Ford Motor Co said it is recalling 3.6 million passenger cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUV) and vans to address concerns about a cruise control switch that has led to previous recalls based on reports of fires.
Ford said on Friday the recall covered more than a dozen vehicle models built from 1992 to 2004. The company said it was responding to concerns from owners about the safety of their cars and questions about the speed control deactivation switch in the vehicles that is powered at all times.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker had previously recalled nearly 6 million vehicles beginning in January 2005 because of engine fires linked to the cruise control systems in trucks, SUVs and vans.
"Customers remain concerned about the long-term durability of the speed control system and about the safety of their vehicles,'' said Ford spokesman Dan Jarvis.
He said the automaker had received "a few reports of fires" in Ford Crown Victoria passenger cars prior to the recall. He did not have a precise number.
The recall involves the following vehicles: 1998 to 2002 Ford Ranger; 1992 to 1997 Lincoln Town Car; 1992 to 1997 Ford Crown Victoria; 1992 to 1997 Mercury Grand Marquis; 1993 to 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII; 1993 to 1995 Taurus SHO; 1999 to 2001 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer.
Also covered are the 2001 to 2002 Ford Explorer Sport; 2001 to 2002 Ford Explorer Sport Trac; 1992 to 1993 E150-350 vans; 1997 to 2002 E150-350 vans; 1993 Ford F-Series pickups; 1993 Ford Bronco; 1994 Mercury Capri; 2003 to 2004 Ford F-150 Lightning; and 1995 to 2002 Ford F53 motor homes.
An additional 177,000 vehicles in Canada, Mexico and Europe are covered by the recall.
Jarvis said there have been no deaths, injuries or accidents associated with the recall.
It was Ford's sixth recall, involving a total of more than 10.4 million vehicles, conducted since 1999 because of problems with the speed control system, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said.
The largest single US recall involved 7.9 million Ford vehicles in 1996 to replace an ignition switch.
Texas Instruments Inc (TI) supplied the speed control switch in all of the vehicles covered under Friday's announcement, Ford said.
TI spokeswoman Chris Rongone said on Friday evening in an e-mail response that the company sold its former Sensors and Controls business in April last year. It later became Sensata Technologies. She said neither TI, nor Sensata Technologies, has received any communication from Ford about the recall and nothing indicates the switch failed to meet Fords specifications.
Rongone said in August last year that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration concluded a two-year investigation and determined that the incidents were system-related and not caused by the deactivation switch.
Owners will begin receiving recall notices on Aug. 13. Jarvis said the parts for passenger cars would not be available until early October. In the meantime, owners can take their vehicle to a dealer to have their cruise control deactivated until the parts arrive. The parts are available for trucks, Jarvis said.
Dealers will install a fused wiring harness into the speed control electrical system or replace the deactivation switch if its found to be leaking.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day