On December 20, 2025, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the United States announced on Friday, December 19, that automotive giant Ford Motor has officially initiated a large-scale recall plan involving 272,654 vehicles. The core issue of this recall lies in the software defect of the vehicles’ Park Module, which may result in the vehicle not fully locking after the driver switches to the P mode (parking gear).
The affected vehicle models include:
– F-150 Lightning (2022-2026 models)
– Mustang Mach-E (2024-2026 models)
– Maverick (2025-2026 models)
According to the investigation documents by NHTSA, the root of the problem lies in the abnormality of the “Integrated Park Module.” When the driver parks and shifts into the parking gear, the software may fail to command the mechanism to lock the wheels. This means that even when the vehicle is in a parked state, unexpected rollaway incidents may occur, especially when parking on inclines, significantly increasing the risk of vehicle collisions and potential injuries or fatalities.
Unlike conventional recalls, Ford’s plan this time utilizes the connectivity of its onboard systems to fix this issue through Over-The-Air (OTA) remote software updates. The new software developed by Ford engineers aims to optimize the logic of the Park Module to ensure accurate execution of the locking commands.
Ford is expected to officially notify the relevant vehicle owners starting from February 2, 2026. If the vehicle cannot be updated remotely, Ford dealers will also provide on-site software upgrades free of charge.
As the automotive industry fully enters the era of digitalization and electrification, software stability has become a common challenge faced by all car manufacturers. Ford CEO Jim Farley has repeatedly emphasized that improving product quality is the company’s top priority.