After delivering its first vehicles to American customers in March, VinFast is already initiating a recall of the VF 8 SUV. The electric vehicle’s infotainment screen has a software bug that could make it go blank.
In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the company reports that it first became aware of this issue on April 27, 2023, while reading customer comments and concerns.
One customer reported that their multifunction head unit (MHU), the infotainment screen that sits in the middle of the dash, went blank. It decided to keep an eye out for more complaints and, between April 29 and May 2, discovered four more mentions of blank screens from customers.
Read: VinFast Begins U.S. Deliveries With 45 VF 8 City Edition SUVs To Dealers In California
Although the VF 8 has a heads-up display, the MHU is the only screen in the cockpit of the vehicle. That makes it rather important for drivers, and with it blank, the vehicle cannot communicate important information to the driver.
Fortunately, the software defect that is behind this issue does not brick the screen. Rather, it makes it go blank until the vehicle is restarted, at which time normal operation resumes. Still, the issue can happen whether the vehicle is parked or in motion, making it a safety concern.
In all, the issue affects 999 VinFast VF 8s in the U.S. Of these, 111 are in the hands of private customers, 153 are in service as fleet vehicles, and the remaining 735 vehicles still belong to VinFast. In total, the company is aware of 18 reported instances of screens going blank on 14 vehicles.
VinFast believes that it can remedy the issue with a fix that will reinitialize the software that is malfunctioning, making the screen display again, detecting and recovering the error in less than 200 milliseconds. The automaker says that the fix will be implemented free of charge to owners, with whom it plans to get in touch starting on May 29.
