Radio software can stop the rearview camera image from appearing on 844,027 model year 2026 and 2027 Jeep, Ram, Chrysler and Dodge vehicles, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, treats that as a violation of the federal rear-visibility standard. Stellantis, the parent of all four brands, announced the recall on August 17 and began mailing owner letters on September 2.
No accident or injury is tied to it, according to the company. The fix is free, and Stellantis says it will reach vehicles by over-the-air update or at a dealer.
The software fault behind the blank screen
The defect lives in the radio, not the camera. NHTSA’s campaign record 26V531000 says the rearview camera display may fail when the vehicle shifts into reverse, and warns that an image that fails to display “reduces the driver’s view behind the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.” Chrysler’s own number for the campaign is 78D.
In the affected vehicles the camera image is drawn on the same media screen that runs navigation and music, so a radio software fault can take the picture down with it. The federal record names the manufacturer as Chrysler (FCA U.S., LLC), and the remedy it lists is a radio software update, with no hardware replacement mentioned. The vehicles are all recent, 2026 and 2027 model years, which is why they count as new vehicles.
Which Jeep, Ram, Chrysler and Dodge models are covered
The federal record lists, for model year 2026, the Jeep Wrangler, Gladiator, Compass, Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Grand Cherokee L, Grand Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer L. It lists the Ram ProMaster, 1500 and 2500, the Chrysler Pacifica in standard and plug-in hybrid form, the Chrysler Voyager, and the Dodge Charger. For model year 2027 the record lists the Chrysler Pacifica and the Dodge Charger.
The company counts slightly differently. In its August 17 statement Stellantis put the U.S. total at 848,511 vehicles and listed the Ram ProMaster EV among the models, a gap of about 4,500 from the 844,027 units on the federal record. Fox Business reported that the campaign reaches roughly 955,000 vehicles worldwide, including nearly 83,000 in Canada and 8,000 in Mexico. The federal figure is the one used here because it is the count NHTSA keeps on the campaign.
A rear-visibility standard with no tolerance for a blank screen
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 111 gives a rearview image very little room to fail. The regulation says the image must be displayed within 2.0 seconds of the start of a backing event. A screen that stays dark, or arrives late, breaks that rule, which is why a software fault becomes a formal recall and not a customer-service complaint. The same regulation says the image must not be displayed after a backing event has ended and must default to the rearview view at the start of each new one, so the standard governs the behavior of the whole display, not only the first two seconds.
The rule dates to a 2014 decision by the Department of Transportation, which set a compliance deadline of May 1, 2018 for new vehicles under 10,000 pounds. In announcing it, the department cited 210 deaths and 15,000 injuries a year from backover crashes, with children under five making up 31 percent of the fatalities. Acting NHTSA Administrator David Friedman said rear visibility requirements “will save lives, and will save many families from the heartache suffered after these tragic incidents occur.”
The over-the-air remedy and what drivers are told to do meanwhile
Stellantis says the radio software will be updated by a dealer or through an over-the-air update, free of charge, and that a notice will appear on the vehicle’s media screen when the update is available. Owners can call 800-853-1403, and NHTSA’s recall search shows whether a specific VIN is included.
The company’s interim advice is short: “If the rearview camera image does not appear, drivers should remain aware of their surroundings and use their rearview and side mirrors when reversing.” Nothing in the NHTSA record orders owners to stop driving the vehicles or to park them outside, and the notes field on the campaign is blank.
Nobody has said publicly how many of the 844,027 vehicles have actually shown a blank screen. Stellantis has said only that it knows of no accidents or injuries, and the federal record does not report a count of failures, so the size of the problem in daily use is not yet public. Owners who have already seen a blank screen have a simple check available: the VIN lookup will confirm whether the vehicle is in the recall.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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