VinFast's US launch sold 6,314 cars — the recall covered every one of them

VinFast, the EV arm of Vietnam's Vingroup, brought its VF8 electric SUV to the United States in 2023 with the ambition of a new global automaker — and the software of a company learning in public. The American reception was cool, sales stayed small, and the cars that did sell carried an advanced driver-assistance system that some owners learned to fear.

The complaints to the US regulator described Lane Keeping Assist that yanked the steering wheel in wide turns so forcefully that drivers could not easily override it — one owner reported the system nearly put the car into a concrete wall about 30 times. NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation logged 14 complaints in 2024 and opened a formal probe that September. VinFast traced the flaw to how torque ratios were tuned across its ADAS system.

In August 2025 VinFast recalled every VF8 it had sold in the United States — all 6,314 of them — with a free software update to soften the steering corrections and make the system easier to override. No crashes had been reported; the recall existed because the complaints described a car that fought its driver, and a regulator who believed them. For a new automaker trying to establish trust in the world's most scrutinised market, the fleet size and the recall size being the same number is the whole story.

VinFast recalled all 6,314 US VF8s after 14 complaints; a software update softened steering corrections and made the system easier to override.

ADAS tuning is a safety discipline, not a feature checkbox — shipping a driver-assistance system that drivers fight converts a selling point into a defect investigation.

A new automaker's first fleet is its reputation sample: 6,314 cars is small for a recall and large for a first impression, and every one of them carried the same flaw.

Fourteen complaints became a probe became a 100% recall — the escalation was fast because the defect was uniform; uniformity in a defect is what turns incidents into a pattern.

In driver assistance, a system that cannot be easily overridden is not assisting — ship the override before the feature; a safety system that fights its user is a defect with a marketing page.