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 pinch faulty rearview cameras and grounded to “provide meticulous and complete callback information.”. This punishment is the 2nd largest, only 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 pinch the Lincoln Nautilus and Lincoln Corsair. Affected vehicles person a rearview camera that sometimes shows a “blank aliases distorted image.” Ford says nary accidents aliases injuries were reported owed to the defect.

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

“We admit the opportunity to resoluteness this matter pinch 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 pinch much to come, including precocious information analytics, a caller in-house testing facility, among different capabilities.”

Additionally, the NHTSA will require Ford to reappraisal each of the recalls it issued wrong the past 3 years “to guarantee they person been decently scoped.” It will besides person an independent 3rd statement oversee its compliance pinch the NHTSA’s agreement.