BySteve Tengler,
Senior Contributor.
For possibly a record sixth straight year, the number of software recalls will rise past last year’s record for futility. So far in 2025, 166 recalls have affected a variety of automakers. Looking at 2024-2025 together, Tesla has affected the most vehicles (5,777,605), Ford has the greatest number of recall actions (73), and Stellantis suffers from the highest cost per vehicle sold ($743.22) resulting from the software recalls.
“We are watching a pivotal moment in history,” asserts Todd Warren, an adjunct professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University who tracks the NHTSA-reported software recalls on a website along with various statistics including percentage of over-the-air fixes by manufacturer. “Automakers will either fold under the weight of their own technical debt or emerge with a significant, competitive edge given better quality and methods of dealing with issues in the field.”
That competitive chasm might be even more astonishing than the rising numbers of recalls. In a recent article by WIRED entitled “Why Are Car Software Updates Still So Bad,” Carlton Reid suggests the average cost of a recall is $500 and, per Harman Automotive, an over-the-air reflashing of software costs $66.50 per vehicle. Applying those costs to each manufacturer and their varying ability to fix their safety concerns over the air for 2024-2025 saves Telsa billions of dollars. Meanwhile, Ford has the highest overall costs exceeding $2.5B with Stellantis just slightly behind at $1.8B. Comparing those egregious costs to their instate rival, General Motors ($443k over 2024-2025), Ford has a $1B per year disadvantage given just the software recall costs, and each Stellantis vehicle sold has a $661 burden over each GM vehicle. These staggering numbers, however, ignore correlated warranty bills, customer dissatisfaction impacts, and punitive jury damages like the recent $200 million judgement against Tesla.
