With the ongoing saga of the Takata airbag recalls, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced updated tools to help the public navigate pertinent information.
Approximately 34 million vehicles and 46 million airbags have been affected and labeled defective over the recall, with millions of additional recalls to be made by December 2019. This has left a lot of information that needs to get to the U.S. public, and in response, the NHTSA has refined its website’s functions. The administration has added improved search functions so consumers can view the airbag repair rates by priority group and repair rates over time for affected manufacturers, in addition to existing driver-side airbags, passenger-side airbags, and all airbags.
Such data is being paired with the outreach recommendations of the Takata Independent Monitor’s status report to provide all 19 vehicle manufacturers increased information to aid completion rates and aid consumer understanding of the recall schedule. Older airbags are being replaced first, but all are slated for recall.
The recall marks the largest and most advanced recall in U.S. history.