Automatic Emergency Braking problems of the 2018 Honda CR-V - part 1

I was going through an intersection on a city street at approximately 35 mph. There were no vehicles or obstacles in front of my car. My emergency braking feature engaged, bringing me to a sudden stop in the middle of the intersection. Had a car been behind me, I certainly would have been rear ended. I have not taken my car in yet. I regularly maintain my car and did not have any error/warning messages prior to or after the incident.

On 9/25/25, while exiting the freeway with no cars in front of mine for as far as I could see, the "brake” indicator light flashed once and. The car came to a jolting stop. As soon as I pressed on the accelerator the car engaged and I was able to drive normally. A new light was on my dashboard with two white lines beneath the “acc” and “lkas” lights. A similar incident occurred to while driving the car on 12/15/24 and a NHTSA complaint was filed (#11632264). Honda followed up and the car was assessed by a technician who could not recreate the same response and determined that the radar was "misaligned". To the best of my knowledge the issue was addressed by Honda.

I was driving on the highway, 65 mph using cruise control, in the right lane. There was one car in my relative vicinity, already halfway through it's exit off the freeway, with my car still about 6 or 7 car lengths away. The automatic braking system suddenly engaged hard. I quickly disengaged cruise control, which mitigated the problem. In the moment of unexpected braking, I was thankful there was no one around me, because my hard, sharp braking could have caused me a rear end accident and someone else, a front end accident. No one has confirmed my experience. The car is currently being inspected by my local mechanic. There were no warning messages or lamps prior to the 'short stop'. Unknown if warning message came on in the midst of the short stop.

To whom it may concern: ?I am writing to file a formal complaint regarding a serious and recurring safety defect in my 2018 Honda Cr-v ex, VIN# [xxx] . I have experienced at least four incidents within the last two months involving both sudden, unintended braking and intermittent steering lock-ups. These are not isolated events and pose a significant risk to the safety of myself and other motorists. ?the sudden braking issue, often referred to as "phantom braking," occurs when the vehicle's collision mitigation braking system (cmbs) activates without any obstacle or danger present. The car abruptly comes to a full stop, without warning, on a clear road. This is extremely dangerous and has nearly caused multiple rear-end collisions. ?in addition to the braking problem, the steering has also become intermittently stuck. This happens without warning and makes it difficult to turn the wheel, which could lead to a loss of control, especially at higher speeds or on curves. ?I have already reported these issues to two authorized Honda dealerships: ?curry Honda in atlanta, georgia ?Honda autonation in columbus, georgia ?on each occasion, the dealerships have been unable to replicate the problem and have told me they cannot find anything wrong. Despite their inability to diagnose the issue, the problems are very real and continue to happen. ?these defects are not just an inconvenience; they are serious safety hazards that could lead to a crash. I am concerned that if this problem is happening to my vehicle, it may be affecting other 2018 Honda Cr-v owners as well. I urge the NHTSA to investigate this matter thoroughly to prevent potential accidents and injuries. ?please contact me if you require any additional information. ?thank you for your attention to this critical matter. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Driving along a city road, and the cmbs (collision mitigation braking system) engaged. The brakes were slammed on, out of nowhere for no good reason. The closest car in front was several car lengths away, but there was a car closely following behind. That car (and the car behind it) had to brake hard to avoid collision. No injuries occurred in our vehicle. We were, however, pretty fucking scared and pissed.

High pressure fuel pump failed , could smell gas in air vents. Honda claims it’s separate from its other recall for a fuel pump. Car had been working fine, sudden issue, all lights came on , car started to stutter on acceleration. Had to be towed. No issues prior.

Was driving on a main road in the afternoon. There was a car ahead of us, but not directly ahead, and did not have its break lights go on. My car suddenly flashed the "break now" sign and put on the breaks without warning. Fortunately, there was no one behind us, and I was able to continue without incident. This has never happened before, but it really shook me, as it could have been a very dangerous situation. Had there been another car right behind us, we would have been rear ended. It makes me nervous to drive my car, as I don't know if this could happen again.

This is to report an activation of the collision mitigation braking system on my Honda 2018 crv despite there being no collision danger. While driving approximately 30 mph on a 2 lane suburban residential street, my car suddenly slowed when the cmbs system engaged despite my car being at an ample following distance from the car ahead. There were no pedestrians or any obstructions in the road. I believe my safety was at risk because there was no reason for my car to reduce speed and luckily the car behind me did not hit me. My car slowed considerably but did not stop. I have not had the car inspected or serviced with regard to this problem. There were no other warning lamps or messages prior to the system engaging.

Phantom braking problem. On a sunny day, I was driving 25:mph on a street that was being repaired. A steel plate was covering a hole. The system activated emergency braking, slamming on the brakes and flashing "brake" and beeping.

Similar to the open investigation on these crvs, we have had at least 3 occurrences of the vehicle activating automatic emergency breaking with nothing obstructing the vehicles path. There were, however, metal plates in the roadway to cover utility trenches. These are designed for vehicles to drive over them all day, every day, so the vehicle should not emergency stop. Although there were luckily no rear end collisions as a result of this, it was certainly possible given how abrupt the stop was.

Vehicle emergency braked with nothing in the path while driving 80mph on the highway. Car behind me had to swerve into the shoulder to avoid rear ending my vehicle.

Car was not able to shift into lower gears. Car would not accelerate when put in drive and drive did not illuminate on the dash. Gearshift was slipping between neutral and drive. Mechanic got code of u3003–16. And u 04168. On a separate couple of occasions, the emergency brake system was activated when nothing was in the road.

As I was driving about 20 mph on a two lane road through a neighborhood, I went through an area with cones on either side of the road where the road narrowed some because of construction. There were large metal or steel plates covering the road for about 4 feet or so over the asphalt, but nothing that impeded driving forward. As I approached that area, my car’s brake message flashed a few times and beeped before my car abruptly slammed to a stop in the middle of the road, shortly before the metal plates. This happened so quickly that I was unable to react when I first saw the flashing “brake” message and heard the beeping. No one was behind me so I didn’t get hit, but I would have if someone had been following.

Vehicle is currently in the shop due to safety sensors and cameras. The car has less than 70k miles and is excellent condition. But when I started my car all the sensors did not work.

This morning, March 5, 2025, while driving to work, my 2018 Cr-v abruptly stopped in the middle of an intersection with no need and little warning. Thank god nobody was behind me at the time. Everything not bolted or belted down came forward immediately. After the incident I pulled into a convenience store to regroup, calm down and turn off my automatic braking system which I no longer trust. I have a short, 15 second video (mp4) from my dash cam but was unable to attach it for this report.

On several occasions, the auto braking system has engaged when not required. When driving / approaching and overhead highway sign, the alert will trigger, warning me to press my brakes. Other past events include occasionally when passing beneath an overpass, the braking system will alert and engage the brakes. This has nearly caused a rearend accident. Braking alerts also occur for some forks in the road, seemingly alerting for the barrier that is in place.

Driving on a regular paved road following the speed limit (35 miles per hour) when the automatic emergency braking system engaged randomly; the car speed went from 35 miles to a near and sudden stop and almost caused a rear-end collision. Phantom braking. This is the second time this has happened with no visible reason in terms of road conditions or flying birds, blowing trash, etc. That could explain this. I am afraid to drive the car out of fear that phantom braking will cause an accident/potential injuries. I cannot imagine this happening on a freeway at higher speed—distater. I was driving on a viaduct (on the top level with car traffic below and on the first occasion, with a river running below). Could it be that the safety features such as camera sensors are misfiring and putting people in real danger. It makes no sense for safety features such as are making driving more dangerous than without them. I am going to have to spend $250 for Honda mechanic to diagnose and who knows how much to repair it, but it is clearly an engineering/mechanical problem created by Honda. This vehicle also fewer than 40k miles on it despite being a 2018 model. Please, please require Honda to issue a recall before something tragic happens.

The car randomly reports multiple malfunctioning of all safety components: adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, tps, hill start assist, braking, vehicle stability assist after various time period, the warnings go away and then they restart at a later point. Mechanic reported a computer readout of p0301 which is a cylinder misfire detect. A misfire should not cause safety feature on the Cr-v to sttop working.

On several occasions my automatic emergency braking has engaged when there is no car in front of me. Typically this happens when another car is in the left turn lane and my car is passing it. The other vehicle is completely in the other lane and I am in my lane. There is no visible obstruction to my vehicle's path. This posses a significant damage of me being rear ended by any car following too closely to my car. This has happened on numerous occasions.

I am reporting a dangerous malfunction of the cmbs system, and I don't know if the fuel pump recall, which my Honda dealer will repair on 2/3/25, has any affect on the cmbs, causing the car to brake without cause/randomly, when no vehicle or anything else is near. Last year I was almost hit from behind on the harlem river drive when it happened, and last week on the palisades parkway, an equally dangerous situation, and the car behind had to swerve into the left lane to avoid hitting me. It has happened a few times when I am on local less populated roads. Honda owner websites have several reports of the same thing I experienced, but Honda reports that it can't find the problem and therefore can't fix it. I have tried to document in what conditions it happens, e. G. , broad daylight, night time, accelerating, maintaining same speed, or what other activity is happening on dashboard console, but can't detect a pattern, seems random. I use this car for only myself now, and not my family, for fear we could all be wiped out, even though it was purchased to be a family vehicle. What recourse do owners have?.

On 01/08/2025, time: 8:10 pm est – automatic emergency breaks applied though there are no objects, people or vehicles in front of the vehicle. My wife, [xxx] kid and I were heading back to home from costco, mathews nc. Suddenly, the automatic emergency break applied without any warnings on the dashboard. Because of the sudden break, my wife got injured, she hit her knee to the back air vent. I must take a long breath for a min and move the car to the parking lot and check back with my kid and wife. There was a little distance from my car to the other car behind me. So, luckily, we avoided the collision. Otherwise, there would be a major collision. This is the third time we were run to this issue at the same spot. I am keep observing the warning messages earlier while driving on the highway and but stopping all the sudden without any warnings make us very scary. I was still doubting the security measures and investigation process being held at the Honda. Please consider the fact that, “human lives matter and security is a fundamental right. ” and resolve the issue at the earliest. The older aeb (automatic emergency break)incident information as follows: 1st incident was reported on “[xxx] | NHTSA id number: 11457060” and 2nd incident was on “[xxx] | NHTSA id number: 11575701” information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

While traveling irregular route, the emergency brake prompt displayed on the dashboard. There were no vehicles in front of me within a quarter mile distance and the break began to automatically depress while accelerating. I immediately took my foot off of the gas pedal and tapped the brake. The emergency braking system disengaged and I was able to continue normally. Prior to this incident there had been numerous instances where the dashboard displayed the emergency brake icon, but did not automatically depress the brake. I have not noticed any consistency in the circumstances that causes this to initiate. I have also checked to make sure there any cameras or radar hardware unobstructed.

While driving on the san francisco bay bridge in at about 20 miles an hour with a distance of 2. 5 to 3 cars between my crv and the car in front of me the "brake" indicator light flashed once and the car came to a jolting stop. I was very startled and cars behind me also came to a sudden stop. Following a few seconds, the car was able to accelerate normally again. The "brake" indicator light has flashed many times since I bought the car in January of 2019, but the car never stopped. I brought the car to Honda of oakland. Where I was told that they'd never heard of this happening. A a brake inspection was completed, but they were unable to replicate the incident. I was told that the sensors were cleaned of debris in case that's what caused the incident.

Phantom braking episode with no reason, no collision but driver was pretty shaken up travelling at 80km to 0km. Second time this has happened on this vehicle.

I was driving through an intersection and my car said "brake" and started flashing on my dash. I was accelerating, but my car slammed on the brakes without me hitting my brake petal. The car behind me almost hit me. I called Honda dealership. They stated my sensor was probably dirty. I checked. It is not dirty. I called Honda corporate. They told me I would have to take it in to a Honda dealership, get it diagnosed (I would have to pay for this), then it would be submitted to them. I asked if they would reimburse me for this diagnosis, they said only if it resulted in a recall. I am pregnant. I do not feel safe when my car randomly slams on the brakes while I am driving almost causing an accident!.

The vehicle has presented this issue twice now: the first: I was driving through a rural area at around 25 mph. As I approached a set of train tracks, I slowed down, knowing that the entrance to the train tracks was pretty rough. As I started across the train tracks, the car suddenly and rapidly applied the brakes. At this point, the audible and visual braking alerts were activated. I tried to use the accelerator to override the random braking and get off of the train tracks, but the car just revved without moving. At this point, I realized that the car had somehow shifted into neutral. Once I shifted it back into drive, the car resumed normal operation. There were vehicles behind me that had to stop rapidly in order to avoid rear-ending me, and the situation left me temporarily stranded in the middle of the train tracks. The second: I was driving at around 35 mph with the cruise control set. A car from the right lane pulled in front of me, and while it was a quick lane shift, they had plenty of room. Shortly after they switched lanes (but not immediately) the car abruptly applied the brakes, slowing aggressively enough that I was thrown forward in my seat. There were no visual or audible warning signals like are normally used with the automatic braking system. I applied the accelerator, and the car resumed normal operation.

I was driving at approx 40mph with no cars or other objects in front of me. The automatic brake mitigation system suddenly engaged with flashing brake signal, beeps, and sudden hard brake. If a car had been behind me, it would have been a fender bender. This has never happened before. I have now turned that feature off. I have not reported this to the dealer.

I was driving 50-55 mph on a two lane road. The car in front of me was 3 car lengths ahead and the car on my right side was approaching from behind. As I drove under an overpass my car jerked forward almost coming to a complete stop. I jerked forward and then back into my seat back. I had my id badge on my front seat and it flew to the floor. As the car was jerking to almost stop the brake light on the dashboard flashed off and on a few times. I was lucky I was not hit from behind with how quickly the car stopped me but did not come to a complete stop, just slammed the brakes on quickly.

I was traveling on a 4-lane highway over 60 mph when the aeb activated completely when no obstruction was anywhere near my car. The weather was dry and sunny. The brakes were completely locked and fully engaged. Fortunately, I had enough momentum to drift onto the shoulder to avoid the traffic behind me. No one was hurt. No accident occurred. I called two separate Honda service departments. One had never heard of this; the other recommended having the system recalibrated. Both admitted that replication of the incident would be difficult or impossible. I have not taken by car for service. The only visual warning that I remember seeing was related to the adaptive cruise control but there was no visual brake warning. I am buying another car and it will not be a Honda. Get this car off the road! the aeb system is a flawed design. The radar device on the front bumper can easily be activated by a stone from the road or broken when bumped by another car in a parking lot. At a minimum Honda service should be calibrating the system every time these cars are brought in. Or make the system off by default, not on.

I was driving down a small hill. The car alerted for a car near my vicinity. There was no car in front or adjacent to mine. However, the car suddenly came to a complete stop, without me engaging the brakes. It almost resulted in a serious collision with the car behind me.

While driving on a public roadway at about 20 mph I approached a large steel plate covering a trench, the brakes applied with maximum force and the dashboard brake light came on. Luckily there were no vehicles close behind us. We could easily been hit from behind because of the severity of the stop. We had a similar incident on 05/042021 that we filed a complaint with the NHTSA #11416110. I spoke with matt (service rep) from Honda city and was told it was not covered by the warranty.

I was traveling along a four lane, about 45 mph and the collision braking system engaged for no reason. There was no car or obstacle in front of me, and thankfully, no vehicles following closely behind me. The system disengaged within a few seconds and then I was able to accelerate forward. This has happened twice. It is frightening to think may have occurred if there were cars ahead or behind me. The first time it happened when the car had about 15,000 on it. The second time was this summer, and the car had about 52,000. I am very concerned about this issue, and I am very worried that the braking will engage and there will be a resulting accident.

The car aggressively braked without warning. The braking sensor activated even though there was no vehicle in front of me.

Left parking lot and started driving down the street. The "brake" light flashed and peep sounded and the car stopped abruptly--a complete stop. There was no one in front of me; there was no reason for the "brake" light to come on. Thank god no one was behind me as I would have been rear-ended. The car stopped so abruptly that no one would have been able to stop. After I calmed down, I was able to continue on with no further issues. Contacted the dealer service department immediately and was told no recall and that the radar had just picked up on something. This made no sense as I was the only one on the street at the time--no one coming toward me and no one behind me. Over the years of owning the car, there have been incidents where the "brake" light flashed for no obvious reason. However, the car never stopped. I feel fortunate because this could have caused a serious accident. I am very concerned to be behind the wheel of such a vehicle. A recall is definitely warranted and soon!.

I was driving when I came upon a couple of metal plates on the road. I slowed a bit to go slower across them when my car slammed on the brakes, the brake orange light came on and beeped on the dash. There was a truck behind me that was luckily leaving enough space. I was jolted and everything fell off my passenger seat due to the aggressive sudden braking. If it had happened on a highway or the truck had been closer it would've been horrible.