Subaru recalls 72,000 vehicles due to driver assist issue.

A handful of national media outlets reported Thursday Subaru’s recall of over 72,000 vehicles due to a problem with the latest version of the company’s Eyesight Driver Assist System. According to a report from USA Today (6/25, Smouse, 5.01M), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the automatic braking system installed on several 2015-2016 models could fail if one of the vehicle’s brake lights isn’t working. “The car won’t be able to detect a brake light failure, however the driver will see a warning indicator,” USA Today reported. “If the issue is not fixed, drivers will see an ‘Obstacle Detected’ warning upon approaching an obstacle in the road, but the car will be unable to automatically break in an attempt to avoid it.” Subaru spokesman Dominick Infante is quoted saying the problem can be fixed with a simple software update. “It’s really an easy fix for the customer,” he said. In an article carried by about 30 news sites, Reuters (6/25, Klayman) cites an unnamed Subaru spokesman as saying that the company is unaware of any accidents or injuries related to the issue, noting that drivers are still able to manually apply the brakes even if the brake light switch has malfunctioned. The AP (6/25) also published a brief dispatch on the recall that was picked up by fewer than 10 outlets.