Software left the low beams too dim on 30 new school buses

Daimler Trucks North America is recalling 30 brand-new 2027 Thomas Built school buses because a software error can leave the low beam headlights dim. The campaign is NHTSA recall 26V632, filed October 1, 2026 under the manufacturer’s own recall number F1040. It covers two model lines, the SAF-T-LINER C2 and the electric SAF-T-LINER C2 Jouley, and the manufacturer estimates that every one of the 30 buses has the defect.

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No field reports, warranty claims or crashes have been tied to the problem, according to the filing. The model year is 2027, and the build dates in the report run from November 2025 to June 2026, so the entire population is recent production.

Campaign 26V632 and the 30 buses

The scale is small and the build window is short. According to NHTSA’s recall report, 14 of the buses are Jouley electric models built between December 19, 2025 and March 6, 2026, and 16 are diesel-powered, compression-ignition buses built between November 19, 2025 and June 27, 2026. Trade publication Trucks Parts Service listed the same count in its roundup of commercial-vehicle recalls for the week of October 12, where the campaign appears as one of five.

Daimler Trucks North America, based in Portland, Oregon, determined the defect on July 17, 2026, identified additional affected units in September and decided to conduct a recall on September 28. The recall is phased, and the report states that the notice is a phased recall. Its dealer and owner dates are the ones that matter for anyone who has taken delivery of one of the buses.

A thermal-management bug in the headlamp

The fault sits inside the LED headlamps, which Grote Industries supplies. The filing describes a software error in the headlamps’ thermal management logic. After a driver has used high beams in warm ambient temperatures, switching to low beam can leave the low beam dim for several minutes before it returns to full intensity, according to the report. The left and right assemblies carry part numbers A66-41940-000 and A66-41940-001.

In practice, that is an unusual way for a headlight to fail. A bulb that has burned out is obvious on the first night. A lamp that is dim only after a stretch of high-beam driving on a hot evening is not, and the filing states that no warning is given to the driver when it happens. NHTSA’s consequence wording is the standard one: “Insufficient low beam headlight illumination can reduce driver visibility, increasing the risk of a crash.”

The same supplier problem has surfaced before. The report cross-references NHTSA recall 26V475, manufacturer number F1036, which covered headlamps with a related thermal-management software error. The filing for the newer campaign says the manufacturer identified additional affected units in September, which is how the 30 buses came to be handled as a separate campaign.

The dimming is short-lived in each instance, which is part of why it is hard to catch. The report says the low beam returns to full intensity after several minutes, so a driver who notices a weak beam on a downhill curve may find the lamp normal by the next stop. Reduced intensity matters most at the moments buses are most exposed: school routes that start before sunrise, long return runs after activities, and rural roads where nothing else lights the pavement. The filing’s statement that the company has received no field reports, warranty claims or accident reports describes the record to date, and the recall exists so that the first such report does not have to come from a crash. The manufacturer lists the defect as present in an estimated 100 percent of the 30 buses, which is why the campaign is written as a headlamp replacement for every one of them rather than a spot check.

Dealer notice October 21, owner letters November 30

The remedy is a free inspection and replacement of the headlamp assemblies at authorized Daimler Trucks North America service facilities. Dealers are due to be notified on October 21, 2026, and owner letters are planned for first-class mail on November 30. NHTSA’s acknowledgment letter, dated October 7, adds that the company must send a draft owner letter to the agency at least five days before mailing and file eight consecutive quarterly status reports afterward.

The people who most need the dates are the fleet managers who schedule early-morning and late-afternoon runs in the dark months. Owners and operators can call the manufacturer’s customer service at 1-800-547-0712 and cite recall F1040.

Fleet staff who want to check a vehicle by identification number can use NHTSA’s recall lookup, which lists open campaigns for any vehicle by VIN once the agency has posted them. The agency’s hotline, 1-888-327-4236, handles questions on the process itself. Until the headlamps are replaced, the practical question for drivers is how long the dimming lasts: the filing says several minutes, which on a dark rural road is a long time.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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