Automatic Emergency Braking Problems of Mazda CX-5 - part 1

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.

See all problems of the 2020 Mazda CX-5 🔎.

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.

Go down road, straight, less than 40, automatic braking system we off with no one in front of me or in lane next to me.

See all problems of the 2024 Mazda CX-5 🔎.

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.

Good afternoon. I am reporting an incident that occurred on December 29, 2024. I was driving my 2019 Mazda Cx-5 and I was about to make a left turn. However, as I was making the left turn, I received a notification on my dashboard about a "forward Smart city brake support malfunction" (a photo of the notification will be included). My car instantly lost control and it did not stop until it collided with the street curb of the road I was attempting to turn on. Fortunately for those around me, my car did not collide with any other vehicles on the road. However, this collision caused damage to the right side of the vehicle, as the right airbag of the vehicle had deployed. I believe that this is a very significant problem that should be looked into as soon as possible. If my car were to hit other drivers on the road, it could have led to a very tragic incident. As far as repairs go, I wanted to wait and see how this complaint would carry out. I do not believe that it would be fair for me to pay repairs for an event that was out of my control. Thank you.

See all problems of the 2019 Mazda CX-5 🔎.

Car will slam on brakes even if car is in opposite lane farther away. We have received sooo many chips amd cracks on windshield with 2 weeks. We purchased used and was informed windshield was replaced once already.

While driving through town the braking system malfunctioned and the car came to a stop in the middle of the road with messages on dash saying the Smart city braking support was malfunctioning as well as brake assist. Engine light came on as well as traction control light right after the car coming to a sudden hard braking stop. Drove straight to shop to check engine code which was p0882. I am so afraid of this happening on the highway with my daughter in the car. There is a recall for this system but my car isn’t under the recall so I'm sure there are others that are having the issue but aren’t covered under the recall either.

See all problems of the 2018 Mazda CX-5 🔎.

2021 Mazda Cx-5. On 8/6/24, I turned right into a parking space between 2 parked vehicles at the dmv parking lot. I turned right and eased into the parking space facing a large Ford f 150 white pickup truck. I was approximately 1-1. 5 feet from the front of the white truck. I had my foot on the brake, suddenly the vehicle accelerated by itself and I heard the car revving at a very high rpm and the car took off. My sister was a passenger and she heard it as well. None of the collision or brake notification avoidance features came on the screen or were implemented as a safety measure or accident prevention. I had my foot on the brake and I had no control over the vehicle. The car lurched forward hitting the right side near the headlight of the car on my left and the pickup that was in front of me. My car hit the white pickup so hard that it pushed it out of the parking space in front of me and perpendicular to the parked cars in the row. We both were injured, my sister in icu and had to have emergency cervical surgery for fractures impinging her cervical spinal cord. The Mazda was totaled. It is impossible for a Mazda to push the Ford f 150 pickup truck, that was facing me , out of the parking space and perpendicular to the row of parked cars with just 12- 14 inches between the pickup truck and my vehicle unless it was revved up to a very high rpm. The police report has some inaccuracies, it states I was turning left into the space but was actually turning right and says I possibly passed out but that is not true. I was in shock when the police questioned me. I have also relived every second of this accident in slow motion many times since. I am a 5 foot women and would have had to floor the gas peddle and even then would not be able to push a large pickup truck out of the space in front of me, and continue out of the parking space landing sideways in a 12-14 inch space between the front of the 2 vehicles.

See all problems of the 2021 Mazda CX-5 🔎.

The most recent incident: driving 35 mph on a 4 lane divided boulevard, vehicle 5-6 car lengths in front of me indicates intention to turn right. No traffic in lane to my left should I need to change lanes. I continue to coast. At approximately 2-3 car lengths, the vehicle in front has nearly completed the right turn - there is no risk of collision - but my car brakes hard. This is the 4th time my car has activated emegency braking in a situation it is not warranted. I have been dirving for 36 years with no accident. I do not need nor want this technology as it is more prone to causing accidents than preventing them. Additionally, the car throttle response is slow to recover in these situations, so while I mashed the acclerator to the floor to avoid being rear-ended - the car did not accelerate for 1-2 seconds (rpm went up, but the engine did not engage for several seconds). In situations where aeb might have been marginally helpful, detecting cross traffic running red lights, the car has never detected this - and thankfully I'm an experienced driver so aeb was not needed. This technology, imo, is not safe and will lead to over-reliance causing more accidents in the future.

I had coplained about a long, soft brake pedal on 10 February 2024 to hiley fort worth motorcars and got a report on 13 February 2024 stated that after inspection, they could not duplicate my complaint, so they did a visual inspection and washed the car!!!! today, 29 may 2024, I had to make an emergency stop and pressed the brake pedal to the floor! the abs came on, but the brake pedal should never reach the floor. The other car had stopped and I swerved out of the way. No warning lights came on nor sounds. Additional information; if the brakes are applied by the adaptive cruise control, and you step on the brake pedal after the brakes have been applied automatically, the brake pedal is nice and firm, like it should be. But if there is no intervention with the car, the brake pedal is very long and soft.

In under 36 months failure of the front sensing camera disabled parking brake, traction control, emergency braking assistant, traction control, lane keeping assistance and lane departure warning.

Multiple instances of phantom braking, which resulted in two instances where we were just inches from being rear-ended. The circumstances of the phantom braking are similar, and has occured many times. Circumstances of phantom braking are as follows: vehicle in front in lane makes right hand turn from lane (with or without turn signal or braking). The vehicle in front typically has exited the lane, and the Mazda emergency brakes hard! variable vehicle acceleration/deceleration dynamics factors: the Mazda could be coasting, decelerating with brake litely applied, accelerating in lane (because vehicle has fully exited lane), accelerating and exiting lane (go around turning vehicle). Variable turning vehicle rear lights (signals, brake lights) factors: the turning vehicles can be braking or not, turning with or without signaling- it does not matter. The Mazda will brake hard regardless. This may be an extension of the same: when traveling on an interstate highway, nominally at the posted speed. When a faster vehicle safely accelerates into the Mazda’s lane, the Mazda will brake hard. The Mazda does not recognize that the vehicle entering the Mazda lane is accelerating, nor does the Mazda seem to understand (anthropomorphism) the context (dynamics) of the situation (accelerating merging traffic). Hard braking in these circumstances has resulted in several near misses being rear-ended. The request for date below should be “na”, because the phantom braking has happened many times.

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.

Automatic braking system has almost caused multiple rear end accidents as it still detects cars that have left the lane after they turn. The infotainment system has dangerous ghost touches that glitch every time the car stops which has been reported for Mazdas for the past 7 years with no recall.

The side mirrors fold in and out automatically. Sometimes they will not open to driving position, leaving the driver without the ability to check them for lane changes. This is a common problem with the automatic mirrors on Mazda vehicles. I have had them repaired once under warranty, but the issue persists. The second issue is the automatic emergency braking. It has activated a few times without need or warning. I have come close to being rear-ended because of this and received negative feedback from other drivers that were following me (use your imagination).

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).

When the system thinks there might be a collision it initiates a hard braking even when there is enough space to avoid a collision. Multiple times, the car behind me had to do a hard break as well not to hit me from behind. A google search revealed multiple people complaining of similar issue. The system brakes too extremely aggressively (drops speed from 30 mph to 5 or less mph almost instantly stopping/causing skidding) even at its lowest setting. When I address with Mazda service manager he advised "it's supposed to do that" and if I choose to I can manually disable the feature each time I enter the vehicle. Note, I am currently driving a loaner car 2023 Mazda Cx-5 and have not experienced the same issue, so it does not seem "it's supposed to do that". I have been driving the loaner for 4 weeks and not once have I experience this issue - the system has never engaged except for once where only the warning light appeared on the display but the braking did not engage. Whereas my vehicle engages this anti collision braking nearly every day I drive it. This system has almost caused more accidents than it protected me from them.

Was driving at low speed and out of nowhere the warning lights came on , Smart city , abs, among others. It's caused by this vehicles front facing camera and or front radar emblem malfunctioning causing the vehicle to slow down , low power , and steering wheel jerking making mechanical sounds. There's a TSB as well.

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.

While driving down the road my Mazda Cx-5 continues to just stall and the engine light turns on and the safety features turn off. I was driving down a road in town and the engine started stalling as I came to a red light and slowed the engine shut off and I was almost hit from behind. It took several attempts at starting before the car would start. This has now happened for the past 3 days and is happening more and more frequently. I do not have any other means of transportation and after attempting to get the dealership to check due to the recalls on the Mazda Cx-5 for fuel pump failure and the mechanic saying it appears the fuel pump is bad the dealership refuses to attempt any repair because the VIN is not listed in the recall at this time. This is a severe safety problem because if it stalls in traffic I will be in an accident as I have no ability to maneuver the vehicle when it stalls to get out of the way of vehicles approaching. If this issue isn't resolved it is going to cause injury to myself or others. People have had to swerve into the path of other vehicles to keep from hitting me when it stalls, which is eventually going to result in harm to others and/or myself and family.

The 2019 Mazda Cx-5 has a design and manufacturing issue with its infotainment system. The screen activates functions without pressing the screen or activating the joystick. It changes the station, calls by phone and changes important security parameters such as braking assistance. Reflecting a notice on the main board. There are thousands of cases of affected vehicles. This problem is a serious situation that Mazda must correct immediately, because it distracts the driver and changes extremely important safety parameters. The infotainment system is not just for listening to music or making calls. This system manages many aspects of vehicle safety. Mazda replaced the part with a new part number for obvious reasons. All vehicles that have the affected part must be replaced with the new part number to avoid possible accidents. The defective part is k123-61-j0a. The replacement is k123-61-1j0c. Thank and best regards.

On Feb. 9, 2023, I started my vehicle and lots of warning indicators lit up the dash of my well-maintained vehicle. Check engine, abs, tpms, sbcs to name some of the warning lights. When I took my car to the dealer, they told me the left front wheel speed sensor had mechanical failure and would need to be replaced. Said the car's antilock brakes wouldn't work without it being replaced. My car also has the automatic brakes to prevent collision and stability control systems which are dependent on wheel speed sensors' function. My vehicle mileage was 59307 when I took it to the dealer. Over $600 repair bill.

See all problems of the 2015 Mazda CX-5 🔎.

I experienced a sudden unintended acceleration incident. I pulled into my driveway and stopped the vehicle with my foot firmly on the brake since my driveway is sloped. I pushed the garage door opener remote when suddenly the vehicle accelerated and shot forward hitting the garage door. There was no brake action and all backup systems failed. There was no automatic emergency braking or forward collision warning. There were no warning lights displayed. No airbags were deployed. If the garage door had been open, the vehicle would have hit a concrete wall in the garage. The vehicle was taken to the Mazda dealership and a full circle inspection and diagnostic check. Mazda found no codes and everything was working as designed in vehicle.

My 2019 Mazda Cx-5 automatically applied the brakes while the car was on cruise control traveling at 65 mph on a highway, and there wasn't a car or any object in front of me or to either side of my car. The car applied the brakes firmly and brought the speed down quickly and dangerously. I quickly depressed the accelerator to get the car back to highway speed to avoid a rear-end collision. This issue has happened 3 times in the past 2 weeks, all while traveling at highway speeds on cruise control for an extended period of time (hours). I believe this is the same issue with the Mazda Smart city brake support system that led to a recall of 2019-2020 Mazda-3 vehicles. My Mazda Cx-5 is out of warranty and the dealer stated it is not covered by the recall.

While driving the car in highway and you turn signals to change lanes and that moment you start changing the automatic brake system activated and car suddenly brake almost making me get in to a rear collision this happens twice in highway, it also happens twice in city driving while cruising street and theres is nothing in front of you the emergency brake light shows brake as emergency and car suddenly brake without having anything on front.

Automatic emergency brake comes on at random. Driving at medium speed, no cars in view, car brakes and dashboard displays emergency brake. Has not yet been inspected by a dealer because car is out of warranty. 2018 Mazda cx5 with only 19,000 total miles driven.

I was driving in slow moving traffic with vehicles ahead and behind. The vehicle ahead of me slowed, so I applied brakes and began to slow as well. While I was on the brakes slowing at a normal rate with plenty of distance to the vehicle ahead, my vehicle unexpectedly activated automatic emergency braking. It abruptly applied full brakes and came to a complete stop, even though traffic ahead was still rolling. There was zero chance of collision, with ample following distance, minimal speed differential, and brakes already applied. The audible alert triggered at the same time as the emergency braking, providing no advance warning. The vehicle following me was unable to stop in time and caused a rear-end collision with my vehicle. My vehicle had moderate damage, and the following vehicle had more significant damage with airbag deployment. Collision speed was approximately 5-10mph. There were no injuries.

See all problems of the 2022 Mazda CX-5 🔎.

My Mazda has a feature called sbs (Smart brake support). It is touted as a safety feature, as it will brake the car when it approaches an object without driver braking. It can be disabled by the driver via the navigation panel; however, it automatically engages again upon engine start up. On a few occasions, when approaching a vehicle, I have braked and release, upon seeing the vehicle ahead begin to move. On such occasions, my Mazda's sbs activated, screeching my car to a near stop, scaring me and the vehicle behind me nearly rear-ended me. This action scared me, which affects my ability to control the situation and conduct appropriate action. I have contacted Mazda to ask for a permanent deactivation of this dangerous feature. They have been unable/unwilling to assist. They have concern that if a different driver should drive my vehicle, it would be problematic. I explained that this is my vehicle and I fear their sbs feature will cause me to be rear-ended and seriously injured. I have requested that the Mazda customer service rep submit a safety complaint on this issue. An internet search finds that there are other customers with the same safety concern on Mazda's sbs feature. It is time that this be addressed.

See all problems of the 2017 Mazda CX-5 🔎.

On interstate 90 while driving at 75 mph under cruise control I passed an 18 wheel truck on a curve. With no cars in front and two following, the car without warning braked heavily and control screen flashed warning brake. The car immediately behind braked and veered on the bearm to avoid me. I stepped on gas to override the brakes and avoid an accident.

At about noon on 12/19/21 I was approaching the tappan zee (mario cuomo) bridge in new york state going west. My car briefly stopped accelerating when I put my foot on the gas pedal but then continued on as normal. No warning lights or other signs of trouble appeared, and I continued onto the bridge and was in the center lane. There was moderate traffic on the bridge. Suddenly, my car started shaking and slowing as if the brakes were being pumped (although I did not put my foot on the brake), and the messages "front radar sensor system malfunction" "forward Smart city brake malfunction" and "Smart brake system malfunction" all flashed on the dashboard screen. My husband turned on the emergency flashers and took a photo of the screen. The car continued slowing down and shaking no matter how hard I pressed the gas pedal. This created an incredibly dangerous situation; I had to get over to the right lane as we continued losing speed, and find somewhere safe to pull over once we got off the bridge. A car or truck going at a normal speed could have easily hit us and caused a catastrophic crash on the bridge. If I could not get out of the center lane quickly, at the rate the car was slowing down, it would have come to a complete stop in the middle of the roadway. I was able to merge right, get across the bridge and get to an exit, all as the car continued lurching and slowing down. At the bottom of the exit, there was a red light; I stopped and turned the car off and back on again. When I tried to accelerate out of the stop, smoke began pouring off the wheels. The car moved across the intersection at a few miles per hour and I was able to pull over safely on the right shoulder on the other side of the intersection. I had only bought the car the previous day, less than 16 hours before the incident. I called Mazda roadside assistance and the dealership; the dealership told me to have the car towed to their service department, so I did.

There was a warning "chime" and then this message appeared on the instrument panel. "front radar malfunction". The car was in the left lane on the PA turnpike going approximately 73 miles per hour. The car immediately began a rapid deceleration after the warning "chime". Automatic braking activated. The driver could not accelerate. Traffic was heavy with a trailer truck to the right and cars behind. There were no vehicles in front of the decelerating car. The vehicles behind were able to slow and avoided collision. We were forced to pull over in a very narrow center medium next to a large concrete divider. It was a very dangerous place to stop. The engine was turned off for approximately a minute. When it was started there were no messages and the driver had full control of the car. The car is available for inspection. The dealer will be contacted tomorrow. The car has been in service for 23 months and has been driven 12,200 miles. The road surface was wet from recent rain and the car had been driven through a downpour with water pooling on the road approximately 15 minutes before this incident.

When the system think there might be a collision and initiates a hard braking even when there might be enough space in front of you. Multiple times, the car behind me had to do a hard break as well not to hit me from behind. This also happens when switching lanes. As you are in the middle of switching, if sometimes thinks you are getting to close to the car in the original lane and it starts a hard break. Since I’m in between lanes, it causes the car on the other lane to do a hard break also, almost causing a chain accident. A google search revealed multiple people complaining of that. The system is too aggressive even at it’s lowest setting. Mazda informed me I can only turn it off one drive cycle at a time. This system has almost caused more accidents than it protected me from them.

Situation: driving uphill on hwy 120 on new priest road, big oak flat, CA, two lane mountain road. Slow car in front of me and a delivery truck tailgating. Slow car eventually moves aside in a turnout and I accelerate to open up space between myself and what I thought would be the truck but somehow the slow car returned to the driving lane ahead of the truck. I continue to accelerate to attempt to open up space between myself and the car behind me when I lost power, the car behind me moves to the opposing traffic lane to avoid rear ending my car that is running in degraded mode (accelerator has no effect, basically moving on idle power) and narrowly misses an oncoming car as I move towards the right edge of the right lane. Truck behind me has to brake hard to avoid rear ending me. There was no shoulder to pull over to at that location immediate location. I pull over a few hundred yards further at a safe location. Grade was perhaps 4% to 6%. Weather: hot 90 degrees speed: accelerating from 35 to 50 mph (guess) diagnostic lights: Smart city braking system failure warning, plus a lot of other warning lights lit including check engine light. Aftermath: I pulled safely over, stopped the engine, waited a while and restarted the engine and the car returned to it's normal driving behavior and completed my trip. Other information: this is the 3rd occurrence of this behavior. Each time I have had Mazda look at the problem. 1st occurrence they replaced the cylinder coil, 2nd occurrence they replaced a spark plug for misfire. 3rd occurrence, to be determined.

Ebrake engages on its own when starting up the vehicle. You are unable to turn the ebrake off without restarting the car. The repair shop stated it is a problem with the computer module. A quick search of the internet shows that this is a common issue with this year's make and model. Luckily, the ebrake has not engaged itself yet while driving the vehicle.

See all problems of the 2016 Mazda CX-5 🔎.