Continental airbags may be defective
Continental has said five million airbag control units in US cars are potentially defective and are being recalled.
Documents made public by US regulators said Continental’s Automotive division told an investigation by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that electronic systems built from 2006 through 2010 may fail.
If failure were to happen, the defect could lead to air bags not deploying in the event of a crash, or could also lead to inadvertently deploying without warning.
Reuters reports that according to further documents filed, Continental received a defective control unit from Daimler in 2008, and found issues with the control unit that led to a design change with the semiconductor. The NHTSA investigation began in August 2015 after a driver complained the airbags in their 2008 Honda Accord did not deploy following a crash.
Honda, Fiat-Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz have all recently announced recalls of vehicles in the United States with Continental airbags made around the 2006-10 period.
Continental’s recall is the latest to hit the American airbag market, with 25 million cars carrying Takata airbags recalled in the last year.
