Adaptive Cruise Control problems of the 2023 GMC Yukon

On August 17th, 2026 while approaching a nature preserve entrance at approximately 1 mph, my 2023 GMC Yukon denali ultimate suddenly accelerated on its own, without the driver pressing the accelerator pedal, striking a split-rail fence and a tree. Airbags did not deploy. The front collision system didn't issue any alerts about the fence and tree. A gm software update had been installed a couple of days before this incident . In the weeks prior, the vehicle had also intermittently failed to hold side mirror position and periodically failed to deploy the power running boards. I request that gm and NHTSA investigate a possible link between the recent software update and an unintended acceleration event, potentially related to the adaptive cruise control or another driver-assist/body control module.

The vehicle was crawling to a stop in preparation to park in front of my garage door. When I move my hand across the steering wheel, my hand must have come in contact with the toggle/scroll for the “resume speed” function of the cruise control. The vehicle abruptly began accelerating towards my house. I was able to press the brake pedal to deactivate and stop the vehicle safely. I note that in the past week, perhaps even two, the cruise control has not been used. The vehicle is driven 2-4 trips a day.

When driving in a parking lot, due to the design of the cruise control set switch, it is very easy to unintentionally set the adaptive cruise control. Specifically, when maneuvering in a parking lot at low speeds (below 5mph) and allowing the wheel to return to center by spinning in your hands, the cruise control switch which is a dial/lever that sticks out beyond the surface of the wheel, catches on your hand and engages the cruise. This sets the cruise control target speed to a 15 mph even if you are currently going slower than that. The vehicle then accelerates on its own at a fairly aggressive pace to get up to 15mph. You can of course hit the brakes and cancel the cruise control, but in a tight parking lot scenario this unintended acceleration could easily cause you to strike another vehicle, obstacle, or pedestrian. The cruise control on this vehicle is enabled by default on start up and the single action of hitting the set switch/dial engages the cruise and accelerates sharply even if you had not previously used cruise in that ignition cycle. This seems like a stupid design and dangerous, and would be very easy to fix with a software update to not let the cruise become enabled below 15mph. We did not have the dealer investigate because this appears to be the normal operation of the cruise control system. There were no unusual warning lamps. This has happened several times and also has happened to my wife while driving.