Attorneys mobilize for legal challenges to Trump policies. The New York Times (1/30, Savage, Subscription Publication, 13.9M) reports that “the calls and emails went out a little past 10 p.m. Friday, rippling through an informal network of current and former Yale Law School students who had worked at the school’s immigrant rights advocacy clinic.” The news “told of an Iraqi man being detained at Kennedy International Airport because of President Trump’s travel ban, putting him at imminent risk of deportation.” According to the Times, “around three dozen lawyers and law students across the country” worked through the night and “slammed together a legal complaint asking a federal judge to free the man” and “to certify their lawsuit as a class action on behalf of others in a similar situation.” They filed their lawsuit around 5:30 am “on the electronic docket system for the Eastern District of New York,” and thus “began the opening salvos of the legal pushback to Mr. Trump’s executive order banning entry to refugees and others from seven predominantly Muslim countries.” 

Honda airbag recall expanded.

The CBS Evening News (1/11, story 9, 0:30, Pelley, 11.17M) reported Honda is recalling an additional 772,000 vehicles due to defective Takata air bags, bringing the recall to “as many as 69 million air bags in American cars and trucks.”

        Car and Driver (1/11, Atiyeh, 5.64M) reports that Honda’s addition of “772,000 more cars” to the airbag recalls comes “as the troubled Japanese supplier announced new repair schedules for several million inflators currently under recall.” The article notes that “Honda has the most US vehicles of any automaker affected by the Takata recalls,” with the total “now standing at 11.4 million cars and motorcycles.” 

FCA recalls 100,000 vehicles worldwide to fix Takata airbags.

The AP (1/6) reports Fiat Chrysler issued a recall notice for “more than 100,000 older trucks and SUVs worldwide to replace potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators,” which have been at the heart of the largest auto recall in world history.

        USA Today (1/6, 5.28M) reports online that the recall mostly affects “passenger but some driver air bags in certain 2009 Chrysler Aspen and Dodge Durango SUVs, some 2010 Ram 3500 chassis cabs, and certain 2005-2009 Ram 2500 pickups.”

        Reuters (1/6) also reports.

        Takata says 1.3 million more faulty airbag inflators in US vehicles. AutoBeat Daily (1/6, Subscription Publication) reports Takata announced “another 1.3 million of its front airbag inflators in the U.S. could explode,” but the company informed NHTSA “that the new batch of devices can do the same after only moderate heat and humidity cycles.” The vehicles are mostly from the 2009 model year, with “20 states and the District of Columbia” falling under the recall. 

NHTSA’s proposed safety regulations will impact autonomous vehicle market.

Forbes (1/4, Banker, 15.17M) reports that NHTSA’s proposed safety regulations, which would use vehicle-to-vehicle radio communications to “automatically send vehicle sensor data...to other vehicles to alert drivers to potential crash situations,” could hasten the rate at which autonomous vehicles “become viable...because the chief impediment to the viability of autonomous vehicles are fears that they are not safe enough.” However, the “proposed rule makings” of federal agencies “progress incrementally,” so the “full benefits” of V2V technology “won’t be present until all vehicles are subject to the same regulations.” 

Safety regulators investigate seat belt failure in Hyundai vehicles.

The Detroit News (1/3, 473K) reports that “US safety regulators” are investigating complaints that “the front passenger seat belts can fail in about 313,000 Hyundai midsize cars” from the 2013 model year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has received “two complaints that the seat belts detached,” and “one injury was reported due to the problem.”

        Forbes (1/3, 15.17M) reports that federal regulators are “investigating whether to recall about 313,000 2013 Hyundai Sonatas” based on “complaints by two owners.” Forbes specifies that the investigation is a “preliminary evaluation,” which will be “upgraded to an engineering analysis” only if investigators find “additional reason for concern.”