Nissan North America is recalling 3.2 million cars and crossovers – including the Chevrolet City Express – because the front-seat passenger Occupant Classification System (OCS) may think that an adult passenger is a child or falsely conclude the seat is empty despite it being occupied. As a result, the passenger air bag may be turned off and not deploy in the event of a crash. Models from the 2013 model year on up are affected by the safety defect.
These Nissan recalls are just the latest example of how software is an increasing problem in late-model vehicles – an issue that the entire auto industry and its suppliers are struggling with.
The massive safety defect recall appears to be the direct result of a NHTSA investigation. In March 2015, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened a Recall Query (RQ15-001) after the agency received 124 complaints alleging problems with the OCS after previous Nissan recall repairs and/or other OCS related repairs were made by Nissan and Infiniti dealers.
The majority of the complaints NHTSA logged alleged the passenger air bag status light stays on – indicating passenger air bag is turned off – for adult front passengers of sufficient weight. Many of the complaints stated Nissan and Infinity dealers made multiple repairs, but the problem still existed. I
In Nissan’s June 2015 response to ODI’s information request under the Recall Query, Nissan provided ~1121 complaints and field reports on the recalled vehicles. These reports alleged OCS issues similar to the NHTSA reports described above.
Depending on the reporting period, NHTSA has received ~208 complaints and opened an Engineering Analysis last March to conduct a comparative assessment and evaluation of the effectiveness of the recall remedy.
Nissan has not provided a notification schedule. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669, Infiniti customer service at 1-888-833-3216 or Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020.
Nissan will notify its owners. Chevrolet City Express owners will be notified by General Motors. Dealers will reprogram the Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) and OCS Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in Altima, Maxima, Murano, Rogue, and Sentra vehicles, and replace the OCS ECU in LEAF, NV200, NV200 Taxi, Pathfinder, Infiniti Q50, JX35, and QX60 and Chevrolet City Express vehicles, free of charge as is required by U.S. law.
