After the death of actor Anton Yelchin involving a Fiat Chrysler’s Jeep Grand Cherokee, the company has announced speeding of the fix for the recalled 1.1 million vehicles. The car maker announced that the process for software fixing was being speeded up for rollaway risks like the recalled Jeep Grand Cherokee.
After the company had initially informed the owners of the recalled vehicles that the software fix would be ready in the fourth quarter of the year, as early as last week the car maker announced that it began providing software required to service vehicles to its 2,400 U.S. dealers. The software for fixing the problems in the recalled vehicles would be ready no later than July or August, Fiat Chrysler had told dealers on May 24.
The availability of the recall fix would be notified to the owners of the recalled vehicles by the company on Friday. "Advance planning is critical to efficient customer care and represents an acceleration – by several months – of the originally anticipated service launch", Fiat Chrysler said.
Scheduling for repairs and fix for their vehicles had already been started by some dealers the media had reported earlier this week. However it is not clear how many vehicles have been repaired.
The majority of the recalled vehicles comprise of those that are equipped with 3.6 liter and 5.7 liter engines and the software for fixing the problems is available for those vehicles. The software for fixing of the remaining recalled vehicles will be available soon, Fiat Chrysler said.
According to a document sent to dealers first reported by the automotive website Jalopnik, an “Auto Park” feature that "eliminates the possibility of the driver inadvertently failing to place the transmission into 'PARK' prior to exiting the vehicle," is included in the upgraded software for the fix.
Police said on Sunday that Yelchin died after he was pinned against a fence and mailbox in Los Angeles by his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee which accidently rolled away after it was parked. Yelchin is best known for playing "Chekhov" in "Star Trek".
The issue of Fiat Chrysler vehicles having the chance of rolling away even after drivers exit has been linked to 41 injuries, 212 crashes and 308 reports of property damage and this prompted the company to recall more than 1.1 million cars and SUVs worldwide in April.
“It is clearly a safety issue that has led to hundreds of crashes and dozens of injuries" noted the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier after it had run an investigation into the shifter in these vehicles that were involved in the accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had scaled up its probe into the issue in February.
Investigations into Yelchin's death by Los Angeles police and Fiat Chrysler are being monitored by the agency, it said after the accident. However whether the recall defect was to blame for Yelchin's death has yet to be determined.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
After the company had initially informed the owners of the recalled vehicles that the software fix would be ready in the fourth quarter of the year, as early as last week the car maker announced that it began providing software required to service vehicles to its 2,400 U.S. dealers. The software for fixing the problems in the recalled vehicles would be ready no later than July or August, Fiat Chrysler had told dealers on May 24.
The availability of the recall fix would be notified to the owners of the recalled vehicles by the company on Friday. "Advance planning is critical to efficient customer care and represents an acceleration – by several months – of the originally anticipated service launch", Fiat Chrysler said.
Scheduling for repairs and fix for their vehicles had already been started by some dealers the media had reported earlier this week. However it is not clear how many vehicles have been repaired.
The majority of the recalled vehicles comprise of those that are equipped with 3.6 liter and 5.7 liter engines and the software for fixing the problems is available for those vehicles. The software for fixing of the remaining recalled vehicles will be available soon, Fiat Chrysler said.
According to a document sent to dealers first reported by the automotive website Jalopnik, an “Auto Park” feature that "eliminates the possibility of the driver inadvertently failing to place the transmission into 'PARK' prior to exiting the vehicle," is included in the upgraded software for the fix.
Police said on Sunday that Yelchin died after he was pinned against a fence and mailbox in Los Angeles by his 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee which accidently rolled away after it was parked. Yelchin is best known for playing "Chekhov" in "Star Trek".
The issue of Fiat Chrysler vehicles having the chance of rolling away even after drivers exit has been linked to 41 injuries, 212 crashes and 308 reports of property damage and this prompted the company to recall more than 1.1 million cars and SUVs worldwide in April.
“It is clearly a safety issue that has led to hundreds of crashes and dozens of injuries" noted the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier after it had run an investigation into the shifter in these vehicles that were involved in the accidents. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had scaled up its probe into the issue in February.
Investigations into Yelchin's death by Los Angeles police and Fiat Chrysler are being monitored by the agency, it said after the accident. However whether the recall defect was to blame for Yelchin's death has yet to be determined.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
