U.S. project aims to address open safety recalls

Safety technology platform Carma Project has announced a collaboration with the National Safety Council to reduce the number of open safety recalls on U.S. roads. Moving forward, NSC will deploy Carma’s newest recall identification technology as a part of the Check to Protect safety initiative.

Carma Project’s new technology utilizes proprietary license plate recognition cameras mounted on specially designed cars to identify vehicles affected by open safety recalls. This innovative technology is able to scan up to 1,500 vehicles an hour for open safety recalls. Once a vehicle with an open safety recall is identified, a custom notification is placed on the affected vehicle’s windshield to alert the owner about the issue and explain how to get their car fixed.

“The Check To Protect coalition has reached millions of vehicle owners encouraging them to check for recalls and schedule free repairs whenever necessary, and this innovative technology from Carma Project allows us to do even more,” said Nick Smith, chief operating officer and chief strategy officer at the National Safety Council. “Safety is more important than ever, and we want anyone with an unrepaired recall to take action and get it fixed for free.”

This latest innovation by Carma Project is designed to address the deadly Takata airbag recall — the largest and most complex safety recall in U.S. history, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Takata airbag recall affects 19 different automakers — with impacted manufacturers including Honda, Ford, General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler (FCA), Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Subaru, Toyota and more.

In the first recall check event conducted in partnership with the National Safety Council, Carma checked over 11,300 vehicles for open safety recalls in Orange County, California, in just one day. As a result, Carma notified 338 vehicle owners about their vehicle’s open Takata airbag recall – many of which had been under dangerous recall for years. The effort also identified an additional 2,000 other open, non-Takata recalls.

“By creating a scalable solution that allows us to go directly to vehicle owners, we’ve been able to find and notify thousands of people driving at-risk vehicles throughout the country during our initial tests alone,” said Carma Project CEO Fabio Gratton. “By supporting the NSC Check To Protect mission, we’ll be able to help thousands more.”

Led by NSC and founding coalition partner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Check To Protect launched in the summer of 2017 to address the 53 million vehicles on U.S. roads with unresolved safety recalls. Of those, many contain one of the projected 63 million Takata airbags recalled through the end of 2019.