a 45-second clip of the flaming Tesla.

    Tesla -- whose CEO Elon Musk previously claimed that “you are more likely to be struck by lightning in your lifetime than experience even a non-injurious fire in a Tesla” -- responded at the time that the fire was an “extraordinarily unusual occurrence” and promised a full investigation “to find out what happened.”

    The results of that investigation are not publicly known; the incident quickly disappeared from headlines, and Tesla’s press team has not yet responded to messages from ConsumerAffairs inquiring on the results.

    In absence of a formal investigation, some outlets like MarketWatch deflected to “Black Swan” author Nassim Taleb, a Tesla owner who wrote a post on Twitter claiming that McCormack was being “emotional” about her husband's car catching on fire.

    “Proper approach: count the rate of these things for @Tesla, compare to other automakers, & adjust by other safety statistics,” he wrote, adding that the public should “never listen to actors except on acting.”

    No warning

    But experts say that while rare non-collision fires aren’t unique to any particular car brand, that doesn’t mean such incidents are acceptable.   

    “I certainly think non-collision fires are among the most troubling things that you can encounter,” Levine of the Center for Auto Safety tells ConsumerAffairs. “There's no forewarning for it. There's nothing you can do to prevent it as a consumer, because you don't know its coming.”

    In England, a BBC Investigation documenting a tendency of some Ford EcoBoost engines to heat and catch fire was quickly followed by a promise from Ford this October to give refunds to all consumers who reported the problem.

    Later that month, BMW announced a recall of 1.6 million diesel cars from the years 2010 through 2017 over fluid leaks that could cause fires.

    And in December, Chrysler recalled 10,021 Pacific Hybrid plug-in vans over a defect that it said could cause engines to stall and catch fire. Those are just examples from the last two months alone.

    It's not necessarily that vehicle fires are getting more common. United States regulators say that emergency responders put out an average of 152,300 vehicle fires every year, though the figure isn’t broken down into whether there was a prior collision.

    Despite Hyundai’s suggestion to examine the fire rates of all brands, The Center for Auto Safety and other watchdog groups aren’t tracking every car that may be prone to a non-collision fire. That would be a hefty task.

    They say they are focusing on Hyundai and Kia cars precisely because of the relatively high volume of complaints coming from consumers about the same makes and models, demonstrating what they argue is a clear pattern.

    Another concern that the Center for Auto Safety points to is the testimony from consumers who have reported their electronic locks failing in the potentially defective cars, which threatens to trap them when the fire breaks out, as allegedly happened in the Ohio case.

    “We have definitely seen reports of people of their car is on fire and they can’t get out, or it is difficult to get out. That would also, to us, lead to another reason to look into this," Levine tells ConsumerAffairs.

    In fire season, another worst case scenario

    As several major cases in recent years show, an unchecked defect linked to a vehicle fire can have far-reaching consequences.  

    BMW, Ford, and the federal government are currently embroiled in a lawsuit over a 2002 Ford Escape that caught fire on a container ship in 2015, causing an estimated $100 million worth of damage to other cars on board and destroying the ship.

    The Escape had been under recall over fuel problems that Ford warned could ignite fires, even when the car was turned off. But the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the Ford’s owner, a USDA employee who was having her car shipped back to the United States, never received the notices because she was working overseas. The case highlights what advocates say is a need for recall notices to go digital.

    Last year's Carr Fire in California, the state’s sixth-most destructive wildfire of all time, was reportedly ignited by a car with a flat tire.

    And several years ago, a major insurer sued Fiat Chrysler over a California wildfire that ravaged part of San Diego County in 2013. The suit claims that the blaze was ignited when a US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee drove his Jeep Wrangler through tall brush. According to a 2010 recall notice, some Jeep models have a defect in the undercarriage that allows debris to collect, “causing an underbody fire without warning.”

    The lawsuit argues that more cars, including the BLM employee’s Jeep, should have been included in that recall.

    “Vehicle fires are very complex and often occur for reasons that have nothing to do with the vehicle involved,” Jeep said in response.

    More recently, a couple in Minneapolis provided footage to ConsumerAffairs showing their brand new Toyota RAV4 catching fire while it was turned off and unattended. The car exploded shortly after, injuring a first responder on the scene. A fire department investigator said that the fire was “an extremely strange occurrence” that he had never documented before. The fire ignited from the interior of the vehicle, not the engine, as is more typical in non-collision fire cases.

    Toyota in that case told the couple that an aftermarket tow hitch they installed may or may not have ignited the fire, and otherwise said the cause would be left undetermined. The tow mechanic says that he has never heard of tow hitches causing cars to explode.

    “Manufacturers who fail to properly design vehicles, and fail to ensure that fire risks are addressed promptly, are putting a lot of lives -- in addition to the lives of the owners and their passengers -- at risk,” Rosemary Shahan of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety tells ConsumerAffairs.

    Meanwhile, the complaints about fires in Hyundai and Kia cars have been filed to regulators on a steady basis for the past five months, advocates say. NHTSA is currently launching an investigation of its own, though that one also focuses on engine problems rather than the fires specifically.  The investigation has been ongoing for months.

    “I’m not sure that we're seeing the urgency that we would like to see from NHTSA with respect to something that is so dangerous, at least publicly," Levine adds.

    It took the quick-thinking of a good samaritan for a Nashville city official to escape his burning Kia in the nick of time.  “Hey, there’s fire coming...