Automatic Emergency Braking problems of the 2020 Mazda CX-5

While driving my vehicle the systems sensors are affected by nearby drivers which cause the car to stall in the middle of traffic going between 40 and 75 miles per hour.

Forward Smart city brake support malfunction camera sensors screen ghost.

My car has started braking when objects arnt there almost causing a crash Mazda denies this.

During snowfall, the front camera becomes obstructed, leading to a malfunction in the Smart brake system. When this occurs, an alert appears indicating a “Smart brake failure,” accompanied by an audible warning and the illumination of the check engine light. The vehicle then exhibits unpredictable behavior, including unintended braking and sudden acceleration, creating a hazardous driving situation. The only temporary resolution is to restart the vehicle; however, the check engine light remains on for several days before eventually turning off. This issue occurred while I was driving on the highway on February 19, 2025, posing a significant safety risk. This is not the first time the car has done this.

Emergency braking brought car to a complete stop while traveling around at approx. 35 mph with no car or anything else in front of the car on a wide and clear town street. Car would then not go into park and only after a couple of mins did it go into park and car was able to be driven.

While driving forward in a straight line during broad daylight at approximately 40mph, the car in front of me slowed and turned right onto a side street. I applied brakes to slow myself (to ~25mph I estimate) until the car in front of me was fully out of my lane. Once the car in front of me was out of my lane, I released the brake in order to accelerate back up to the speed limit, but before I could press the gas pedal the car suddenly slammed on the brakes, beeped warning beeps, and displayed brake on the dash. It did this for less than a second before deactivating. It did not fully stop the car. It just caused a sudden, severe braking event and then the car returned to normal operations. This exact road scenario (car in front turning right onto a side street while traveling at city speeds of ~30-40 mph during daylight) has caused the sudden temporary automatic braking twice, and two other times in this same scenario the brake warning displayed and sounds activated but without automatic braking. These four events occurred within the less than one year that I have owned the car. One of the automatic braking incidents happened in cold temperatures on snowy/icy road conditions. The other occurred in traffic with vehicles following behind my car close enough to risk a rear-end collision. I have reached out to a dealership to request the safety sensors be inspected, but I have seen on internet communities (reddit. Com/r/Mazda and reddit. Com/r/cx5) that many people have encountered this exact behavior (sudden unexpected braking) in the exact same scenarios (car ahead turning right).

Automatic emergency braking (Mazda's Smart city braking feature) will randomly trigger even when there is no vehicle/person/object/obstruction present in the road infront of you. It has occurred going over railroad tracks and made by car go from 30 mph to 0 in a second. It has occurred switching lanes into an empty lane and triggered it. It has also picked up the center medians as an object it should hit the emergency brake for. This is insanely problematic when a vehicle is following behind you and this system is essentially brake checking them out of nowhere. In the past, dealers have said to just turn the sensitivity down. This does not fix it. In addition, I have gotten "brake" warnings from the car on the highway (does not engage because I am at a speed faster than the emergency braking allows) but this is quite unnerving when you are on an open highway going 75 mph and your car is wanting you to brake.