Chapter 5 - Recalls and Software Vulnerabilities

Recalls

General

Slightly fewer respondents were impacted by a recall than last year, overall. However, automotive software recalls are a growing problem in the industry, on track to surpass previous recall numbers for the sixth year in a row, according to Forbes. The increasing complexity of automotive software, in addition to innovative self-driving technology, contributes to issues that might lead to a recall.

For example, the driverless rideshare company Waymo recalled their whole fleet in December 2025, Reuters reported, due to a failure of its robotaxis to stop for school buses. In the EU, Citroën, Opel, and Fiat made headlines by recalling 215,230 vehicles in January 2026 due to a software error that affected instrument cluster screens — which ultimately made the ADAS functions unavailable, reported Car-recalls.eu. And in China, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) identified safety issues related to driver-assistance systems as one of the leading causes of recalls, accounting for 23% of the total recalls, according to a China Daily article.