X

Hyundai recalls 2020 Sonatas with Remote Smart Parking tech

The hydrogen-powered Nexo crossover is also affected.

Steven Ewing Former managing editor
Steven Ewing spent his childhood reading car magazines, making his career as an automotive journalist an absolute dream job. After getting his foot in the door at Automobile while he was still a teenager, Ewing found homes on the mastheads at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog and Motor1.com before joining the CNET team in 2018. He has also served on the World Car Awards jury. Ewing grew up ingrained in the car culture of Detroit -- the Motor City -- before eventually moving to Los Angeles. In his free time, Ewing loves to cook, binge trash TV and play the drums.
Steven Ewing
2020 Hyundai Sonata
Enlarge Image
2020 Hyundai Sonata

The 2020 Sonata only just recently went on sale.

David Dewhurst/Hyundai

Remote Smart Parking Assistant -- perhaps better known as "smaht pahk" -- can help the 2020 Sonata squeeze in and out of tight spots. But if there's a glitch in the software, the car might just keep on moving.

That's the cause of a new recall announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Friday, concerning 11,870 Hyundai vehicles in the US. The brand-new 2020 Sonata sedan is the most significant vehicle affected, though the recall includes the company's low-volume Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell crossover, too.

"The Remote Smart Parking Assist (RSPA) software may fail to prevent vehicle movement upon detection of an RSPA system malfunction," NHTSA said in its official statement (PDF). "Unintended vehicle movement increases the risk of a crash."

The fix for this recall is pretty easy: Hyundai dealers will simply reprogram the RSPA software, free of charge. The recall work is expected to begin on June 4, and Hyundai said it is not aware of any crashes or injuries related to this problem.

Only the top-end Sonata Limited is available with the remote parking tech, and since the all-new 2020 model only recently went on sale, that's why the recall only affects a relatively small number of cars. RSPA is not available on the gasoline-electric Sonata Hybrid.

Want to check if your vehicle is affected? Head over to Roadshow's handy-dandy guide to see if your car is subject to this -- or any other -- safety campaign.

2020 Hyundai Sonata delivers high-tech, high-style family motoring

See all photos