Adaptive Cruise Control Problems of Hyundai Santa Fe - part 1

"take a break" - the feature prompts the driver to “take a break” with that text and a‘coffee cup” logo after a certain period of continuous driving. There are instances when turning it off is necessary and Hyundai has removed that option - high distracting false alarm rate. The alert, visual and auditory are intrusive, unnecessary, demonstrate a high false alarm rate leading to frustration and distraction. While designed as a safety feature, it has the opposite effect. The system inaccurately interprets the driver’s behavior as signs of fatigue with alerts popping up at an alarming rate. Perfectly normal and safe driving behaviors see the alert popping up again and again. Further there are environmental interferences - bright sunlight, reflections off glasses, bumpy roads requiring frequent corrections - system interprets these as driver inattention and cannot tell the difference between drowsy driving and navigating a poorly maintained highway. New Hyundai models do not allow the driver to disable the take a break alert. “you’re cruising down the highway, minding your own business, alert and focused, when your Hyundai flashes a coffee cup icon and tells you to take a break. Again - this for the third or fourth time in 20 minutes. You’re not tired, not swerving, and frankly, you’re getting annoyed”. The system is disruptive and unsafe as it disrupts the driver activating when the system detects inattentive driving, suggesting breaks even if the driver does not feel fatigued. The alert can illuminate even during short drives of less than 30 minutes. The alert can occur extremely frequently, especially during long drives, which is extremely annoying. The warning can appear shortly after starting a trip and may repeat every few minutes, which is extremely frustrating. It is far more disruptive than safe and helpful.

When using lane following the system repeatedly warns you to pay attention, usually when in heavy traffic and after repeated warning shuts of the cruise and lane following system. When using the cruise control system the system will suggest you take a break. Both problems appear to be associated with an in cabin camera. I have driven my vehicle almost 25,000 miles and taken two cross country trips. The warning system has almost never warned me of a real problem. 99 percent of the time it is a false reading by the camera and occurs under challenging driving conditions when the last thing you need it to be told to pay attention when you truly are. During this winter I have driven more at night and the vehicle is basically un drivable because of false notifications. This has repeatedly happened in the 14 months I have owned the vehicle - the date below is just for when it happened today. I am more than willing to share details and would welcome a call.

See all problems of the 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

Dear NHTSA team, my car was in a minor accident last. After that, the repair shop replaced my bumper and front camera. Don franklin somerset Hyundai performed a calibration on my new radar. They calibrated it six times, but there are still many issues with the hda driving system. 1. False dual-side warning when a vehicle is present only on the right side, the vehicle camera system incorrectly detects vehicles on both the left and right sides. In reality, there is no vehicle on the left side. In this scenario, both the radar warning and the camera detection are incorrect. 2. Wrong-side warning in some cases, when a vehicle approaches from the left rear, no warning is issued on the left side, while a warning is incorrectly displayed on the right side. In this scenario, both the radar warning and the camera detection are incorrect. 3. False warning during Smart driving while driving on the highway using the Smart driving function, when the vehicle is required to turn left or right, the system may generate a false dual-side warning. As a result, the vehicle aborts the intended left or right turn and continues driving in the center of the lane. In this scenario, both the radar warning and the camera detection are incorrect. 4. While driving manually (without hda engaged) or parking, the vehicle shows left-side or right-side collision warnings without clear cause. I reported these issues to Hyundai USA approximately three weeks ago. I was instructed to bring the vehicle to the dealership for inspection. However, during my recent visit, the dealership representative only reviewed the videos I provided and concluded that no issues were present, without conducting a physical inspection or test drive of the vehicle. Given the ongoing safety concerns and lack of proper diagnosis or resolution, I am submitting this complaint for your review and assistance. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Thanks, best regards, [xxx] [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5.

See all problems of the 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

This car was in a bbb binding arbitration and Hyundai was told to fix: speed control malfunction, speed linit not posting to hub arbitrary fan engagement. The dealership alm west had the car 2 weeks and the car sat on their lot. They said we are unable to duplicate the problem. Now in addition I showed them the cracked windshield and they were not responsible. I had an insurance complaint I took it to safelite and replaced the windshield yesterday and I got it back with a new windshield and it also had a crack in the replacement windshield. I think Hyundai knows there's a problem with the glass which is also part of the safety system of the car.

I engaged the adaptive cruise control at 50 mph. This enabled the driver attention system which I had turned off at the start of my drive. The driver attention system is unable to see my eyes through my prescription corrective lenses. This caused the Hyundai to throw multiple 'failure to control vehicle/failure to watch road' warnings over the course of a few seconds; culminating with the system trying to stop the car in heavy traffic.

I am reporting a safety hazard with the driver monitoring/driver assistance system in my 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe sel (VIN: 5nmp2dgl5sh096694). The system frequently misinterprets my normal driving behavior as inattentiveness and triggers constant, loud beeping while I am driving. In many cases, it also disables assistance functions mid?drive, which is dangerous and unexpected. The false alerts appear to be caused by the system misreading my eyes due to their natural shape and size. This issue does not occur with my wife, who has larger eyes, which indicates the system is biased toward certain physiologies and does not reliably detect all drivers. I have tested this repeatedly: if I strain my eyes unnaturally wide, the alerts stop, but this is extremely uncomfortable and only sustainable for a few seconds. The system is effectively pressuring the driver to adopt unsafe, unnatural behavior to avoid constant alarms. Environmental conditions such as sun glare, rain, and darkness make the false alerts even more frequent. The sudden loud beeping is startling and forces me to divert attention from the road. The unexpected loss of assistance features during driving further increases the risk of an accident. This system is not functioning as an assistive feature. Instead, it creates distraction, encourages unsafe compensatory behavior, and fails to accommodate normal variations in driver physiology. I request that NHTSA investigate whether Hyundai’s driver monitoring system meets safety and reliability standards and require corrective action if necessary.

The adaptive cruise control does not allow the use of sunglasses to be worn while the cruise control is engaged. The cruise control will immediately shut off when sunglasses, and some prescription glasses are worn. This is a safety issue as you are not allowed to wear sunglasses on a sunny day or when the sun is low in the sky and it is below the car's sun visor. The same camera that is looking at the drivers eyes also controls other safety features and disables them when the driver is wearing their sunglasses, and some prescription glasses as well.

Overly excessive oil consumption 2 quarts every 3 or 4 days. No leaks. Engine gets so hot I don't have to turn on heater in winter. On going issue since 100,000 miles. Ebs light stays on electronic parking brake switch does not work. Parking brake will randomly engage after vehicle is turned off. Dealership cannot duplicate issue. If cruse control is turned on the vehicles warning lights all of them will suddenly illuminate and the vehicle shuts off. Alternator and battery replaced. Have not used cruse control since. Airbags never inflated in a front end crash at 45mph most recently I started experiencing I intermittent trouble staring the car. Then one day it didn't start at all and smoke was coming from under the hood. Towed to mechanic , starter burnt up 155,000. $ 900 to replace then a couple days later I lost power on the freeway and the car started jerking and vibrating. Stopped vehicle cut off and would not start. After 1hr I started and limped home. Vibration under 2000 rpms and when stopped. Knocking noise under hood. Brand new spark plugs. Mechanic stated cylinder 3;missfire was identified as a hole in a valve due to weak material now I have to replace engine. Oil consumption and excessive friction and heat is to blame. My car has been cared for like a baby it's all I have. I should not have to be responsible for this very cheaply made engine that was doomed to fail.

See all problems of the 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

The vehicle's software was updated on oct 21, 2025. The software has serious flaw. When driving on slight incline on the passing lane the vehicle will apply the brakes without warning. This has happened 3 times. At times, when vehicles were following me they also had to apply the brakes unexpectedly. Had they not applied their brakes, they would have rear ended me at highway speeds. I also recall that there were no vehicles either in front or to the right ahead of me when it occurred. Also there was a guardrail on the left side of the highway at the time. This did not occur with the previous installed software. Every time this happened, the vehicle was in cruise control and driver assist was on to keep vehicle in the lane.

See all problems of the 2023 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

Wearing any kind of polarized sunglasses prevents you from seeing the heads-up display and will abruptly disable the adaptive cruise control. The Santa Fe forum has hundreds of complaints about this, yet Hyundai has not done anything to correct the problem. I have asked three different dealers about this problem, and they just repeat the company line (you need to find sunglasses that don't cause a problem). This situation is dangerous and unacceptable.

I just purchased a 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe and the Smart cruise control won't work with sunglasses on. There is an infared sensor on the steering column that has to see your eyes. Sunglasses are needed for this vehicle. If you don't wear them, the sunlight blinds you. The system will beep, display a message stating full face can't be seen, and it shuts the cruise control off and the vehicle decelerates, which is unsafe.

The driver assistance warning system continuosly goes into shutdown mode. Eye monitoring system always states that you are not keeping your eyes on the road. I have tried using different glasses or no glasses. Changing the steering wheel settings also seem to have no effect. This is very dangerous as it will start decelerating and stopping in the middle of a freeway in heavy traffic when this warning is activated. This only happens with the lane keeping assistance and adaptive cruise control are on. Hyundai issued technical service bulletin 25-gi-001h, but they did not solve the problem.

While driving my 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe on the interstate, the “keep your eyes on the road” alert repeatedly activated even though the driver was attentive and looking forward. After multiple warnings, the system escalated to a message that the vehicle was about to be disabled, which created a serious safety concern. This happened even though the driver attention warning feature is disabled in the vehicle’s settings. The issue appears to be caused by the steering-column driver monitoring camera system falsely detecting inattention. The constant alerts are distracting, and the threat of the vehicle disabling features while driving at highway speeds is dangerous.

Vehicle began to display front collision avoidance system error/ radar blocked. This also disabled the 'Smart' cruise control features. This happened any time the cruise control was engaged and we encountered traffic. The unit was in the dealer's service department for a week, and the front radar module was replaced and reprogrammed under warranty.

See all problems of the 2022 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

Everytime with acc active it activates the driver attention camera system which never works in sunlight camera reads wrong and disable acc while driving on freeway all the time due to sun reflection cant even wear polairized glasses acc never works.

Vehicle unable to recognize face when wearing sunglasses and disables all driver assist aids, including turning off the cruise control.

Hyundai's forward attention warning is so aggressively annoying it makes me want to drive off a cliff to shut it up. Driving with an arm in the 12 o'clock position? "beep! keep your eyes on the road!" polarized sunglasses? "beep! I can't see your eyes!" OH, there's a setting! let's turn it off. . . "beeeeep! where are your eyes!". I just purchased and cannot use cruise control I need to wear glasses it has a hard time seeing my eyes I cannot turn off I have tried many positions on steering wheel to no avail.

The attention detection system is the worst designed feature of any vehicle I have ever experienced. It constantly dings while looking directly at vehicles ahead. It is distracting and turns off by looking down directly at the steering wheel. It is a safety hazard and Hyundai needs to push out a fix ASAP or allow the feature to be disabled entirely. You cannot use cruise control without it activated and the feature is a safety hazard that makes the car less safe.

I purchased a new 2025my Hyundai santafe hybrid. Since the day of my purchase there has been a constant error message that is displayed on dash saying "driver attention warning system failure". This light stays on constantly and disables cruise control and adapative cruise system. This affects the usability of the vehicles. When asked Hyundai they say, drivers arent expected to wear sunglass if this system has to work properly, they even say constant blinking will cause system to fail and disable cruise control. This is a serious concern. How can people drive a car without blinking and how can a new car have disabled cruise control all the time.

We purchased a 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe caligraphy VIN [xxx] in July 2025. During a road trip the following week when we got on the interstate and my wife turned on cruise control she began getting notifications on the front panel telling her to keep her eyes on the road and drive safely. These notifications were showing up during the entire trip (300 miles) every 2-5 minutes. We contacted the dealer and have had it in the shop five times now for them to trouble shoot and try to determine the issue. We also opened a case with Hyundai corporate which they closed indicating they could not find a problem. I have spent multiple hours riding with my wife, reviewing the owners manual, and researching online in a attempt to resolve this issue. During driving test we have experienced a situation where the message “take control of the car the system is shutting down. Shortly afterwards the cruise control shuts down and the driver briefly looses control of steering and acceleration. This is a very dangerous situation at 70 mph. During my trouble shooting I feel I have narrowed down to issue to the driver assist system and the forward attention warning system on our Hyundai. Online research (reddit) indicates numerous other users are experiencing the same issue across multiple Hyundai models. It’s my opinion that this is a safety issue since the driver can momentarily loose vehicle control. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Forward facing driver assist cabin camera will shut off the cruise while you are driving if it cannot detect your eyes. This is not a safety feature but rather an extremely dangerous safety hazard!!! while you are traveling at 70+ mph and put on sunglasses and all of a sudden the car starts alarming and decelerates without warning causing the driver to become extremely distracted trying to figure out what is going on is a recipe for a major incident. There is no way to shut the camera off so you are then forced to either drive with no cruise at all so you can wear sunglasses and for long trips creates added and unnecessary driver fatigue or you forego wearing sunglasses and squinting causing unnecessary eye strain/fatigue so you can use the cruise. Please explain to me how this is a safety feature? also the warning that 'you might need to take a break' is also not a safety feature and also creates driver distraction rather than safety and should just totally be removed from the vehicle software completely. We have literally driven the car over the center line on the rumble strips without a signal and then back into our lane again the warning does not go off, we've jerked the wheel to avoid an object in the road warning does not go off, but if you happen to drive to close to the center line but don't go over it then the warning does go off. . . . . If we just left the house turned out of the driveway, the damn thing goes off. There is no making sense of when or why it goes off, it's completely random. And again, no option to turn it off. Had the dealership given complete details of these 2 specific "safety" features - I use that term exteremly loosely - sharing they could not be turned off I never, ever would have bought this vehicle. I am not alone in my complaints, I have seen hundreds of similar complaints on forums for Hyundai vehicles that have this feature. Please please issue a directive to Hyundai that they need to push a fix allowing shut off of these 2 features.

System keeps saying that I am not watching the road, which I am. No eye glasses or sunglasses on. This causes the cruise control to suddenly disengage creating a safety hazard. SUV is up to date on software/firmware.

Have a 2024 Hyundai Santa Fe calligraphy hybrid with a drivers attention warning problem. The warning turns on frequently when using cruise control. When the warning beeps a few times in quick succession it actually shuts down the system, reduces speed to a crawl, and turns off the engine. This only happens while using cruise control, no issue with daw when cruise control is off. So can't use cruise control on the highway/interstate. Dealer is no help. This is obviously a safety issue when the engine turns off while driving on an interstate. Thanks.

The cruise control system cuts of with message on screen stating that , system camera can’t see my face and the system DE-activates. This is especially dangerous at highway speeds. The vehicle behind me doesn’t see a brake light as my vehicle suddenly looses speed. This is from Hyundais driver attention warning (daw) function. This function cannot be DE-activated by myself or my dealership which is webb Hyundai of merrillville indiana.

Frequent intermittent dash warning lights, no speed indicated, no tach indicated, cycles through warnings of safety systems malfunctioning. No lane departure, no adaptive cruise, no cruise, no forward collision warning, no blind spot warning. The disabling of these systems puts all drivers at risk. Dealership replaced front camera and windshield to fix this issue. Not fixed, continues to alarm at random times while driving.

See all problems of the 2020 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

The adaptive cruise control cannot be used while wearing certain sunglasses. The car has a driver awareness warning that is supposed to warn the driver if eyes are not on the road. It does not work with certain glasses. While driving at interstate speeds, I engaged the adaptive cruise control only to have it shut off and quickly slow down. After fumbling with different glasses while driving, I found a pair that will work with the adaptive cruise control. In the display, there is a toggle to turn off the driver awareness option, but as soon as you turn on the adaptive cruise, the driver awareness turns on again. If the driver awareness function cannot be turned off it is a safety issue. My favorite driving glasses cannot be used and I think this issue will cause accidents with the quick slowing on the highway. There should be a way to turn off the driver awareness so I can use the adaptive cruise with my sunglasses.

Driver attention warning system constantly gives aggravating notices of "suggest take a break" with chiming sound when driving with or without sunglasses or other glasses. I cannot use cruise control. I have tried several different sunglass types with no success. After first warning, goes off every 4 minutes, either cancelling cruise control when I am using it or just causing annoying aggravation which takes my attention off the road. I cannot turn this feature off. It is so aggravating that it draws my attention from the road ahead and impacts my patience while driving. Due to eye condition, I must use sunglasses while driving in sun. Hyundai did not make this limitation clear when I was buying the vehicle, and they refuse to do anything about it now.

On a bright sunny day, the Hyundai forward attention warning (faw) shut off my adaptive cruise control while doing 70 mph, indicating that I was not focused on the road. I was looking straight ahead at the road the whole time. I later determined that the system was reacting to glare on my glasses (not sunglasses, no tint whatsoever, just glass). This led to a very dangerous condition because I was fighting with the car to determine what had happened (at 70 miles per hour), not focused on the road as I just had been prior. The system is checked as off in setup (as described in the manual) but clearly that was not the case. The driver can not shut the system like the manual says. I actually love the car, except for that "feature". This subsystem should never have been permitted into a production vehicle and, had I known, I would never have purchased. It's that big of a problem. The system appears to be very dependent upon ambient light because I never have this issue when it's cloudy, raining, or at dawn or dusk. I have complained at 2 Hyundai dealerships here in the chicago area, to a total of 4 Hyundai personnel, even sent a video my daughter recorded of me driving and exhibiting the issue. In 3 of the 4 cases, they replied the "system was performing as designed". That appears to be their mantra. The one service person replied that they had never heard that before. I guess they don't ever check reddit or write down my many complaints. I think it's clear Hyundai, as a service organization does not intend to do anything about this and, perhaps worse, the company at large has no intention of doing anything as this same subsystem is part of an extensive line of their 2025 models as well.

I was driving at approximately 65 mph using the advanced cruise control system. Randomly, the system disengaged and I started getting 2 mil warnings on my console. Mil warning 1) was "check forward safety system" and 2) warning the advanced cruise control parameters are not met due to warning 1. A few minutes later, I received a message on my Hyundai blue link app showing dtc c162078. After researching this dtc, I found that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other drivers that experienced this same/similar situation -- unexpected loss of advanced safety features and Smart cruise control features. In fact, Hyundai published a technical bulletin for another model with the same issue. The loss of these functions places an unexpected safety risk to the driver if this issue occurs when there is other traffic present. My vehicle was involved in a frontal accident once about 1. 5 years ago and this issue has never occurred. This is the first instance of this issue since I purchased the vehicle brand new from the dealer.

The driver assist program will not work if the driver is wearing sunglasses. If you are using driver assist, which includes cruise control, and are wearing sunglasses, the vehicle gives a driver attention warning. The vehicle will them cut off the cruise control causing the vehicle to rapidly drop its speed. This is incredibly dangerous at highway speeds way speeds. Hyundai and its dealerships are aware of this issue but have not offered a solution. Also you cannot disable the driver camera that cause the driver attention warning. We have also had this occur while driving at night without sunglasses. My understanding is that this issue is across all model lines.

The sensor always goes off stating my eyes aren't on the road to the point it trys to stop the vehicle in traffic. This prevents me from being able to use cruise control because the sensor is causing issues by not detecting my eyes.

The forward attention warning (faw) on the 2025 Hyundai Santa Fe calligraphy can not be deactivated. Correction, it can be turned off for normal driving. For instance, driving around the city or not using Smart cruise control. As soon as you turn on the Smart cruise control it's reactivated and can't be turned off. The faw does not work when using prescription sunglasses / non prescription sunglasses or if the sun is hitting the inside of the cabin a certain way. The faw constantly flashes warnings and beeps at you even though you are looking forward and keeping your eyes on the road. If you look far down the road you shift your eyes up some, and the system beeps and flashes warnings to keep your eyes on the road. On a recent 230 miles trip I did not wear my prescription sunglasses / non prescription sunglasses and the faw system went off at least 50 plus times and I had my eyes on the road at all times. Very distracting, I then had to take my eyes off the road to see why it was beeping and telling me to keep my eyes on the road. The faw system actually makes for a stressful and distracting drive. At this time the faw is useless. I took the vehicle to the dealer and the faw is not a system that can be turned off. Hyundai needs to allow the dealers to be able and deactivate the system.

In January, 2024, my vehicle (2023 Hyundai Santa Fe) started shuddering when brakes were applied at high speed, on quick or hard stops, in stop and go traffic, and especially going downhill. I had only been driving the vehicle for about 5 months. I took the vehicle to an independent mechanic, who explained that my front rotors had burn spots. He recommended that I have them resurfaced. I did not want to pay for the problem to be fixed when I believed it was a factory defect and should be covered by warranty. I asked the mission hills Hyundai dealership service department to investigate and correct the problem, because I felt that my family's safety was jeopardized by faulty brakes. They showed me the burn spots on the front rotors and recommended resurfacing. They said I could wait for the pads to wear down and do the resurfacing at the same time as the pad replacement. Their estimate for resurfacing was higher than the one from my mechanic. I found a Hyundai technical service bulletin, number 23-br-004h, which described the exact defects of my vehicle. I returned to the dealership with the TSB in February, 2024. They replaced the two defective front rotors and front disc pads at no charge. The shuddering was no longer evident, and I thought the problem was resolved. However, 10 months later in December, 2024, I once again experienced the shuddering while braking on the freeway while going downhill and when slowing for stops from high speed. Since I had been told that the new rotors and pads were covered by warranty for 5 years or 60,000 miles, I returned to the dealership on 1/16/25 and asked them to evaluate the brakes again. They said that the front rotors again had burn spots. They once again recommended resurfacing at a cost of $249. I reminded them that there was a warranty on the new parts, they claimed that the only warranty was for the original parts that had been replaced. They agreed to resurface no charge. Please investigate and respond to my complaint.

The brake light switch is malfunctioning and causing the brake light to stay on continiously. This is dangerous because the brake light stays on so theres no indication that I'm getting ready to stop because the light is already on, increaseing the risk of a crash. The cruise control is also afecteced with this issue because it stop working at the same time. I looked up the recall and it said that 2013 -2015 hydundia Santa Fee sport vihecles were affected, but when I call the dearlership they said my VIN# was not included in the recall!.

See all problems of the 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe 🔎.

This vehicle has a driver attention alert system which track driver's eye and head movement to determine driver attention levels. This system can be disabled outside of using cruise control through the setup menu. However, when in cruise control, this system cannot be disabled. Unfortunately, if you're wearing sun glasses the system declares the driver is inattentive and produces a distracting aural and visual warning. If no action is taken the vehicle will automatically come to a stop, even on the freeway! this option is a driver distraction and does not allow the driver to wear sunglasses increasing the risk of motor vehicle accidents. Several customer have complained to Hyundai about this system. There needs to be driver-selectable option to enable/disable, even in cruise control mode.