Cadillac Recalls 29,347 Optiqs Over the Last Half-Inch of Glass

General Motors is recalling 29,347 Cadillac Optiqs from the 2025, 2026 and 2027 model years because the front windows can close on something and not let go. The campaign is logged with NHTSA as 26V612000, with the manufacturer's Part 573 report received on 24 September 2026, and GM's own recall number is N262567230.

The failure is specific, and the specificity is the interesting part. The windows behave normally when you close them from the switch inside the car. The problem appears when they are closed remotely, using the key fob's express-up function: NHTSA's summary says the front windows "may fail to detect an obstruction and reverse direction," and that the consequence is a window that "can pinch a passenger before retracting, increasing the risk of injury."

That makes this a compliance recall rather than a defect-trend recall. The vehicles do not conform to Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 118, "Power-Operated Window Systems" — the rule that governs when a car is allowed to close its own glass. Under FMVSS 118, a power window may ordinarily be closed only in a short list of attended circumstances: with the key in the on, start or accessory position, by muscular force, by continuous activation of an exterior lock, or by a remote device within a set distance of the vehicle. A system that can close under broader conditions has to carry automatic reversal, and the standard sets out exactly what that means: the window must stop and reverse before contacting a test rod, or before exerting a squeezing force of 100 newtons or more, and it must then open back up by a prescribed amount.

The Optiq's anti-pinch system does that for most of the glass's travel. According to reporting on the filing by Drive Tesla Canada, the software calibration supplied by Kwangjin America set the upper limit of the anti-pinch range too low, which left roughly the last 13 millimetres — about half an inch — of window travel outside the system's detection window. That is a half-inch gap at precisely the point where a closing window is most likely to catch a hand or a finger on the sill.

The chronology, as reported from the filing, starts with a dealer in June flagging that four 2026 cars were not reversing properly. GM then tested five vehicles and four of them failed to consistently stop and reverse. The corrected calibration went into the production line on 22 September 2026, which also closes the affected build range: vehicles made between 24 July 2024 and 22 September 2026.

The remedy is software and nothing else. NHTSA's entry says the body control module software "will be updated by a dealer or through an over-the-air (OTA) update, free of charge," so a share of owners will never need to book an appointment. Owner notification letters are expected to go out on 9 November 2026. VINs became searchable on NHTSA.gov on 24 September 2026, and Cadillac customer service is on 1-800-458-8006.

Neither NHTSA's summary nor the reporting on the filing describes any injuries, complaints from owners, or crashes connected to the defect — this one was caught by a dealer noticing a window behaving oddly and GM then failing its own bench check four times out of five. Which is, in the unglamorous sense, the system working: a supplier calibration that was out by a sliver got found before anyone put a finger in it.

If you own one, the thing worth knowing in the meantime is simply that the fob is the unsafe path. Closing the windows from the driver's seat, where you can see the aperture, is unaffected by this recall.