You Can Trust Your Kids In The Hyundai Palisade Again After Recall Fix

Hyundai says it's preparing to resume sales of the 2026 Palisade after fixing a serious power seat defect that led to a fatal incident earlier this year.

The automaker confirmed to Reuters that it has finalized a software update addressing issues with the second- and third-row power seats in certain Palisade and Palisade Hybrid models. Sales had been halted in mid-March following a recall of roughly 68,500 vehicles in the U.S. after the death of a two-year-old child in Ohio.

According to Hyundai, the problem was related to powered seat systems that would fail to detect occupants or objects during operation. In certain scenarios—like the tragic outcome—the seats would continue moving even when encountering resistance, raising the risk of injury, particularly to children.

It wasn't just the single isolated incident either—as we reported previously, Hyundai had known about the problem since last year. There were four injuries in the U.S. and a handful of additional cases in South Korea, where two passengers were hurt in similar circumstances. As a result, approximately 58,000 Palisade Hybrid models were recalled in South Korea.

The newly developed software update introduces new safeguards that should prevent unintended seat movement:

• The seat stow function now requires the tailgate to be open before activation
• Controls for folding and stowing seats have been removed from the infotainment system
• Seat adjustments now require a press-and-hold input, rather than a one-touch operation
• Updated detection logic improves the system’s ability to recognize obstructions

Once the update is applied, dealers are cleared to resume sales of affected models. The Palisade is one of Hyundai’s most important vehicles globally, particularly in its home market, where it was the brand’s best-selling SUV last year.

Presumably, the Kia Telluride is also in the midst of receiving the same fix after it was recalled for the same nightmare scenario.

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