Table 1 shows three common forward collision avoidance related problems of the 2026 Honda Odyssey.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Automatic Emergency Braking problems | |
| Adaptive Cruise Control problems | |
| Warnings problems |
While changing lanes to an off-ramp the collision mitigation braking system suddenly activated along with a collision warning beep even though there were no automobiles nearby to trigger the warning. No cars in front of me and no cars to the right of me in the exit lane. My car immediately braked and tried to steer back into the main roadway, away from the exit lane. The lane departure light did also come on due to me not using a turn signal prior to the lane change, but there was nothing else around to trigger a proximity alert nor to respond to.
Observed repeatedly while operating at highway/interstate cruising speed, with adaptive cruise engaged: any changes in road texture - concrete to blacktop, between different types of blacktop or concrete, separation joints, etc - such as when crossing a bridge, crossing state lines, entering open-road toll plazas, etc - results in a sharp lifting of the throttle and at times will also automatically engage the brakes. This results in rapidly and unexpectedly cutting speed by 10-15 mph before automatically resuming set speed 1-2 seconds later. This has resulted in trailing vehicles to think I am brake-checking them or otherwise caused them to abruptly brake or swerve out from behind me. It also can cause driver and occupants in the Odyssey to lurch forward and back unexpectedly - which has had a residual affect of unintended input on the steering wheel, cascading into unintended direction change and amplifying vehicle instability issues already introduced by the sudden speed change. There are multiple other owners of 2018+ Odysseys on the forum [xxx] which have reported similar situations. I have tried to encourage them to register their observations here. I believe this issue poses a significant risk to the operator and occupants, as well as surrounding motorists. Rental/fleet vehicles with drivers who are otherwise unfamiliar with the issue would be at exceptional risk. I have experienced this issue numerous times as I live near & frequent highways and interstates with these types of road conditions nearby. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).
On November 12, I was on the highway in the right lane, there was a car about 4 car lengths ahead of me in my lane and the car in the middle lane was quite a distance ahead. Just as I got in the middle lane, boom! the vehicle's cmbs malfunctioned and slammed on the brakes - no warning, visual or audible, just came to an abrupt stop. Thank goodness no one was behind me or I would have been dead. It was an instant whiplash effect as well and then as I was then merging back into the right lane to exit the highway, it did it again! there were no cars anywhere near me as I had slowed down due to the trauma from the first braking malfunction and all the cars were quite a distance ahead and thank goodness there were no cars behind me. Then on November 25, the same thing happened again. Driving down the highway, no cars near and boom! I am brought to an abrupt stop in the middle of the highway! the cmbs malfunctioned again in the middle of the highway. I took it to the dealer and conveniently there were no codes so they said there was nothing they could do. Someone needs to do something about this! to answer your questions 1) cmbs system is malfunctioning and has been for quite some time on Honda vehicles 2) if there would have been a vehicle behind me, I most likely would have been killed. If my dogs would have been in the van, they would have been injured. It gave me whiplash 3) I took it in and they did nothing until I complained, then they kept it a second day and drove it and said it didn't do it. But they weren't even going to do anything until I pushed the issue. This is a known issue with Honda as I found out after it happened to me. 4) the dealer 5) absolutely no warnings before it happened.