FCA is recalling certain 2019-2020 Ram 1500 pickups for safety concerns.

Nearly 300,000 new Ram 1500 pickup trucks are being recalled due to potential problems with their airbags and seat belts. According to the NHTSA website, the flash memory of the Occupant Restraint Controller (ORC) may become corrupted in some trucks, disabling the vehicle’s air bags and seat belt pretensioners. Those are pretty critical components.

At root of the problem is the ORC’s software that has a potential vulnerability during power-down memory clean-up events which can corrupt flash memory. In plain english, that means the ORC can have its brains scrambled in power-down situations, leading to situations where it won’t pop the airbags or activate the seat belt pretensioners in a crash. It could also throw some codes and illuminate the air bag warning light.

Once the vehicle is keyed-off, the ORC begins normal routines under its own power reserve. If the ORC powers down and interrupts a memory erase process, data corruption could occur. Memory cleanup does not occur every key-off, not all interruptions will cause corruption, reserve time will vary, and other factors make the occurrence highly variable. Bottom line: get it attended to ASAP.

The recall population of 295,981 was determined through production records. All 2019 Ram 1500 trucks built from October 31, 2017 to April 29, 2019 are affected as are all 2020 Ram 1500 trucks built from April 8, 2019 to May 21, 2019. Outside these dates, ORCs with updated software were introduced into vehicle production

Chrysler will notify owners and dealers will reprogram the ORC or replace it as necessary, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin July 20, 2019. Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler’s numbers for this recall are V61 and V71 while the NHTSA’s number for this recall is 19V-407.