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Suzuki recalling 200K crossovers over airbag woes

Suzuki may not be selling any new cars in the US anymore, but there are still plenty of them on American roads. Nearly 200,000 of those will need to be taken off said roads - for a little while, at least.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a recall for 2006-2011 Suzuki Grand Vitara SUVs and 2007-2011 SX4 crossovers due to a faulty airbag sensor. The issue apparently results from the front passenger-side floor mat causing the Occupant Classification System (OCS) sensor to malfunction over time, so whether there's a kid or an adult in the front seat, the airbag could deploy in the event of a crash.
As a result, Suzuki Motor of America is calling in 193,936 vehicles to replace the front passenger-seat cushion assembly. That's a whole lot of cars to recall, but it comes as no big surprise. Owners can expect to be notified in October. Full details in the recall announcement below.

Automotive Grade Linux will be the backbone of your connected car

Creating a backend for a secure, reliable, and expandable infotainment system is costly and time consuming. The Linux Foundation, a non-profit organization, has set out to promote and advance the Linux operating system in commercial products. Automotive Grade Linux, or AGL, is a group within the Foundation that seeks to apply a Linux backend to a number of automotive applications in a variety of vehicles from various suppliers and manufacturers. AGL's goal is to create a common, unifying framework that allows developers and manufacturers to easily implement applications across platforms. Currently, the focus is on infotainment systems, but AGL has plans for instrument clusters, heads-up displays, and eventually active safety software. At CES, a display from Panasonic showed a completely digital and customizable dashboard that allows information and apps to be moved from the gauge cluster to the infotainment screen and back, all through the use of gesture and touch controls. Although the organization has been around for five years, it's really only been in the past three that the group has been working hand in hand with automakers and suppliers. The first two OEMs to participate, Toyota and Jaguar Land Rover, have since been joined by Mazda, Suzuki, Ford, and, as of this week, Daimler. The latter is important as until now most of AGL's partner's have been based in Japan or the US. Other partners include suppliers Denso, Renesas, Continental, Qualcomm, and Intel. AGL want's to supply roughly 80 percent of the backend, allowing partners to then finish and refine the Linux system for each individual application. Think of how the Android operating system is refined and customized for individual smartphones from Samsung, LG, and Motorola. While the final product looks different, developers can have an application that will work across all AGL systems. Because it is open source, anyone can use and develop for AGL. You can even go onto the group's website and download a copy right now. There is also a software development kit available that helps facilitate app creation on the platform. Vehicle development cycles take roughly five years, so there currently are no cars that run an AGL backbone available for consumers. AGL Executive Director Dan Cauchy says products should be hitting the market later this year, with even more coming in 2018. Right now, the industry is relatively fragmented when it comes to infotainment and related systems.

Suzuki shows weird, wonderful trio of concepts in Tokyo

Suzuki brought a whole mess of intriguing little runabouts to the Tokyo Motor Show this year. And though the Japanese automaker no longer participates (at least with its four-wheel automobiles) in the North American market, we didn't want to miss the opportunity to check out its latest oddities, and capture them for your Nipponophilic amusement. The one that caught our attention the most on the Suzuki stand this year is the Mighty Deck. The little yellow minicar features a canvas roof, an open rear cargo bed, and a genuinely delighted look on its face. Though it strikes us as about as useful as an umbrella in a snow storm, we really dig the stylistic combination of new materials and old, the rugged with the approachable, and of course the tiny size that could only come from the densely packed island nation. We're not exactly longing for the return of the Suzuki X90, but we'd love a new version to look like this Mighty Deck. Joining the Mighty Deck is the equally unusual Air Triser, a concept that aims to put the "mini" back in minivan. Though clearly designed for the crowded streets of Tokyo, the Air Triser manages to squeeze three rows of seats into its compact footprint. Maximizing ingress, egress, and interior volume, the engine (surely displacing about as much as a bottle of bubble tea) is pushed all the way into the front, with pillarless side portals consisting of opposing sliding doors. Its shoulders may be high, but the interior appears light and airy, with four individual buckets floating atop the flat wood floor ahead of a rear bench, all uninterrupted by consoles or excessive clutter. Though clearly much smaller than what we'd call a minivan on our side of the Pacific, designs like these make us wonder if we really need our family haulers as big as they are. Though there were plenty of other production JDM curiosities on the Suzuki stand, the last concept that caught out eye is the Ignis Trail. The ruggedized soft-road hatchback combines rounded styling with beefed-up wheel arches packed with (relatively) large rolling stock, rack rails on a black roof, and anodized red accents inside and out to offset the white and black color scheme. Scope out the trio in our gallery of live images from the Tokyo Motor Show.