Ford penalized $165 million over moving too slowly on a rearview camera recall

Ford has agreed to pay a good that could spell up to $165 million aft the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recovered the automaker took excessively agelong to callback vehicles with faulty rearview cameras and failed to “provide close and implicit callback information.”. This punishment is the 2nd largest, lone behind the $200 million Takata was ordered to pay.

Originally issued successful 2020, the callback impacts much than 600,000 vehicles from 2019 onward, including the Ford F-150, Mustang, Escape, Ranger, and Expedition, on with the Lincoln Nautilus and Lincoln Corsair. Affected vehicles person a rearview camera that sometimes shows a “blank oregon distorted image.” Ford says nary accidents oregon injuries were reported owed to the defect.

Under the agreement, Ford is required to wage $65 cardinal upfront, followed by a $55 cardinal deferred outgo and an further $45 cardinal to put successful the improvement of a information information infrastructure and a investigating laboratory for rearview camera components.

“We admit the accidental to resoluteness this substance with NHTSA and stay committed to continuously improving safety and compliance astatine Ford,” Ford spokesperson Maria Buczkowski said successful an emailed connection to The Verge. “Wide-ranging enhancements are already underway with much to come, including precocious information analytics, a caller in-house investigating facility, among different capabilities.”

Additionally, the NHTSA volition necessitate Ford to reappraisal each of the recalls it issued wrong the past 3 years “to guarantee they person been decently scoped.” It volition besides person an autarkic 3rd enactment oversee its compliance with the NHTSA’s agreement.