A child in Ohio died after the 2026 Hyundai Palisade’s power folding seat function crushed her.
Following a tragic incident that killed a child, Hyundai issued a stop-sale for top-end trims of the 2026 Hyundai Palisade — the Limited and Calligraphy — while it formalizes a formal recall for power-folding second and third-row seats that could fail to detect an occupant before operating. The pending recall impacts as many as 68,500 examples of the automaker’s popular three-row SUV.
In its official statement, Hyundai cautions the seats “may not adequately detect contact with an occupant or object as intended. This condition may occur during the second and third-row power-folding operations, as well as during use of the third-row one-touch tilt-and-slide function”. The company also urges owners to use caution when operating the power seats.
Of the 68,500 in the total population, as many as 60,515 of those vehicles are in the U.S., while a further 7,967 were sold in Canada. Until it can address the problem in a permanent manner, the automaker says it is working on an over-the-air software update to introduce additional safeguards to stop its power-folding seats from crushing people, as well as improving how the system responds to contact with occupants or objects. In the meantime, Hyundai says it will also offer interested customers a rental vehicle “until a full remedy is available”. Since a formal recall is not in effect just yet, we don’t know exactly when owners will be able to fulfill a permanent repair.
An investigation into the two-year-old Ohio child’s death on March 7 is still underway, so full details on what happened are still unclear.
