A class action lawsuit is launching against Honda over a fault that can disable a vehicle’s safety features. The lawsuit seemingly applies to any Honda that has had issues with its front-facing camera, though the Honda Odyssey, Honda Civic, Honda Clarity are specifically mentioned.
In terms of actual faults, if your front camera has either failed or is acting weird and this has led to your car disabling one or more safety features then you could be in with a claim. Some of the listed features that could be affected include: “Collision Mitigation Braking, Road Departure Mitigation, Lane Keeping Assist, Automatic Headlights, Blind Spot Alarms, and Adaptive Cruise Control.” All of the listed features are part of the “Honda Sensing System” suite of safety tools, which are designed to alert the driver to dangers and keep the vehicle safe on the road. In many cases, these tools are add-ons to a vehicle, meaning the driver has shelled out extra for them.
According to Top Class Actions, Honda hasn’t issued a recall for the front-facing camera problem as things stand. Though if you are leasing your vehicle or it is otherwise under warranty, a repair or replacement of a faulty front-facing camera will likely be covered. There is no indication that having the camera replaced, either through warranty or by paying for it yourself, affects your eligibility to participate in the lawsuit.
There also seems to be a number of cases where a dealership has confirmed a customer’s front-facing camera is faulty, and is causing the subsequent issues with the vehicle’s safety features.
Are you in for a huge payout?
So, say the class action is successful, are you in for a major payday? Probably not, the real winners of these things are generally the lawyers involved. A judge decides how much the settlement is worth overall (usually several million or some other very high figure) then the lawyers take their not insignificant cut. Whatever is left is split between all possible claimants and can be anywhere from a few dollars to a couple of hundred.
You also don’t have to fill out the form now to claim your cut of the funds. Not signing up before a verdict is reached doesn’t affect your membership in the “class” in question. The only two things that really affect that are your ownership of a Honda with the specific fault the lawsuit is being fought over, and not filing a claim before the deadline (which is usually specified when the verdict is given).
It’s also important to note that joining the class action waives any rights you have to pursue legal action against Honda about this particular issue. If you don’t join, you’re perfectly free to sue the company independently should you want to.
