Fiat Chrysler Issues Recall After Cruise Control Defect Discovered

11:38 AM 05/25/2018

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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) announced this morning that the company is recalling 4.8 million vehicles in the U.S. after the discovery of a defect that prevents drivers from deactivating the cruise control.

According to Reuters, there has not been a fatality or a crash attributed to the defect, and the company believes a simple software upgrade can solve the problem.

The issue was discovered by FCA engineers during testing, and the recall represents FCAs “commitment to safety,” according to the companys Chief Compliance Officer Mark Chernoby in a statement.

FCA says that the circumstances that would lead to a malfunction of the cruise control system would be “extremely rare,” but the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a statement about the recall, saying that the administration “strongly encourages vehicle owners to follow a warning from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to “stop using cruise control” on the affected vehicles.

The NHTSA has published a complete list of all vehicles affected by the recall and said that it includes models from Dodge, Ram, Jeep, and Chrysler. FCA stated that the vehicles that are affected are from model years 2014-2019.

According to the NHTSA, if a driver experiences the malfunction while driving, they are instructed to “shift the transmission to neutral, forcefully apply the manual brake, and place the vehicle in park once stopped.”

FCA says the recall repairs will be free to customers, and that the company will be contacting affected customers next week.