Ford Recalling 66K-Plus Hybrids Due to Safety Sound Problem
Ford Motor Co. is recalling more than 66,000 midsize hybrid SUVs that fail to make the federally mandated noise for electrified vehicles driving at speeds under 20 mph.
The company told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in a filing that the problem affects more than 18,000 Ford Explorer hybrids from the 2025-2027 model years and more than 48,000 2024-2027 model year Lincoln Nautilus hybrids. These vehicles are also equipped with the Phoenix Audio System.
The affected vehicles fail to emit the sound designed to warn pedestrians that the vehicles are driving slowly in electric-only mode. This is typically in parking lots or neighborhoods where pedestrian traffic is higher.
The problem, according to NHTSA, is that the failure the Loss of Pedestrian Alert is random. It’s due to a software issue that is still under investigation. Owners may receive a “Pedestrian Sounder Fault. Service Now” warning on the vehicle’s instrument panel cluster.
Ford says no injuries have been reported as a result of the problem, but there have been 65 warranty claims on the 2024-2026 on the Nautilus hybrid and seven on the 2025-2026 Explorer hybrid. Owners will receive notices beginning in early August about the recall with instructions to take the vehicles to the nearest Ford or Lincoln dealer.
[Images: Ford, Lincoln]
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Michael Strong has spent more than 25 years writing about the automotive industry. A Detroit-area native, he’s written about everything from local car shows to product reviews to financial news. Currently he writes and edits for a variety of national and local publications. He’s also a longtime member of the Automotive Press Association and the International Motor Press Association, and a graduate of Georgia Southern University. Hail Southern! Despite a love for ’70s land yachts and BMWs from the late ’80s and early ’90s, his personal vehicle is neither of those.
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I HATE THAT SOUND! you can hear it inside the vehicles which is the worst crime directed towards electric car owners who expect SILENCE.
That you can hear it as if directed toward you in the vehicle has nothing to do with the requirement to make a sound. It has to do with the car maker's design decisions, or the car maker skimping on sound insulation, or the driver just possibly being especially sensitive to a new kind of sound.
Even though cars and trucks have gotten quieter over the years, I don't think "silence" has been a common expectation among drivers - maybe a distant dream, but never really an expectation. But "reasonable" sound levels and "good" sounds, like the rumble of internal combustion, have been common expectations.
Also - in the 16 years since the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act law was passed requiring electric vehicles to make a sound at low speed, I think the "market" has done little or nothing to help the average car owner understand why these cars need to make sounds.
The reason is that, according to a study by NHTSA, electric vehicles operating at low speed are 37% more likely to hit an unaware pedestrian than a car with a running internal combustion engine.
That's a really big number. It's not just a big deal in cities like NYC, where cross-town traffic almost never reaches 20 mph and 15,000 pedestrians are struck by vehicles in an average year. It's also a big deal on suburban streets, where it's pretty much always kids, old people, and bicycles getting run down.
Meanwhile, SUVs are getting taller and heavier. Blind spots are getting bigger. Distractions are overwhelming. And drivers clearly care less and less, as your own comments make abundantly clear.
The "worst crime" isn't the sounds, it's the 60,000 pedestrians getting maimed or killed by a moving car every year across the U.S.