Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,215,138 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA — including 138,663 crashes, 56,255 fires, and 8,561 deaths.
What is a NHTSA consumer complaint?
A consumer complaint is a free-form report filed by a vehicle owner directly to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) describing a safety concern about their vehicle. NHTSA collects these reports through its Vehicle Owner Defect Report (VOQ) system and publishes them publicly. Each complaint includes the affected component, the date and circumstances of the incident, whether the failure caused a crash or fire, and any reported injuries or deaths. The owner's full narrative description is included verbatim — NHTSA does not edit or moderate the descriptions.
The database below contains over 2,215,138 individual complaints. NHTSA's investigators monitor it for clusters of similar reports — when enough owners describe the same failure mode on the same vehicle, NHTSA may open a Preliminary Evaluation that can lead to a recall. Many of the largest recalls in U.S. history, including the Takata airbag recall and the Hyundai/Kia engine fire recalls, started as patterns visible in this complaint database years before they became formal recalls.
How to interpret what you read
A few principles for reading consumer complaints usefully:
- One complaint is anecdote; a hundred similar complaints is data. NHTSA does not investigate the truthfulness of any individual report — that's the job of the Office of Defects Investigation, which looks at the full pattern. When evaluating a vehicle, look for whether multiple owners describe the same chain of events.
- Crash, fire, injury, and death flags are owner-set. They are not verified by NHTSA. They are still useful as a filter, because owners who tick those boxes are typically reporting more serious incidents than those who don't.
- Component categories are NHTSA-assigned, not owner-assigned. NHTSA standardizes the component field so that complaints can be aggregated. The owner narrative often goes into more detail than the component category captures.
- Complaint volume scales with sales volume. A best-selling model will accumulate more raw complaints than a niche model even at the same defect rate. To compare across vehicles, look at complaints per 100,000 units sold, not raw counts.
If you've experienced a defect
File a complaint. NHTSA's investigators rely on this database to detect emerging defects, and useful complaints — specific, concrete, with dates and mileage and clear descriptions of what happened — feed directly into the agency's pattern detection. The form takes about 10 minutes and is at nhtsa.gov/recalls under "Report a Safety Problem." Your complaint becomes part of the same public record that this page is built from. Owners filing detailed VOQs are how recalls get triggered.
Read more from our blog
Showing 72,878 complaints — component: VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Incident date: May 20, 2022
When driving the car I corrected to move further to the left on the road. In doing so it felt like I ran over something and all of a sudden the car accelerated (initially I was driving around 20-25 mph) and I struck a tree. I sustained a T Spine fracture and was hospitalized for 5 days. I just have a case number with Ford but they seem disinterested. When the car accelerated I felt it was going... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jun 11, 2022
Reporting “phantom braking” issues during 1600 mile cross-country from Kansas to California. During this trip there were approximately 45 incidences of the rapid uncommanded braking while on 4 lane divided highways. All driving was daytime, sunny weather at speeds between 70-80 mph. Braking occurred with both cruise control/auto steer enabled (No FSD), as well as only cruise control enabled.
Incident date: Jun 12, 2022
Cruise control was engaged at 70mph. Auto without warning while traveling suddenly started severe braking. Driver was only guiding steering at the time ( foot did not touch brake). The dual lane highway was level and straight. There were no other vehicles in sight. The skys were overcast so there were no shadows. There were no overpasses. I have had this happen several times when autopilot is enga... Read more
Incident date: Jun 11, 2022
When driving on the interstate this morning our Tesla suddenly and aggressively applied the brakes. This happened many times. There was absolutely nothing near us. These were empty stretches of highway, These incidents were jarring, both emotionally and physically. We were fortunate that there were no cars near us, especially behind us. This has happened before driving around town but it was less ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 6, 2022
I was having gas mileage issues and had an engine light come on one day. I checked it for it to come up with mass air flow sensor code. I had them replaced. Once I replaced them I noticed I still had the light and mileage issues. I did some research and found out you need to reprogram the sensors at a dealership after replacement. I scheduled an appointment at Infiniti of Akron and they reprogramm... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: May 31, 2022
2017 Subaru Forester- I had arrived to work and stopped at parking spot. Before I could put car in park position.. I heard a car high pitch revving sound. The car throttles forward and hit a building. Now I’m scared of the car.
Crash
Incident date: Jun 11, 2022
using autopilot adaptive cruise control, the vehicle on several occasions but mostly on non median highways the car for no apparent reason brakes hard. vehicles around me especially behind are put in danger by my sudden, hard braking for no apparent reason
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
The optional "Self Driving Option" we purchased for an additional $8,000 when we purchased this vehicle has never worked properly. The adaptive cruise control will brake for no reason, often multiple times per mile. It seems to be affected by shadows on the road and the vehicle mistakes these shadows for obstacles. The "Self Driving Option" will abruptly jerk the steering wheel in the direction of... Read more
Incident date: Jan 27, 2022
I was driving to and from mammoth lakes California. Middle of the day, clear weather, with no other cars within thousands of feet if me. I put my vehicle into adaptive cruise control (not autopilot) and several times during the drive the brakes would slam to the point of reducing my speed from around 70 mph to roughly 40 mph very quickly. It was extremely happened and was repeatable but with no... Read more
Incident date: May 21, 2022
The contact owns a 2015 Kia Soul. The contact stated his mom was driving the vehicle on the expressway at 55MPH. The contact stated that the vehicle did not accelerate and the speedometer was decreasing. The contact stated no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle resummed to perform as normal and the contact drove home. The vehicle was driven to a dealer and diagnosed but not repaired. The manuf... Read more
Incident date: Jun 8, 2022
PHANTOM BRAKING!!! Ever since purchasing the car in March 2018 and right up to the present, when using AUTOPILOT or more recently FULL SELF DRIVING (FSD), especially at highway speeds, the car will suddenly start significantly braking and slow down for no justifiable reason. This is dangerous enough that if the vehicle behind me is not paying attention, they could rear-end me. It’s totally unpre... Read more
Incident date: Jun 9, 2022
I was pulling out of the garage and I heard disturbing sound coming from the bottom it sounds like something is breaking. I thought I drove over something like water bottle but a lot louder. So I stopped halfway through the garage and looked under, nothing visible looked around each tire nothing, checked the monitor screen no warning, nothing, so I thought maybe the sound is not coming from the ca... Read more
Incident date: May 25, 2022
I have encountered several "phantom" braking events while driving my Tesla Y in auto-pilot mode, all on the freeway or highway. This most recent event occurred while returning from Las Vegas. In each case, something dark across the road triggered the event. In two cases it was dark asphalt strips that were perpendicular to the highway. in the other case, it was a dark shadow of a bridge across the... Read more
Incident date: May 30, 2022
The contact owns a 2014 Subaru Forester. The contact stated while pulling into a parking space, the vehicle accelerated unintendedly, went over a cement post, onto a sidewalk pavement, and crashed into a condo building. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact did not recall whether the brake pedal was depressed but failed to respond. The air bags failed to deploy. The contact was infor... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Sep 1, 2018
The contact owns a 2017 Ford Edge. The contact stated while driving approximately 30 MPH, the accelerator pedal was depressed however, the vehicle started to decelerate. The contact stated that the check engine and several other unknown warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle stopped in the middle of the street. The contact was able to restart the vehicle and continued... Read more
Incident date: Jun 4, 2022
Phantom Braking. I was on Auto Pilot on the freeway traveling at 75 mph. All of a sudden the car did an automatic hard brake and the car started to veer toward the center divider. The car only had 64 miles and was brand new. This was the first time I had used autopilot and had been on the freeway. There was a truck on my right and it was a 2 lane freeway. Nobody has inspected the car.
Incident date: Jan 5, 2022
1. Vehicle Issue. -At approximately 2k miles while driving through severe weather in the Rocky Mountains my New Bronco lost ALL electronic driving systems that controlled driving modes including 4 wheel drive modes(GOAT) along with safety systems such as traction control, sensor systems, and cruise control. I was forced to drive through a white out in Rocky Mountains with 2 wheel drive due to the... Read more
Incident date: May 27, 2022
The wiring that connects to the throttle sensor is fraying and causes the car to stall unexpectedly when driving. If the car stalls unexpectedly it increases the chances of a fatal accident. There are no warnings, all the warnings appear when the car stalls. My safety is at risk because it stalls when driving unexpectedly and another car can hit me from behind causing an accident without warni... Read more
WINNEBAGO
ADVENTURER
(2021) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 9, 2022
Incident date: Jun 4, 2022
The Advanced Trak feature on the Ford F 53 chassis turns off when operating on rough roads which effects the anti lock braking function, Stability control, the cruise control and other safety features. After parking the vehicle, the system will reset itself but will turn off again. Ford has no fix for this problem which is widely documented on the internet.
Incident date: May 27, 2022
Unexpected and rapid slowing/braking of vehicle since new in November of 2021. Occurs when on cruise control usually at highway speed, more often on open highways and have possibly (though not always) related it to cresting a hill, distant reflective “water mirage” on our western roads, passing large trucks, two lane highway having large oncoming trucks +/- on curves. On one occasion while pa... Read more
MERCEDES-BENZ
SPRINTER 2500
(2022) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 9, 2022
Incident date: Jun 6, 2022
The distronic cruise control system cuts out after a period of seeing no vehicles in front, sometimes an hour, sometimes two hours. But when this happens, it then begins disabling other safety systems like emergency braking. There is no way to quickly reset the system. I spoke with the Mercedes Benz Dealer about this (van is brand new and this happened twice on my first trip) and I was told that t... Read more
Incident date: Jun 9, 2022
The vehicle braked and slowed down on the highway for no reason when on autopilot. The speed of the vehicle was around 55 mph when suddenly it stated to decelerate for no reason. Ot resume speed after 100 ft or so
Incident date: Jan 12, 2022
My engine light keeps coming on randomly. When this occurs, the dashboard lights blinks and I get a " steering assist" error message. Once this happens it is really hard for me to steer AND I lose acceleration as well. Imagine losing acceleration in the middle of an intersection. Also, I noticed my temperature gauge moves up & down as well. I have taken it to the dealership each time it happens an... Read more
Incident date: Apr 30, 2022
My concern first started with the cruise control suddenly shuts off. My biggest concern when the cruise control suddenly shut off and braked. When this happened we were traveling on Interstate 80. 4 lane highway 2 lanes each direction. Cruise control set at 80 mph. Approaching an 18 wheel truck moved to the fast lane. Half way past the 18 wheel truck cruise control suddenly shuts off and the car b... Read more
Incident date: Jun 5, 2022
When I am driving and using the cruise control (Tesla calls this Traffic Aware Cruise Control), the car will randomly brake while I am driving, sometimes very abruptly and hard, even though there is no obstacle, the road is clear, there is no weather, no danger, etc. There is no way to disable this "feature" if I do not like it so that I can use cruise control normally, the only solution is to dr... Read more
Incident date: Jun 5, 2022
The contact owns a 2021 RAM 1500. The contact stated that while driving his vehicle at approximately 2 to 3 MPH, and depressing the brake pedal, the vehicle started to accelerate. The contact stated that the harder he would depress the brake pedal, the more aggressively the vehicle would accelerate. The contact stated that while he was in the drive-thru, the vehicle accelerated into a vehicle in f... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jun 8, 2022
While driving at 70 mph with adaptive cruise control engaged I experienced several instances of "phantom braking." The car braked hard all by itself with no driver input. This happened several times on June 2, 2022 and again on June 6, 2022.
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2017) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 8, 2022
Incident date: May 28, 2022
Trailer Brake system message comes on multiple time. Have never pulled a trailer. Also when going 75mph on cruise control the "Stabilitrak" message comes up and kicks off my cruise and completely blanks out my screens. This is extremely bothersome and is DEFINITELY a safety issue with this wiring problem.
Incident date: Jun 8, 2022
Says transmission data error check engine and trac control all display and only allow me to drive 20-35 MPH some time I can turn the car off and back on and the codes will shut off but they come back on in the middle of the highway what usually takes me 30 minutes takes me an hour and a half to get to some times 2 hours I can't run my AC cuz that over does my alternator and heats my car I've only ... Read more
Incident date: Jun 3, 2022
While driving the vehicle, while accelerating the vehicle would lose power or disengage from gas pedal at 17 mph and then again at 26 mph. After about 3 miles the check engine light came on and a TCM warning appeared on the radio screen. Immediately took the car to the dealership and was turned away since I didn’t have an appointment. On my way home from the dealership I made a stop at a store. ... Read more
Incident date: May 15, 2022
The contact owned a 2022 Subaru Forester. The contact stated that while slowing pulling into the parking space the vehicle suddenly experienced unintended acceleration and drove over a curb and traveled up a hill before crashing into a tree. During the crash neither the driver nor passenger-side air bags deployed. The driver and front passenger sustained chest injuries. The vehicle was destroyed a... Read more
Crash
2 injured
Incident date: May 28, 2022
Car consistently slows down to 25 MPH in 60MPH zone on i4 with Auto-Pilot enabled.
Incident date: Jun 5, 2022
While traveling on a straight and level interstate freeway with the cruise-control set to 75mph. A huge loss of power followed by a hard downshift from 10th to 7th, up to 9th and attempting to shift back into 10th before I decided to reduce speeds and pull over because it was very dangerous surging/uncontrollable for moments for myself and those driving around me. I noted smoke pouring out from be... Read more
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2014) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 7, 2022
Incident date: May 27, 2022
Cruise control Didn’t disengage and continue to accelerate. Tried to apply brakes but they went straight to the floor and didn’t work. Placed the car into neutral and kept trying brakes until they started to come back. With the car continuing to accelerate went into breakdown lane and rubbed up against guardrail to avoid car in front.
Crash
FORD
EXPEDITION
(2012) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 6, 2022
Incident date: Jun 6, 2022
My vehicle suddenly shifted downward, my gas pedal had no effect, my speedometer stopped working and my fuel and tire sensor lights came on. This happened multiple times on my drive this morning and would have caused an accident if I was being tailgated.
Incident date: Jun 6, 2022
While traveling at highway speeds, the rpm’s would rapidly jump. As of the vehicle was confused at what gear it should be in. This would cause unsteady driving and also made it feel like the transmission was about to fail. This has happened multiple times. While using and not using cruise control. I have video evidence of it happening on another occasion.
Incident date: Jun 6, 2022
Driving a 2011 Subaru Forester, about 5mph in traffic on city street when car suddenly and unexpectedly accelerated at full gas and rammed into truck in front of me, with no pressure on the gas pedal. Slamming on brakes and pulling on hand brake was not enough to override the unexpected and unasked-for acceleration. I can only imagine what would have happened if there were pedestrians or if I'd ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jun 3, 2022
Car will break "phantom breaking" slowing down +20mph very quickly with nothing on the highway in front or behind. It typically happens before bridges, major shadows on highway. There are 2 places in Little Rock Arkansas on the highway that it does it every single day in the same spot with nothing around! Has nearly caused people to crash into me from behind. I stopped driving with the autopilot.
Incident date: Jun 4, 2022
On 4 June 2022, at 5:03pm (CDT), while traveling northbound on Hwy 175 in Dallas, Texas and approximately 1-mile from the I-45 interchange I was traveling in the left lane with the Tesla Autopilot ON and speed set to 70 mph with a posted speed limit of 65 mph. There was very light traffic. When unexpectedly and suddenly the car began braking for no apparent reason. Since traffic was light I momen... Read more
Incident date: Jun 4, 2022
My wife who is a small statured woman was leaving parking lot of church onto a narrow 2 lane street. As she made a left turn, the right front tire climbed the curb and dropped back onto the street. The car suddenly accelerated to top speed and crushed into a tree about 50 yards down the street. Airbags deployed causing bone breaks in left cavalcule, fractured ribs and T12. The driver is short and ... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Jun 2, 2022
Driving on I-43 in Wisconsin on June 2 around 2pm CDT while in cruise control the car suddenly went into emergency braking and slowed down dramatically requiring me to override the system. There was very little traffic and a semi-truck about 200-300 yards ahead of me.
Incident date: Mar 26, 2022
This has happened 3 times driving car almost comes to a complete stop. Acceleration dropped down to 20 MPH. Was told it was a knock sensor replace in March in May did it again . Replaced it against the very next day it did it again. Went online and said it was a recall but nothing is showing up here . I will contact Kia in the morning we could have been killed this happened in the expressway
Incident date: May 28, 2022
I purchased my Tesla Model 3 six months ago and I have experienced the phantom braking event while on autopilot four times that I can recall. The most recent occurrence was this past Saturday afternoon, May 28th, 2022 southbound on I-35W around 2pm . I was driving on a clear sunny day and there was no traffic in front of me. There was a white pickup truck behind me about 5-10 car lengths. Wh... Read more
Incident date: Jun 3, 2022
On June 3rd I was driving on I-80 heading West towards Chicago. The car was on Auto Pilot (Cruise Control) and traveling at 70 mph. Without any warning or warning lamps/messages the braking system suddenly applied the brakes. I had to quickly apply the accelerator. If a truck or car would have been following me closely they would not have had time to react. I am afraid to use the auto pilot in hea... Read more
VOLKSWAGEN
ID.4
(2021) — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Jun 4, 2022
Incident date: Jun 3, 2022
My vehicle's stability control system will activate in error to slow the vehicle when traversing moderate corners at speeds of approximately 25 to 35 mph. When this happens the vehicle experiences no actual loss of traction but the ESC warning light will flash on the dash and the vehicle will cut power and slow the vehicle with pulsing applications of the brakes by 5 to 10 mph. This is an unsafe s... Read more
Incident date: May 26, 2022
My Model Y Tesla, while driving on the freeway using full self driving, would abruptly slow down from 70mph to 40 mph in matter of seconds without warning and luckily there was nobody around me. I did a bug report on it many times but Tesla discounted that. Also my front windshield wipers would come on for no reason even on a sunny day. Sometime on a raining day when going into a tunnel the win... Read more
Incident date: May 27, 2022
While using the adaptive cruise control plus autopilot, car suddenly and rapidly slows to stop. At each instance, there are no cars in front of me or any other obvious obstruction to cause the car to rapidly deaccelerate. It only happens on the freeway at freeway speeds. It is shocking and unnerving. When I quickly take back the control, I can bring the car back up to speed. So far, there has no... Read more
Incident date: Jun 1, 2022
The autopilot used for automatic cruise control regularly brakes for unexplained reasons when there is no immediate threat. This is not only scary but it could cause an accident if other cars were right behind me. There is one part of highway 470 in Highlands Ranch, CO, where it happens every time, like autopilot is expecting the speed limit to drop so it slows way down for me, but the speed limit... Read more
Incident date: May 18, 2022
Sudden unintended acceleration apparently caused by an electronic malfunction of throttle control. There were no warning signs. It is not known if vehicle was inspected by the insurance company.
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 26, 2022
Gear shift paddle will not respond when manually down shifting. Sometimes, I have to pull hard on the lever 3 or 4 times to get it to down shift. Sometimes it simply won’t manually change gears. This is very dangerous, especially on corners, when you need to slow down quickly then accelerate again. I end up “coasting” around corners in too high a gear and have to brake hard to slow down enou... Read more