AI not improving quality
In the 2026 financial year, automakers spent an extraordinary amount of money on warranty fulfilment and recalls.
The dozen largest global automotive OEMs had a warranty and recall bill of R1,1 trillion. And in principle, those costs are effectively a quality and substandard engineering tax and therefore, completely avoidable.
Warranty and recall costs are at record numbers. How did it happen?
Warranty burn rates are a proven measure of engineering quality in the auto industry. Companies that engineer their prototypes thoroughly and then integrate at scale with supplier partners to ramp up production without compromising quality have low warranty burn rates. But the numbers are escalating wildly for several legacy OEMs. Does that mean the auto industry has a core engineering or technology integration problem?
WORDS IN ACTION 44 JULY | AUGUST 2026