Nissan recalls 51 examples of the 2026 Leaf over potential battery fire risks.
Owners are advised not to drive, charge, or park the vehicle near buildings.
Two thermal incidents were reported, though no injuries have been reported.
The current Nissan Leaf hasn’t even been out for a full year, and yet the company is already issuing a serious safety recall. 51 owners might have a car that could, in very specific circumstances, experience a thermal event. Put simply, the specific vehicles could catch fire, so Nissan is telling owners to take several safety precautions, including parking outside.
According to the recall, the issue traces back to the 78-kWh lithium-ion battery pack. During the supplier’s manufacturing process, the edge of a battery cathode may have been torn. If that damaged section folds over inside the cell, it can create an internal short circuit.
That’s where things get serious. Nissan says the short circuit could overheat the battery and potentially trigger what the company calls a “thermal event.” In other words, the battery could catch fire even when the car is parked, switched off, and not charging.
The first known incident happened in Japan on February 16, when a parked 2026 Leaf suffered a thermal event while sitting outside. A second case surfaced in the U.S. on March 2 at a Nissan dealership. In both cases, the vehicles were turned off and not plugged in.
That’s key because oftentimes, it’s the charging procedure itself that can initiate instances like this. Considering that these cars weren’t plugged in means owners could have zero indication of an issue before a fire erupts.
Nissan says it used telematics data to scan other Leafs for unusual battery behavior, then traced the suspect battery packs directly to specific VINs. The company says it has one-to-one traceability between the battery and each affected vehicle. Nissan stopped shipping potentially affected Leafs on March 17 and placed vehicles on hold at ports. Owners will begin receiving calls immediately, and interim recall letters will start going out on April 17.
Until then, Nissan says affected owners should park the car outside and away from structures, avoid charging it, and bring it to a dealer. Dealers will provide a rental car until a fix is ready. Once that happens, Nissan will replace the damaged battery modules, or the entire battery pack if necessary, free of charge.
Extreme driving maneuvers could cause the G580’s wheel bolts to loosen.
Mercedes-Benz will alert owners to the recall from May 22 in the US.
Wheel bolts used for the G580 are the same as those of the lighter G-Class.
Electric vehicles tend to carry more weight than their combustion-powered counterparts, which makes hardware choices far less forgiving. That’s where things appear to have gone sideways for the Mercedes-Benz G580 with EQ Technology, now facing a recall affecting more than 3,700 units in the US.
According to Mercedes, early versions of the electric G580 were fitted with wheel bolts that weren’t properly engineered for the model’s added mass and higher torque output. Instead, they were carried over from the combustion-powered version. Over time, that mismatch can cause the connection between the wheel and hub to loosen while driving, increasing the risk of a crash.
A total of 3,734 examples are being recalled, all of which were manufactured between February 26, 2024, to August 19, 2025.
Mercedes says that it became aware of a potential issue during ongoing durability testing of the electric G-Class, , when a wheel bolt loosened despite meeting the required specifications. That prompted a deeper investigation into whether the SUV’s added weight, higher torque output, and demanding driving conditions could gradually compromise the wheel bolt connection.
What Can Go Wrong
The company ultimately determined that a wheel is most likely to work loose following “extreme driving maneuvers together with a number of repeated wheel changes over the vehicle’s lifetime.” This combination can increase wear on the contact surfaces of the wheel bolts.
Starting May 22, Mercedes will begin notifying owners of the recall. Affected drivers will be asked to visit a dealership, where technicians will replace the original bolts with a redesigned set better suited to the electric model’s demands. The updated design uses a two-piece collared lug bolt, intended to maintain consistent friction at the contact surface and reduce wear during tightening.
Vehicles built from August 26, 2025, onward already feature these revised bolts from the factory.
While the regular G-Class enjoyed its best year of sales ever in 2025, the G580 was described by a Mercedes-Benz executive in mid-2025 as a “complete flop.” This recently prompted Mercedes to offer massive discounts the US, in the hopes of driving up sales of the electric SUV that starts from $164,550, including destination.
“Distracted driving is 100 percent preventable, yet too many people give the road far less than 100 percent of their attention,” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator Jonathan Morrison said during a press event April 1.
NHTSA officials kicked off National Distracted Driving Awareness Month and unveiled a renewed national enforcement and education effort aimed at curbing one of the most persistent dangers on U.S. roadways. Also speaking was Derek Barrs, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA); Michael Paris, chief of Fairfield, Connecticut Police; and Patty Kruszewski, who lost her daughter in a distracted driving crash.
The agency is launching its enforcement campaign, “Put the Phone Away or Pay” April 9–13, pairing high-visibility law enforcement with a broad media push targeting drivers, particularly those ages 18 to 34. Officials say the goal is to change behavior before another preventable tragedy occurs.
“We cannot be satisfied until we get that number down to zero,” Morrison said, noting that while traffic fatalities have begun to decline, tens of thousands of lives are still lost each year.
Despite recent progress, distracted driving remains a major factor in roadway crashes nationwide. Federal data cited during the press event notes that more than 33,000 people were killed in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2024, with hundreds of thousands more injured.
Officials emphasized that those numbers likely undercount the true scope of the problem, as distraction can be difficult to confirm after a crash.
“Behind every statistic … that’s a human life,” Barrs said.
Wisconsin Crash
A 13-year-old was struck and killed by a 17-year-old motorists who wasn’t paying attention and reportedly on his phone. The 13-year-old was attempting to board the school bus, when she was struck and hit by the motorists who side-swiped the bus and hit the child on the right side.
Following the crash, he NTSB recommended that NHTSA develop and publish “Driver Distraction Guidelines that address the design of current original equipment in-vehicle electronic devices, portable electronic devices and aftermarket electronic devices to prevent driver distraction.”
The agency also reiterated its recommendation to cell phone manufacturers to develop a “distracted driving lock-out mechanism that will automatically disable any driver-distracting functions when a vehicle is in motion and install the mechanism in the default setting on all new devices and apply it during major software updates.”
Five more recommendations were reiterated to NHTSA following the crash. NTSB calls for NHTSA to develop and apply testing protocols to assess the performance of forward collision avoidance systems in passenger vehicles at various velocities, including high speed and high velocity-differential. It also calls on the agency to expand the New Car Assessment Program 5-star rating system to include a scale that rates the performance of forward collision avoidance and to develop performance test criteria for vehicle designs that reduce injuries to pedestrians.
NTSB also wants NHTSA to develop performance test criteria for manufacturers to use in evaluating the extent to which automated pedestrian safety systems in light vehicles will prevent or mitigate pedestrian injury and incorporate pedestrian safety systems, including pedestrian collision avoidance systems and other more passive safety systems, into the New Car Assessment Program. Additionally, Ford Motor Company is urged to install forward collision avoidance systems that include, at minimum, a forward collision warning component as standard equipment on all new vehicles.
Distracted driving is especially dangerous around school buses, where children may unpredictably enter the roadway. Even a momentary glance at a phone can mean the difference between stopping in time, or not.
“Just even one injury or death on our roadways due to distraction … is way too many,” Barrs said.
A recent National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation found that a 17-year-old driver was using his cellphone when he struck and killed a 13-year-old student who was preparing to board a school bus in Wisconsin. In its final report on the crash, the NTSB called for stronger enforcement, education and technology solutions to protect students during loading and unloading.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Paris stressed that visible enforcement is critical, but not enough on its own. “We need every driver to make a simple but critical choice — put the phone down, slow down, pay attention,” he said.
During the campaign week, officers across the country will increase patrols and actively ticket drivers caught using handheld devices. The effort is supported by a national media campaign, both English and Spanish.
At its core, the campaign returns to a straightforward message: no notification is worth a life. Officials and safety advocates alike are urging drivers to make that decision before they start the engine: Silence the phone, set it aside and stay focused.
Because, as Morrison noted, it only takes seconds for distraction to change lives forever.
Kruszewski told the story of her daughter, Lanie, who at 24 years old was struck and killed while biking home from work in 2012. The driver later admitted he never saw her because he was looking at his phone. Kruszewski said the tragedy underscored how quickly a seemingly small decision, checking a message, can destroy lives.
It “took just one text” to take her daughter’s life and forever change her family, she said.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator Jonathan Morrison stood in front of a row of car keys during a press event April 1, 2026. Each key represented a person injured in a distracted driving crash. The display included about 4,000 keys — symbolizing just a fraction of the victims hurt in 2024.
Behind officials during the announcement stood an installation of hundreds of hanging car keys, each representing a person injured in a distracted driving crash. The display included about 4,000 keys — symbolizing just a fraction of the victims hurt in 2024.
But officials noted that if the exhibit reflected the full scale of the crisis — more than 315,000 people injured in distracted driving crashes that year — it would stretch across half a football field.
“In just the time we’ve been talking today, another 18 people have now been injured in distracted driving crashes,” Morrison said near the close of the event.
Lucid’s second Gravity recall stems from a supplier change no one approved.
A seatbelt anchor weld falls short of federal safety requirements in most SUVs.
Affected owners will have their seats repaired or replaced at no charge.
Just a few months after the Lucid Gravity was recalled over seat covers that could prevent the airbag from functioning properly, the electric luxury SUV has been recalled yet again. This time, it’s due to a potential defect in the second-row seatbelt anchors.
The EV maker says that during internal tests for another issue, it discovered the outboard lap belt anchor bracket weld in the second row is shorter than it should be and not positioned correctly. The reason? Lucid says seat manufacturer Camaco made a change to the manufacturing process without notifying the company or obtaining its approval.
Vehicles with an insufficiently welded lap belt anchor fail to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and may increase the risk of injury in a crash. Unlike December’s recall, which impacted just 66 vehicles, this one is much more widespread.
In fact, the recall involves 4,476 Lucid Gravity models built from December 2, 2024, to February 3, 2026, and listed as 2025-2026 model year vehicles. Of these, 97 percent are estimated to have the issue.
What Happens Next?
This recall comes shortly after Lucid issued a brief stop-sale for the Gravity earlier this year as it ran tests to determine whether the seat belts could meet safety standards with or without a reinforcing bracket. Even with a bracket, they failed to meet load requirements, prompting Lucid to ensure the components sourced from Camaco meet its standards.
Lucid will start informing its owners of the recall on May 22. Dealers will inspect impacted vehicles, and if a non-conforming weld is found, it will be repaired with either a reinforcing bracket and adhesive or, if necessary, the entire seat will be replaced free of charge.
Nearly 12,000 Wagoneer S SUVs from 2024 to 2026 are recalled.
The liftgate hinge cover may not clip in and could fall off.
Jeep is aware of 17 warranty claims related to the fault in the US.
Nearly 12,000 examples of Jeep’s all-electric Wagoneer S are being recalled in the United States, highlighting a quality lapse that arguably should have been caught earlier. Now, owners will need to visit a dealership to have their vehicles inspected and the faulty component repaired or replaced.
A recall notice issued by the NHTSA states that 2024–2026 Wagoneer S models may have been built with a liftgate hinge cover that lacks sufficient design tolerances. Stellantis explains that in some cases, the rear liftgate hinge cover may not clip securely into place and could detach from the vehicle, creating a potential road hazard.
Owners might get an early warning. The company notes that occupants could hear a rattling noise or notice that one or both hinge covers aren’t sitting flush.
FCA’s Technical Safety and Regulatory Compliance team opened an investigation on January 8. Over the next five weeks, it worked with FCA US Engineering and Manufacturing to review production data and design revisions tied to the hinge cover, focusing on pinpointing the root cause of the issue.
Warranty Claims Start Piling Up
Jeep says that as of February 18, it had logged two customer assistance cases, 17 warranty claims, and 32 field reports potentially tied to the issue. In total, 11,767 vehicles are being recalled, all built between March 21, 2024, and July 24, 2025. The automaker estimates that 6.7 percent of them may actually have the defect in question.
The problematic component comes from Magna International, with owner notifications set to go out starting May 1. Dealers have been told to inspect the hinge cover and, if needed, repair or replace it with an updated version that stays put.
This isn’t the only recall recently issued by Jeep in the US. In February, more than 80,000 Grand Cherokees were called in for repairs because the rear coil springs may have been installed incorrectly as part of a previous recall. In this case, Jeep revealed the spring could detach from the vehicle entirely, presenting a serious safety risk.
NHTSA upgrades FSD probe to engineering analysis stage.
Over 3.2 million Tesla vehicles are included in investigation.
FSD may fail to detect vehicles in low visibility conditions
The NHTSA has intensified its scrutiny of Tesla’s Full-Self Driving system, focusing on how it copes when visibility drops. That escalation pushes the probe closer to a potential recall, one that could affect more than 3.2 million vehicles across the United States.
The agency first opened a preliminary evaluation in October 2024 to assess FSD’s ability to detect and respond appropriately in reduced roadway visibility. That probe has now been upgraded to an engineering analysis, which will examine how the vision-only system behaves in adverse conditions and whether it can alert drivers with enough time to react.
According to regulators, Tesla developed and implemented a degradation detection system after transitioning to its camera-based vision setup in mid-2021, abandoning radar and other sensors. The company began working on an update to this system in June 2024, following a report of a fatal crash involving one of its vehicles on November 28, 2023
Rain Is FSD’s Enemy
In its preliminary evaluation, the NHTSA began piecing together how Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system behaves in less-than-ideal conditions. The agency learned from Tesla that FSD’s ability to detect and respond to poor road conditions may have contributed to 3 of the 9 incidents identified by the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI).
In the crashes reviewed, the system failed to recognize common roadway conditions that affected camera visibility and did not issue alerts when camera performance degraded until just before impact.
A subsequent review of Tesla’s responses uncovered other crashes that occurred under similar circumstances. In these cases, the FSD system also lost track or “never detected a lead vehicle in its path.” The NHTSA also notes that Tesla says internal data and labeling limitations have prevented a uniform identification and analysis of crash events with the system engaged, meaning there is a possibility of under-reporting crashes.
The probe covers an estimated 3,203,754 Tesla vehicles, including the 2016-2026 Model S and X, 2017-2026 Model 3, 2020-2026 Model Y, and 2023-2026 Cybertruck models equipped with FSD.
Industry consultant Derek Graham will take the stage at STN EXPO East to shed light on the trends of illegal passing trends involving school buses, the work of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to combat the crimes, and provide recommendations to protect the students on and off the yellow school bus.
The “Trends in Illegal Passing Awareness & Enforcement” session will be held March 29, on day four of the conference in Charlotte-Concord, North Carolina. Graham has a career history of passion for school bus safety as an industry consultant and former state director of pupil transportation with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as well as past president of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS).
Graham’s home state of North Carolina was the first state to initiate an annual count of illegal passing trends, dating back to 1998. He co-coordinated the annual NASDPTS national school bus illegal passing count with Charlie Hood, at the time state director for Florida and later the association’s executive director, and worked with NHTSA to implement one of the first enforcement campaign using stop arm cameras.
During the STN EXPO East session, Graham will look at recent NASDPTS survey findings that found a drop in the number of illegal passing incidents last past school year. As he analyzes this and other federal data, he will explain the recent efforts of federally directed NHTSA studies that look at various components of the student transportation ecosystem to help reduce instances of illegal passing. This will include a breakdown of the NHTSA toolkit for planning safety school bus stops and routes and their evaluation of the technology offerings that target illegal passing as well their effectiveness. Graham will use his detailed knowledge of the nuance of federal laws and initiatives to summarize and explain how this research influenced NHTSA’s recommended actions to improve school bus safety.
Attendees will gain practical insights into how the results of these initiatives at the federal level can help further safety at their operations.
Early Bird savings ends Feb. 13. Register for the conference by the deadline to save $100 on main conference registration. The six-day conference will feature dozens of educational sessions, the Bus Technology Summit and Green Bus Summit, the hands-on National School Bus Inspection Training program and unique networking events including the Ride and Drive/Product Demo, Trade Show and Saf-T-Liner Thomas Built Buses Factory Tour. Some of these unique experiences have limited space, register now at stnexpo.com/east.
Another investigation is underway after a Waymo driverless vehicle hit a young pedestrian, this time in Santa Monica, California.
Last month, School Transportation News reported that Waymo’s driverless vehicles are still illegally passing Austin Independent School District school buses in Texas despite multiple attempts to correct the situation. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary evaluation Oct. 17, after a Waymo vehicle failed to stop and passed a school bus in Atlanta, Georgia a month earlier.
NHTSA opened another investigation Jan. 28 following the Santa Monica incident, which is about 15 miles west of downtown Los Angeles. The preliminary evaluation states that on Jan. 23 Waymo “reported to the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) that a Waymo Automated Vehicle (AV) had struck a child near an elementary school earlier that day.”
The incident occurred within two blocks of the Santa Monica elementary school and during normal school drop off hours. Other children, a crossing guard and several double-parked vehicles were in the vicinity.
The child reportedly ran across the street from behind a double-parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Waymo AV. Waymo reported that the child sustained minor injuries. The Waymo driverless vehicle was operated by the 5th Generation Automated Driving System.
“At Waymo, we are committed to improving road safety, both for our riders and all those with whom we share the road. Part of that commitment is being transparent when incidents occur,” the blog post states.
The company details the incident, noting that it contacted NHTSA and will cooperate with the investigation.
“The event occurred when the pedestrian suddenly entered the roadway from behind a tall SUV, moving directly into our vehicle’s path,” the post notes. “Our technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle. The Waymo Driver braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made.”
The Waymo post notes that “a fully attentive human driver in this same situation would have made contact with the pedestrian at approximately 14 mph. This significant reduction in impact speed and severity is a demonstration of the material safety benefit of the Waymo Driver.”
Following contact, the student pedestrian reportedly stood up and walked to the sidewalk, and Waymo called 911. The driveless vehicle moved to the side of the road and stayed there until law enforcement cleared the vehicle.
“This event demonstrates the critical value of our safety systems,” Waymo added. “We remain committed to improving road safety where we operate as we continue on our mission to be the world’s most trusted driver.”
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