Insufficient Pedestrian Warning Sound/FMVSS 141

Affected vehicles (1)

Component / system

Defect

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (Toyota) is recalling certain 2023-2025 Corolla Cross Hybrid vehicles. The vehicles may fail to make sufficient pedestrian warning sounds when in reverse. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 141, "Minimum Sound Requirements for Hybrid and Electric Vehicles."

Risk / consequence

Insufficient pedestrian warning sounds may fail to alert pedestrians of a reversing vehicle, increasing the risk of injury.

Remedy

Dealers will update the software for the pedestrian warning sounds, free of charge. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk were mailed June 2 2026. Additional letters will be sent once the final remedy is available. Owners may contact Toyota's customer service at 1-800-331-4331. Toyota's numbers for this recall are 26TB08 and 26TA08.

Chronology of events

1. Mar 31, 2026

   March 31, 2026 NONCOMPLIANCE INFORMATION REPORT 1. Vehicle Manufacturer Name: Mazda Toyota Manufacturing U.S.A., Inc [“MTMUS”] 9000 Greenbriar Parkway, NW, Madison, AL 35756 Affiliated U.S. Sales Company: Toyota Motor North America, Inc. [“TMNA”] 6565 Headquarters Drive, Plano, TX 75024 Manufacturer of Vehicle Approaching Speaker Controller: Denso Corporation 1-1, Showa-cho, Kariya-city, Aichi-pref., 448-8661, Japan Phone: +81-566-25-5511 Country of Origin: Japan 2. Identification of Involved Vehicles and Affected Components: Based on production records, we have determined the involved vehicle population to be the vehicles listed in the table below. Make/Car Line Model Year Manufacturer Production Period

2. May 4, 2023

   May 4, 2023 Toyota / Corolla 2023-2025 MTMUS through Cross Hybrid

3. Aug 8, 2025

   August 8, 2025 Applicability Part Number Part Name Component Description MY2023-2025 Vehicle 86572-16070 Vehicle Approaching Toyota / Corolla Approaching 86572-16080 Speaker ECU Cross Hybrid Speaker Controller Note: (1) Although the involved vehicles are within the above production period range, not all vehicles in this range were sold in the U.S. (2) Certain other Toyota/Lexus vehicles equipped with this single speaker AVAS have different speaker location and vehicle body characteristics and meet the FMVSS No. 141 requirements. Other Toyota/Lexus vehicles are equipped with a different AVAS, or do not require an AVAS. 3. Total Number of Vehicles Potentially Involved: MY2023 : 12,994 MY2024 : 38,290 MY2025 : 22,244 Total : 73,528 4. Percentage of Vehicles Estimated to Actually Contain the Noncompliance: Toyota is unable to estimate the percentage of the involved vehicles to contain the noncompliance described in Section 5. However, as the NHTSA manufacturer portal requires an integer value be entered, Toyota has entered the value “1” in response to this question in the portal. For the purpose of this report, “1” means “unknown.” 5. Description of Noncompliance: The subject vehicles are equipped with an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) that uses a single, front-mounted speaker to emit a sound intended to alert surrounding pedestrians of its presence. In these vehicles, the sound output level calibrated for forward motion was also applied during reverse operation. Due to the speaker location and vehicle body characteristics, this results in a lower-than-intended sound level when the vehicle is in reverse, and the vehicles may not meet the reverse sound pressure level requirements specified in FMVSS No. 141, paragraph S5.2, Table 6. Under certain conditions, pedestrians may have reduced ability to detect the AVAS sound, increasing risk of a crash with a pedestrian during reversing maneuvers. 6. Test Results and Other Information: From June through September 2025, Toyota reviewed different vehicle models equipped with a single speaker AVAS, that may have a certain software configuration because an internal evaluation test in May 2025 identified that a future model equipped with a single speaker AVAS and this software configuration did not meet the minimum requirements for other markets. Thus, during this period, Toyota performed testing on these models and found that each of the test vehicles representing those models met the applicable requirements of FMVSS No. 141. However, Toyota decided to conduct additional testing on the subject vehicles because, while the test vehicle met the FMVSS No. 141 targets, it did not meet Toyota’s internal margin targets.

4. October 2025

   In October 2025, Toyota performed on-vehicle sound verification testing using additional subject vehicles in each trim variation (which have different vehicle characteristics) to confirm the performance. After analysis of the test results and confirmation of the testing parameters/data, on March 25, 2026, Toyota determined that the vehicles identified in Section 3 above may not meet the reverse sound pressure level requirements specified in FMVSS No. 141, paragraph S5.2, Table 6. 7. Description of Corrective Repair Action: All known owners of the subject vehicles will be notified to return their vehicles to a Toyota dealer. Dealers will update the relevant software, free of charge. Reimbursement Plan for pre-notification remedies As the owner notification letters will be mailed out well within the active period of the Toyota New Vehicle Limited Warranty (“Warranty”), all involved vehicle owners for this recall would have been provided a repair at no cost under Toyota’s Warranty. 8. Recall Schedule: Notifications to owners of the affected vehicles will occur by May 30, 2026. A copy of the draft owner notification will be submitted as soon as it is available. 9. Distributor/Dealer Notification Schedule: Notifications to distributors/dealers will be sent on March 31, 2026. Copies of dealer communications will be submitted as they are issued. 10. Manufacturer’s Campaign Number: Interim / Remedy: 26TB08 / 26TA08

Notification schedule

Dealer notification

Mar 31, 2026 - Mar 31, 2026 No Dealers

Owner notification

May 16, 2026 - May 30, 2026 Phased Recall