Yahoo Autos Feds Hit Ford Hit With $165 Million Fine Over Reverse Camera Recall Issues
The federal government announced on Thursday that it has levied a $165 million civil penalty against the Ford Motor Company over the automaker's failure to comply with federal recall requirements. It is the second largest penalty in the history of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, trailing only behind the consent order that Takata was handed down in its massive airbag recall.
The consent order relates to a massive recall of 700,000 cars and trucks across North America that was announced in September 2020, regarding rear-view cameras that could fail across a spectrum of vehicles that included Ford's Ranger, F-150 and Super Duty pickup trucks, the Ford Mustang and the Lincoln Nautilus and Corsair, among others. NHTSA opened up an investigation in 2021 to determine if the recall had been performed quickly enough; the group found that Ford both failed to recall the vehicles in a timely manner and failed to provide "accurate and complete" information as mandated by the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
$65 million of the penalty must be paid up front, and an additional $55 million in payments will be deferred. The remaining $45 million will fund performance obligations at Ford in an agreement with NHTSA, which covers three years and potentially could extend into a fourth. Much of that funding goes toward new infrastructure for safety data analytics at Ford, an imaging test lab focused on low-voltage electronics, and a new component tracking system tied to individual VINs.
Ford will additionally be required to review both its past three years of recalls and its recall decision-making process. Since the reviews of past instances include a review of their scope, the decision could lead to further recalls. Ford eventually recalled additional cars for its rear-view camera issue in both 2022 and 2024.
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