Honda Accord, CR-V Under Investigation by NHTSA Over Phantom Braking
The issue could affect as many as 1.7 million vehicles built from 2017 to 2019.
Honda is facing an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over concerns that 1.7 million of its CR-V SUVs and Accord sedans produced between 2017 and 2019 could experience phantom braking, according to a report Thursday by the Associated Press.
Phantom braking is an issue where a vehicle equipped with an automatic emergency braking system will apply the brakes without warning or provocation. This is dangerous because it can cause a loss of control and because sudden, violent applications of a vehicle's brakes can increase the likelihood of rear-end collisions and injuries, which have been reported in at least six cases with the Hondas in question.
The investigation seeks to understand not only the cause of the issue but its full scope and scale and will likely lead to a recall action. Honda says it's cooperating fully with NHTSA to get to the bottom of this issue.
Of course, Honda is far from the only company to experience phantom braking issues, with Tesla regularly being mentioned in complaints to the NHTSA. Our own experience with the problem in our long-term test Model Y has been so severe and frequent enough that it led us to recommend that our readers not buy a Tesla until the issue has been fully resolved.
We asked Honda for comment but didn't hear back in time for publication.
