Eight of our 22 vehicle recalls were software, and none is fixed over the air alone

Eight of our 22 vehicle recalls were software, and none is fixed over the air alone

Honda's recall of 635,808 Pilots and Acuras comes down to one line of arithmetic. Software in the electric power steering divides a number by zero, the code raises an error, and the steering was set up to answer that error by switching power assist off while the car is moving. The remedy is a reprogrammed control unit, and the record Honda filed with the US regulator says the update comes from a dealer, not over the air.

That recall is one of 22 recall records in our reporting on cars, autonomy and robotics, and when we counted all of them, the Honda shape turned out to be the usual one. Eight of the 22 are software or firmware faults. In none of the eight does a report say the fix reaches the car over the air and nowhere else: four name a dealer visit, one (GM's) allows either route, and three do not say how the software arrives.

This piece sets out the count, the rule behind it, and the limits. Those limits are large. Twenty of the 22 records were filed or published within twelve days, from 26 October to 6 November, so this is a snapshot of two regulators in early November, not a measure of how software recalls behave across a year, a market or an industry.

What we counted, and the rule

The set is every published report in our modern cars (32), autonomous vehicles (38) and robotics automation (34) categories, 104 in all. The first is dated 16 April 2026 and the last 10 November 2026. By month they run 2 in April, 4 in May, 4 in June, 7 in July, 2 in August, 21 in September, 37 in October and 27 in the first ten days of November, so the set is dominated by the last ten weeks. Every count below was made from the bodies of those 104 reports and their Sources lists, not from outside data.

A recall record is one numbered filing that a report describes: an NHTSA campaign number, a filing number in a notice from China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), or a manufacturer campaign that a testing body reports. Eight reports have a recall or a recall query as their subject. Together they describe 22 records:

• 7 from the US regulator NHTSA: Honda, Hyundai, GM, Mack Trucks, Ferrara, Spencer, and Waymo's recall 25E084
• 14 SAMR filings from seven notices, published on 4 and 6 November
• 1 manufacturer campaign, MG's seat-rail repair, reported through Euro NCAP

We sorted each record by what the regulator or maker says is faulty. Software or firmware means the text names software, firmware or a control unit's programming. Electrical hardware means a physical electrical part. Mechanical is everything else. We did not reclassify on our own judgement: where a text says "deviation in the parking-assist system software", that is software, and where it names a corroded bolt, that is mechanical.

Two cautions go with the rule. The SAMR notices were read in Chinese and translated by us. And our recall reporting is recent: seven of the eight reports were published between 7 and 10 November, with MG's recall of 13 May the only older one, so a recall from the summer is not in this count.

Two regulators, two pictures

Of the 22 records, 8 are software or firmware, 3 are electrical hardware and 11 are mechanical. The split by source is stark, and it is the first thing to distrust.

All seven NHTSA records in our reports are software or firmware. Honda's is one. Hyundai's airbag recall is another: a software error in Hyundai's airbag control unit may switch off the airbags and the seat belt pretensioners in 37,901 Kona Electric and Veloster N cars. GM's brake control software may cause a loss of braking in 67,380 electric Cadillacs and Chevrolets. The Hyundai report also lists three smaller records. Mack's hill start assist message can be falsely enabled on 151 electric trucks, and Ferrara and Spencer recalled seven emergency vehicles in all whose display may stop responding to touch. The seventh is Waymo's recall 25E084, a software issue that could let a robotaxi drive past a stopped school bus.

The reason for that uniformity is us, not NHTSA. We wrote about the records that carried a software story, so the NHTSA side of our count is a selection. The one unselected NHTSA number we have is in the Hyundai report: we read the 20 records the agency's API returned for campaign numbers 26V700 to 26V729, reported between 22 October and 3 November, and five named a software or firmware remedy. Honda's 26V721 sits inside that number range but was filed after the Hyundai report, so the count in that range is at least six. The other records were not described in our reports. On the only count we can call unselected, then, about a quarter to a third of recent US records were software, and we cannot say what the rest were.

The Chinese side runs the other way. Of the 14 SAMR filings, one is software: Porsche's parking-assist deviation, which can stop the reversing camera image reaching the screen on 18,274 imported Cayennes. The regulator says the recall was carried out while it had started a defect investigation. The other 13 are three electrical and ten mechanical. The electrical three are the door-lock microswitch on 180,277 Mercedes cars, which can corrode and fail to register an open door, split over two filings, and a power electronics board in two CLA electric cars that could cause a high-voltage short. The mechanical ten include the 610,297 Volkswagen group cars whose steering rack bolt road salt can corrode, a Chery rear-axle weld, Subaru's horn cable, the fuel line retainers on Toyota and Lexus hybrids and a MINI mirror bracket.

MG's seat rail, reported through Euro NCAP, is the last record, and it is mechanical: a front seat rail that let the driver's seat unlatch in a frontal crash test.

How the fix arrives

The question a fleet or a business owner has about a software recall is practical: does the car have to go to a workshop? We counted what each of the eight software records says.

Four say a dealer visit. Honda says dealers will reprogram the steering unit, and the NHTSA record's over-the-air field is false. Hyundai's dealers will update the airbag unit, Mack's dealers will update dashboard software, and Porsche China's authorised dealers will carry out the upgrade, with no mention of an over-the-air route in the notice.

One allows either. GM's remedy text says the module software "will be updated through an over-the-air (OTA) update or by a dealer, free of charge". The record's separate over-the-air field is false, so it disagrees with itself, and it does not say which vehicles get which route.

Three do not say. Ferrara and Spencer say they will work with the display supplier to update the firmware and install a monitor system, without naming a route. Waymo's recall says the update was completed on 17 November 2025 and does not say how it reached the vehicles. No record names over the air as the only route.

Our reports on software that is not a recall tell a different story, and the contrast is part of the finding. Three of them describe updates that do arrive over the air: Volkswagen's ID. Software 3.9.1, which adds battery pre-heating and a self-discharge test to older electric cars, Rivian's update 2026.31 for every R1, and the Tesla Assisted Driving changes that the Dutch regulator RDW approved, cutting the speed margin from 50% to 10%. These are features and tuning, delivered by the maker. The recalls are a separate group, and in our reports they still run through the workshop. Whether that is the law, caution or habit, the records do not say.

The over-the-air route carries its own conditions. The VW update needs an active connectivity contract, more than 50% charge, no driving while it installs and no way back, and owners who decline it stop receiving later updates. Rollout is in waves with criteria Volkswagen has not published, so two identical cars can receive it weeks apart. A recall that depended on that route would need a plan for the cars that do not take it.

Waymo's case shows a different limit. NHTSA's recall query RQ26006 covers 2,895 vehicles and was opened because, in the agency's words, a majority of the incidents it had identified occurred after the 17 November 2025 remedy date. Waymo told TechCrunch it has had no citations since March 2026. That is one case, and the company's own statement is the only source for the recent record. What it shows is that for software which keeps being retrained, "remedy completed on a date" and "fault gone" are two separate claims.

Software in cars that is not a recall

Recalls are where software becomes a legal obligation, but our reports show three other places where it matters to a buyer, each with a regulator or a researcher behind it.

Identity systems are one. Two researchers took control of connected-car accounts at two unnamed carmakers through the ForgeRock identity servers in front of them. Both companies fixed the flaws within about two hours of being told. No CVE or patch was involved, because the fix was on the maker's own servers, and a car owner could not have installed anything.

Data rules are another. China's industry ministry opened a consultation on five mandatory national standards, including Automobile Data Security Requirements and two for parking functions. Germany's competition authority is asking carmakers whether Google's restructured offer, the Geo Cloud Automotive Program, ends worries about bundled in-car map services. Ford published a privacy promise about connected-vehicle data.

Connectivity itself is the third. BYD and TIM Brasil will fit eSIM connectivity to more than 200,000 cars built in Brazil over 24 months. Every connected car is a car that can be reached by an update, and one that can be reached by someone else.

All five reports in this section carry our red note, because each rests on one source.

How much of this rests on a regulator, and how much on a company alone

Across all 104 reports, 76 carry our red note "Not yet independently verified". By category the count is 23 of 32 in modern cars, 29 of 38 in autonomous vehicles and 24 of 34 in robotics automation. The note means one thing: a fact in the report has no second source, often because we read only one side of the story. It does not mean the facts are doubtful.

We sorted the 104 by what their Sources lists contain, using the domain of each link:

• A regulator's or public body's own page: 19 reports. These cite NHTSA, SAMR, the Dutch RDW, Germany's competition authority, China's industry ministry, the US FAA and FCC, the UK Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport, or Germany's SPRIND. Thirteen of the 19 carry the red note.
• A testing body's page, Euro NCAP or IIHS: 5 reports. Two carry the note.
• Everything else: 80 reports. These rest on a company's own newsroom, a trade body, or the press. Sixty-one carry the note.

So a regulator's page does not remove the note. It removed it in 6 of 19 reports, against 19 of 80 for everything else. Why is the rate so high with a regulator? Because the usual note on a recall says the same thing: the facts come from the regulator's record, and we have not read the maker's own statement. Of the eight recall reports, seven carry the note. Honda's is the exception, and the reason is mechanical: it cites both the maker's newsroom release and NHTSA's record, so the two sources can be checked against one another. Six reports in the whole set have no primary page at all, only press coverage, and all six carry the note.

For a recall that means a specific thing. The regulator's record tells you what is faulty and which vehicles are in scope. It tells you less about the cause, the timetable and the fix, which is where the maker's account matters. In the Hyundai case we could not say what triggers the airbag error, and in the GM case we could not describe the driving conditions behind the brake fault, because we had not read either maker's own statement.

What a fleet or software buyer can check

Four checks follow from the counts, and each is grounded in a record above.

Ask for the route in writing. GM's own record disagrees with itself on whether the update can arrive over the air, and three records say nothing on it. A fleet with vehicles parked in depots needs to know whether they must be booked into a workshop. Honda's population of 635,808 cars shares one dealer network, which is why it makes sense to check vehicle identification numbers on the NHTSA site rather than wait for the owner letters.

Look vehicles up by number, not by news. NHTSA's site and the SAMR recall centre both offer a lookup by vehicle identification number. For the Chinese notices the regulator's own recall centre is the place to confirm a car; none of the notices says anything about other markets.

Ask for post-remedy evidence. The Waymo query is a case where the question that mattered was how many incidents came after the fix, not the date of the fix. A city or an operator negotiating terms with an autonomy provider can ask for that figure for each recalled behaviour.

Ask the identity question. Where a maker's consumer account system controls remote locking and location data, ask for evidence of external testing of that layer and the time the maker commits to for fixing a critical finding. Two hours is what two researchers saw, but only after they had found it.

Dates still ahead

We also went through the 104 reports for dated commitments that were still ahead on 11 November 2026. The rule: the source states a day, a period or a month, and the date falls on or after 11 November. Dates the source gives only as a year, half-year or fiscal year are counted separately, and none was checked against later news.

Seventeen dates meet the rule. Eleven are published by regulators or in regulator records:

• 11 November: Honda's vehicle numbers become searchable on NHTSA's site
• 18 November: China's draft Internet of Vehicles standards guide stays on public display
• 27 November: Chery's rear-axle recall starts in China
• 5 December: comments close on China's draft robot product ID codes
• 14 December: owner letters for the Honda and GM recalls, both on or about that date
• 19 December: comments close on the five draft vehicle standards, including data security
• 21 December: Subaru's recall begins in China
• 1 January 2027: Hyundai's owner letters are expected
• 15 January 2027: the Volkswagen group recall begins in China
• 19 February 2027: the Mercedes-Benz recall begins in China

The other six come from companies and non-profits. Nissan's Kobe pilot runs from 8 to 18 December. MassRobotics takes applications for its healthcare robotics catalyst until 31 December, interviews from 1 to 20 January, names the cohort on 29 January and holds company showcases on 2 and 3 June 2027. Toyota's Woven City expects about 25 households to move in around March 2027.

Looser promises are more numerous. We counted eight set for the end of 2026 or the fourth quarter, among them Kodiak's Dallas to Houston launch, commercial operations in Madrid under the WeRide, Uber and AVOMO permit, a US Capital Markets Day from Mobileye, Aurora's new routes for McLane, Pony.ai's target of more than 3,500 robotaxis, the closing of Agility Robotics' listing merger, version 2.0 of Woven City's AI engine and the German Volkswagen and Elli vehicle-to-grid package. Another 16 name only 2027, a half of 2027 or fiscal 2027, among them the Madrid starts from Waymo and Bolt, and the line where Tesla says it will stop building the Cybertruck around June or July.

The furthest named day in the first list is 3 June 2027, when the MassRobotics company showcases end in Boston.

Related on TrustList:

• Older VW ID. cars gain battery pre-heating in 3.9.1 software update
• GM recalls 67,380 electric Cadillacs and Chevrolets over brake software
• Rivian moves every R1 to RivianOS 2 with software update 2026.31