Last month, we reported that the NHTSA had received two separate complaints from 2020 Corvette owners that said the vehicle’s frunk opened by itself and without warning while they were driving. A number of videos taken using the car’s built-in Performance Data Recorder camera have also surfaced online, showing 2020 Corvette owner’s hoods opening by themselves as they drive down the road, seemingly backing up the claims made in the separate NHTSA reports.
Now, yet another video has surfaced allegedly showing this same problem playing out. This latest video was uploaded by a YouTube user this week with the following description: “PDR camera footage of 2020 C8 Corvette hood (frunk) opening on its own damaging the hinges and chipping the paint on the hood.”
The footage is pretty straightforward. The driver makes a right-hand turn onto a roadway from a side street and accelerates at a regular pace before the hood suddenly pops up, blocking their vision. The driver is able to safely pull the vehicle over to the side of the road, gets out and closes the hood without further incident, but the damage to the paint had already been done. Like other similar incidents, we assume the hood was properly latched when the driver first got into the vehicle.
Even if the hood was not properly latched, the C8 Corvette is supposed to give both an audible and visual warning when the frunk is ajar. As we pointed out in a previous article, the top speed of the C8 Corvette is limited to 82 mph when the front hood is unlatched as well, so we know that General Motors has installed systems to prevent this from happening. The 2020 Corvette owner’s manual says the following with regard to driving with an unlatched hood:
“Do not drive the vehicle if the hood is not latched completely,” the paragraph reads. “The hood could open fully, block your vision, and cause a crash. You or others could be injured. Always close the hood completely before driving.”
One of the complaints filed with NHTSA pointed out that GM should have installed a secondary hand-operated latch on the frunk in addition to the electronically controlled latch. While this would require owners to first pop the hood and then reach underneath to push a latch to open it, it would theoretically solve this apparent problem.
“They failed to engineer the appropriate safety latch features into the hood that would prevent this from happening,” the NHTSA complaint said. “Hoods are required to have a secondary latch that must be physically operated to open completely.”
GM has not yet issued an official statement with regard to the purported 2020 Corvette hood latch problems.
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Comments
Yeah, it’s a new model and things will happen, right? Hood and trunk latches are very new technology, industry still trying to perfect them, I guess. Imagine the hidden things that are in the process of going wrong with these cars?
GM should immediately send out a supply of duct tape to all owners along with careful instructions on how to apply it. That’ll take care of it.
Iirc tesla also doesn’t have a secondary latch for the fronk.
In theory it is a trunk not a engine hood so a secondary latch would not be required. Since it happened after a turn it maybe the body is twisting just enough that the latch slips
NEWSFLASH: GM sues corvette owners over misleading videos!.. It could happen.
Does not happen on my C7 Grand Sport (for a reason). 😉
LOL ! my C7 is good as well.
Well, at least now we know where the Boeing 737 Max engineers wound up. Hood pins, anyone?
How does this happen? They been making hood latches for a 100 years. When your paying this kind of money for what’s supposed to be a premium sports car this is just not acceptable. GM will just never get it
The team that designed this debacle, should be summarily fired for incompetence.
GM must have bought the latches from China.
Bill,
The top tier Chinese manufacturing plants produce better quality than in the US. All their plants are new and they have access to all the tech they want and need.
You would be shocked to find out how many made in China components are in all products and you can’t manufacture a single car without them in the US or anywhere else.
Telsa’s computers, screens and most of the electronics come from China and they have the highest North American content of any brand out there.
That’s flat out not a “normal” hood latch. Every vehicle, I repeat: EVERY vehicle I’ve had in my “driving career” (working and retired life) has me lifting a lever inside the vehicle, then, fishing around with my fingers under the slightly opened hood to find / operate the secondary latch to raise the hood.
By extension, anything else would, by definition, be a safety hazard.
Sorry to see this poor engineering happen to such a dynamic, proud offering by G.M. I guess I will have to stick with my 2019 Bolt, and 2014 Porsche until the engineers convince the accountants to quit being so damn cheap.
On the track at 200+ kph, that would be enough to soil your pants…
I noticed that our frunk rattled badly so I took it to the dealer to inspect. My fear was that the excessive movement might cause the frunk to work it’s way open. The dealer adjusted the two rubber bumpers almost to their highest extension and the hood stopped rattling and the panels fit nicely. The factory didn’t properly install these pieces. I hope this solves the problem.I’d suggest all owners do similarly
You can’t latch the hood to well if you don’t take the can out you no selling waste of space!
I swear to God you’re worthless!
From a “Chevrolet point of view” it must have been the owners fault that the hood opened, for had he put the car on a car carrier and taken it to a permanent place for storage, from the minute that he took ownership and never driven it, this problem would never have happened. Therefor, it must have been the owners fault, he drove the car on the public roads and was never given permission to do so by the Corporation. What was this owner thinking about and why would he have assumed that it was perfectly all right to drive his new car home or any where else. Again, from the G.M. Corporation point of view, it must have been the customers error or fault that the hood opened, who else could G.M. possibly blame, after all the car was in the owners position at the time of the occurrence. It could never have been a design failure, or could it?
I believe there is a good chance the front trunk hood was not properly latched when the owner drove off. If you look carefully at the bottom center edge of the video at the start, you definitely see red along the entire horizontal frame. However, after the hood flies up, and is closed, the red is no longer along the center part of the lower frame.
This appears to indicate the hood was not closed when he started.
I see it in the video but there is suppose to be a warning indicator that is is not latched. It means it is very easy not for the lid to be fully latched and yet the safety switch was not activated. One fix is to reverse the lid operation to be hinged in the front, lift it from the windshield.
Regardless of the cause, there should be a fail-safe that prevents the C8 from being driven if the front trunk hood is not fully latched.
In order to save the idiots from themselves? Cars today are filled with idiot saving devices.
Unfortunately this could be deadly for anyone else on the road when one of these hoods flies open blinding the driver of a Corvette C8. This is a lot different than a seat belt buzzer.
So far this has happened at low speed with light traffic. What if it happens on a high speed road with heavy traffic?
Chevrolet we have a Problem, Recall Now….
Clearly the car is begging for a worthy DOHC instead of the cheap pushrod engine.
you obviously no nothing about pushrod engines. Small package, lots of power and torque compare to a DOHC engine.
With the electrical architecture delay, strike, Covid, parts shortages and now the opening frunks, the C8 is cursed!
Shockedinthehead,
Why don’t you go F%?k yourself! You’re cursed to be an idiot.
I will if you do it 1st!
i’ve got 1700 miles on mine..no problems. The one that are having problems seem to be brand new owners. Maybe its user error.
Well, there goes the launch of the 2021 models until February, 2021 as GM has to reengineer the hood latch(es) as well as make replacement latches to retrofit all of the C8s now on the road!
Maybe his girlfriend was in the car, and she thought he asked for some hood.
Porsche, Ferrari and Lamborghini all have secondary latch that you have to manually open. It is worth the peace of mind to add one. I have owned all three as well as 18 Corvettes. I just ordered a 2021 C8 convertible. It is a relatively inexpensive solution for the C8.
Folks! Something fishy going on! There is a safety latch on the C8 frunk…….
Something fishy going on here, there IS a safety latch on the frunk!
There is now a software update to address this. No need to bring in to the dealership either. Go to settings and update your software.
What does the software do?
They need to put that new Stripe option on it from Chevrolet that should fix it
Supposedly, it changes the speed down to 26 MPH before the pop-up warning screen appears to notify the driver that the frunk hood is not latched