Automatic Emergency Braking problems of the 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe

Component/system: automatic emergency braking / forward collision-avoidance (aeb/fca) system and/or electronic parking brake (epb). The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. What happened: while driving my 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe (VIN: xxx) at highway speeds, the vehicle suddenly and aggressively applied the emergency braking system on two separate occasions within the same day (approximately 45–60 minutes apart). In both instances, the red emergency braking warning lights illuminated on the dashboard, and a warning sound activated. There were no vehicles, obstacles, or hazards in front of me either time. The braking was forceful and abrupt, causing rapid deceleration at highway speed. Both events occurred under normal, clear driving conditions. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6) safety risk: my safety and the safety of other drivers were put at significant risk. Sudden unintended braking at highway speeds can easily lead to a rear-end collision since the deceleration was not caused by driver input and gave no warning. Reproduction / dealer confirmation: the dealer has not been able to reproduce the issue, and no diagnostic trouble codes have been found so far. The vehicle is currently at the dealership for inspection. Inspection: the vehicle has been inspected by the Hyundai dealership, but the cause has not been identified. No manufacturer field engineer, police, or insurance inspection has taken place yet. Warning lamps / prior symptoms: during the failures, the red emergency braking indicator and audible warning activated immediately when the brakes engaged. There were no warning lights or symptoms prior to either event. Assessment: cause unknown. The problem appears to be an intermittent malfunction of the automatic emergency braking system, forward collision sensors, or related braking components. No diagnostic codes were stored. This is a serious safety issue that occurred twice within one hour and could easily result in a collision.

I was travelling at 50mph a car pulled in front of me and stopped unexpetedly. I braked hard. My car began to slow, but the brake pedal went to the floor and did not slow, after a few seconds, the brake pedal came up from the floor and braking was resumed. I held the pedal to the floor the whole time trying to stop. It was as though the braking system failed and recovered. There was no pulsing felt on the brake pedal typical of abs working. After my car resumed braking thte collision avoidance system took over and the car stopped just inches from the stopped car in front of me. I had just taken the car in for dealer service at 24,200 and everything was supposedly checked out as required by maintenance. I have contacted Hyundai but have not gotten a response yet.

On may 15th, I was involved in a serious accident caused by a malfunction in a rental vehicle provided by enterprise a 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe. After reversing into a parking spot, I placed the vehicle in “park” and exited the car to retrieve belongings from the trunk. My young son remained in the back seat. To my shock, the vehicle suddenly began to move on its own despite being in “park. ” I immediately ran to the driver’s side and jumped back into the vehicle in an attempt to stop it. I pressed the brake pedal multiple times, but the car would not respond. I also pressed the “park” button repeatedly, yet the vehicle continued to move uncontrollably. The steering wheel was unresponsive, and I was unable to redirect the vehicle or bring it to a stop. The car ultimately crashed into two other vehicles. During the collision, one of the vehicles pinned my left leg in its door, causing physical injury. I am now dealing with both physical and emotional trauma as a result. To be clear, this incident occurred on a flat surface. No airbag deployed upon impact, and there were no warning signs or alerts from the vehicle beforehand which is highly concerning, especially for a modern electric/hybrid vehicle. This car presents a major safety hazard and, in my opinion, should be recalled and removed from service immediately before it causes a fatality. I have contacted enterprise multiple times to report this issue and urge them not to rent this vehicle to anyone else.

I had adaptive cruise control on and debris hit my windshield and I went into the rumble strip and eventually into the guard rail where the car essentially pingponged from there until it eventually stopped when the metal hit the front. It appears the emergency brake did not activate and the lane keep did not activate. My air bags did not deploy.

Early March 2025 the vehicle was put car in park, got out of car to close yard gate, turned around to walk back to car but car was rolling forward and hit the flat bed trailer causing approximately $5000 in damage. It was put in park before getting out but jumped gear before getting back in. Another common problem is slamming the emergency brake on when attempting to drive. Was at a red lite left turn stop sign with foot on the brake. When the light turned green took foot off brake & put foot on accelerator to go forward, the car slammed the emergency brake on. This has happened approx 6 times in the 1-1/2 years of ownership.

Emergency brakes engage while driving for no apparent reason. This has happened on several occasions over the last 6 months.

The automatic emergency braking system, on multiple occasions now, has slammed on its brakes at highway speed when there are no obstacles, barriers, or even vehicles in sight ahead of my wife. This happened to me the other day also when exiting the highway onto an exit ramp when it "detected collision" when *nothing* was around me, no vehicles or barriers within any reasonable distance. It's going to end up causing someone to rear end me or her - absolutely unsafe and 100% putting my wife and child at risk. We're taking it to the dealership on Saturday and have verbally informed them of the issue. No warnings, no messages, no nothing prior to incident - the car is practically brand new.

Three times this has happened. The instances occurred on highway 680 between pleasanton and san jose. I was going the speed limit - 65 miles per hour - as were tons of cars around me. Suddenly the car would brake, startling me because I was nowhere near another car. It frightened me a lot! I think it is the automatic braking system - either the front end collision warning or the blind spot collision warning. It could have easily resulted in an accident. I took it to the Hyundai dealership, and they knew they could not likely duplicate it. They showed me where to turn off the vehicle control (braking) for the front end collision warning and the blind spot collision warning. I have read on the internet several other parties that have experienced this - car-controlled braking while traveling at high speed with lots of cars around.

Driving down interstate at 70 mph and car started to brake while foot on gas pedal. Would not go…red brake alert came on. Luckily no other car in left lane and pulled off to side of road. Car would not drive. Called tow truck.

I was driving 70 mph on highway and the aeb activated despite no other vehicles in front of me. Thankfully the car behind me was far enough behind that they could swerve out of the way, or it could have been a massive collision. Additionally the person behind me could have swerved into traffic causing a massive accident. This is happened twice the other time I was going 50 miles an hour. I am afraid to drive this car on the highway now.

On highway, emergency braking enacted. I pulled to side the of the road to turn engine off and restart car. When I did, I could not put the car in gear. I have had other similar incidents happen with this vehicle. After about an hour of waiting for roadside assistance and having nys troopers come help, the car dash lit up and I was then able to put car in drive. When I talked to dealership and said that I got a diagnostic message on my screen to have transmission component checked today ('today' was in all caps on the screen), they said they could not get me in. Then when I said, "I'm supposed to just drive around hoping my car doesn't break down again?" she said, "I'll cross my fingers for you. " are you kidding me!? my safety is at risk is this what a major dealership's answer is to the car's issue?.

I was driving approximately 55 mph on an interstate with no hazards nearby. The car's emergency braking system engaged causing the vehicle to slow down suddenly to about 35 mph. I continued pushing on the accelerator to try to get the vehicle back to the appropriate speed and was able to do so.

On the freeway and along side another car and "emergency breaking activation" warning. Happened 2 times in a month. Car swerved but I was able to control it. I was doing about 65 mph in each case.

I was driving on the freeway and there were not any cars in front of me or next to me, and my emergency break went on. My car jerked hard and could have caused a very serious accident if there was a car behind me. This happened two times during the same drive. I took it to the dealer and they told me there was nothing they could do since there was no codes shown. I am very nervous to drive this car now.

Unknown issue, but the car has auto braked 2x on the interstate going 65mph. No cars were around me nor any objects in the road. It stated auto braking and sensors going off. Resolved itself within 60 seconds, but did almost cause me to be rear ended because a tractor trailer was quickly approaching me.

The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the emergency braking system was erroneously activated, causing the vehicle to abruptly stop in the middle of the road. During the failure, the message "emergency braking system engaged" was displayed. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was not contacted regarding the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

Occurred on March 10, 2024 while travelling in the middle lane of a 3-lane highway just west of raleigh, nc and heading west. The emergency brake light came on, the car stopped suddenly and my head shook from side to side. This could have been a major accident if the traffic wasn’t light. I do not tailgate and there were at least 6-8 car lengths between me and the car in front. No cars on either side. There was no beeping warning from the vehicle about being too close to other vehicles before the car stopped. I pressed on the gas pedal and the car moved forward. The weather was about 50-60 degrees, dry road and sunny. Next step: called Hyundai customer care on March 12, 2024 and was advised to bring the vehicle in for inspection and correction. Took the car into the Hyundai autonation dealership in buford, GA, where the vehicle was purchased. They found nothing wrong. Note: have researched this problem online and found multiple instances of the same occurrence. See the following online: emergency braking system activates intermittently | Hyundai Santa Fe forums.

The automatic emergency braking system engaged (the red warning flashed on the dashboard and tone beeped) while I while driving on the highway at 65 mph, in clear weather conditions. This engagement caused the steering wheel to jerk violently left and right, almost causing the car to fishtail on the highway. There was a concrete barrier next to the lane I was driving in, and this was a very dangerous situation. Luckily, there was no car in the lane next to me.

On several occasions, the automatic emergency braking system engages even though there is no evidence of a dangerous situation or imminent crash. It usually occurs during highway driving or at speeds over 40mph. In each case the brakes engage, the steering tightens, the aebs notification appears on the dashboard and an alarm sounds. After a few seconds, the brakes and steering return to normal. This occurs even when there is no evident traffic issues. I googled the situation and found that other drivers of this car have had similar problems. . Read more...

I was driving on the highway and the car phantom emergency braked for no reason at all.

Upon braking hard and suddenly due to being cutoff on the interstate, it felt as if the antilock brakes did not properly engage but rather grabbed/grinded/scraped. Only when I let off the brake did they disengage. This happened the first time within 2 months of owning the car and with less than 2k miles on it, at highway speeds (65-70 mph) and this sensation has happened probably 4 times in the 7 months I have owned the car under various scenarios of stopping quickly. In addition, it recently happened when driving 25-30 mph and coming to a normal stop approaching a stop sign - where it felt as if the brake on the front passenger tire grabbed/grinded/scraped (but not on the 3 other tires). I have taken the car back for inspection at the dealer twice, neither time have they found any issues. In addition, one evening the stability control light flickered, sounded as if the dash was frying/sizzling with no reason - roads were not wet, no leaves, grass or other debris, etc. And speed was 25-30 - this happened twice within 3 miles. Dealer found no issue with car after performing visual inspection of wiring, check of system for code errors, nor driving test to reproduce issue. Had the brakes failed, I could have been in an accident causing serious harm to me/my passengers or whomever I could have hit. I believe the abs system needs to be replaced or reprogrammed but the dealer refuses to acknowledge a problem exists. Online forums indicate similar (and worse) issues, also with people stating they cannot get a dealer to resolve their problems. This is a serious malfunction of either the electric or braking system in some capacity and should be fixed before people are severely injured or killed.

All lights that come on when you first start the vehicle stay on. Abs, forward collision, rear collision, side mirror check, down hill brake, etc. The brakes and brake pedal would lock up when attempting to brake. Pedal stays locked but the wheels didn’t seem too. Brake system wouldn’t respond to pumping the brakes the pedal stayed frozen. It could have caused me a serious accident.

Since I have had the car, five months, there have been three incidents of the car braking to a stop suddenly and unexpectedly while I am driving. At no time were there other cars near me; I was not in danger of hitting anything or anyone as the road was clear. The stops were jarring and upsetting as I could not discern a reason for these sudden stops. I feel it is very dangerous to stop in the middle of the street without warning.

I bought this lemon on 1/14/2023. The front collision detection doesn't brake to avoid collision. The emergency brake will engage on it's own, and it has to be manually disengaged. The parking assist feature will automatically disengage and is unable to engage it. The middle seat in the back seat headrest obstructs a major portion of the rear window, obstructing the driver's view. It is not the headrest pictured in the owner's manual. It has been in the shop twice. It has been in the shop for 10 days and counting of the 34 days I have owned this lemon of a vehicle.

I purchased this SUV new and noticed an issue with the automatic intermittent wipers. The dealership has replaced the windshield sensor and issue is now unreliable at best. Service department told me to simply wipe the sensor off or pour water onto the sensor to get the wipers to work. That seems to work for about 3 wipes and then stops again. Also, the driver seat changes position by itself while driving, and the advanced cruise control failed to provide any braking and almost caused me to rear end a stopped car in freeway traffic. Additionally the advanced braking system does not work at all. . . I had the salesman check the settings and they are turned on, but do not provide any braking function. The alert system does provide a warning if a car turns a corner in front of me, but fails to take any action.