Automatic Emergency Braking Problems of Toyota Venza

On 29 Nov 2025 while braking at low speed (<10 mph) to park, my 2022 Toyota Venza hybrid suddenly lunged forward despite firm brake pedal application and no accelerator input. The vehicle accelerated on its own and struck a stationary pole causing front-end damage.

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After applying the brakes in a sudden situation, the automatic emergency braking came on but the car didn't stop. The brake pedal was pushed all the way to the floor board but the car didn't stop and crashed into the vehicle in front. This happened once before but didn't end in a crash. This was a total brake failure.

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The front headlight developed condensation with zero evidence of a hit or accident. Additionally, the car randomly loses power when going from a stop to acceleration, leaving me in the middle of an intersection with no power for about 3-5 seconds.

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My wife and I stopped to get our mail at our community hoa mailboxes. I was driving. I stopped, set/engaged the brake hold button while my wife got the mail. She was about to get back in and suddenly the car lurched forward very rapidly and crashed into the neighborhood playground and the chain linked fence. I could not stop the acceleration and had to keep forcefully applying the brakes and the vehicle finally quit. I was able to steer to avoid some kids playing basketball. I could have injured my wife or others, it could have been very tragic. The 3 boys got out of the way and helped us afterwards picking up the car debris left all around. The damage happened very quickly. I felt such shock afterwards and trauma wondering what happened and what could have happened. The police did a report and took pictures, our insurance declared it a total loss. We have contacted Toyota and are waiting for someone to inspect it before it is hauled away. No warnings prior, the vehicle has worked well. As I managed to drive it home, we noticed a machanical error code after the fact.

My wife owns this Toyota Venza. On October 9, 2024, I took the vehicle to the dealership for maintenance and all regular checkups passed. No sensor lights nor problem lights were on during the incident. On October 16, 2024 my wife was parking in a spot to pick up the mail in our community's mailbox. She pressed the brake and tried to park the vehicle when suddenly the motor accelerated over the parking lines on its own to a small hill continuously. My wife tried to press the brake multiple times with no success and the motor continued accelerating on its own. My wife turned the steering wheel to the right to avoid running into the hill or flipping the vehicle over. Once turned, the vehicle continued accelerating crossing over a neighborhood street and finally crashing into a neighbor's wall. Once it crashed the wall, all air bags were deployed and the vehicle rebounded back into the street where my wife was eventually able to shift it into parking. Once parked, the vehicle wouldn't start or move at all. Thankfully, there were no fatalities but my wife crashed into a wall and had to be taken to the hospital to be treated for the bruises in her legs and body from the air bag impact. Additionally, our community is gated and thankfully there is little traffic but this problem in a main road or highway could easily injure or kill people. We reported the accident to the local police and filed a report with them. We also notified insurance of the crash and have started a repair claim but the vehicle has not been inspected for any damages or problems. We have video recording of the incident which we will use for insurance and can provide as part of this complaint.

I was on the highway, no ice on the road, in a construction zone, going about 50mph. The cars in front of me stopped completely, and the light to warn me to "brake" came on the dashboard to engage the brakes, but the emergency braking system failed to engage the brakes and slow down the car. I also pushed on the brakes, but nothing happened, the car did not seem to slow down at all, like I had no brakes. I kept going and crashed into the vehicle in front of me. It's like the brakes did not work and the automatic braking did not work either. There was a complete system brake failure. Also, the air bags did not deploy, which I'm surprised with so much front end damage to my car. The brakes also did this last year, and I collided with a vehicle the same way, but there was ice on the road, so at that time, I attributed it to the icy road. Now since these two accidents are so similar, I am concerned about a defect in the brakes and automatic emergency braking system. I am also worried to own a vehicle with the automatic emergency braking system. I am having the vehicle towed to the dealership to have the brakes looked at.

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My 2022 Toyota Venza hybrid experienced a sudden acceleration when I was pulling very slowly into my relative's garage driveway while my foot was still on the brake pedal. It crashed into the garage door at fairly high speed severely damaging the vehicle's front end. All front airbags were deployed. The garage door was destroyed and the two cars parked inside the garage were bumped a short distance forward resulting multiple damages to their front/rear bumpers and their bodies. The wall inside the garage was also damaged. No alarm/warnings were given and autobrake completely failed to deploy.

Complete brake failure when exiting freeway resulted in crashing into a concrete barrier and guardrail at a high rate of speed before impacting another vehicle. Vehicle has an electronic emergency brake that could not be engaged. Vehicle could not be put in reverse or park to slow impact. There were three prior issues with the vehicle regarding brakes and acceleration. The car had less than 250 miles on it. Issue was reported to the dealer from where it was purchased after the collision. Vehicle is likely totaled pending an assessment by the insurance company. As the driver I had the choice of a direct impact with a string of cars stopped at the end of the off-ramp at a high rate of speed or hitting the barrier wall to slow my momentum. I chose the barrier wall to reduce the risk of the collision upon others.

I was pulling out from a stop sign to cross a four lane intersection. I attempted to pass between two cars, but the emergency brake system activated, presumably because the first car was still in front of me, even though it would have well passed by the time I got there. Because of the emergency braking, I was left stuck across two lanes of traffic with cars coming toward me and no way to get out of the way. This has happened twice in 800 miles on the car. I live on a very busy intersection and it took me a couple of months to get comfortable driving in this congestion. I think the car simply isn't designed for that level of traffic, but the way that it's reacting is terrifying.