This week's signals: phantom braking on the 2025 Honda CR-V across two distinct complaint clusters, EyeSight failures spanning six Subaru Ascent model years, brake anomalies on the Dodge Charger Daytona EV, a multi-system electrical cluster on the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze, and a sustained ADAS complaint pattern on Waymo's 5th generation autonomous system now under NHTSA investigation.
DrivePulse detects defect events across passenger vehicles, commercial platforms, tires, and automated driving systems. The following represent the most notable patterns in recent NHTSA complaint data — early signals that may or may not develop into formal recalls. None of the events below constitute a safety determination; they represent statistical anomalies in consumer complaint patterns that warrant attention from safety and quality teams.
Affected Model Years: 2025
Complaints: 33 over 7 days
First Detected: 2026-06-05
Event ID: b091b3b2480b2d4f
What We're Seeing: Multiple distinct complaint streams have emerged simultaneously on 2025 Honda CR-V units. The most prominent cluster involves sudden engine stalling or loss of power at low speeds — typically during acceleration, braking, or idling. A separate cluster describes spontaneous sunroof glass shattering without prior warning or impact. Additional complaints cite concerns with the Collision Mitigation Braking System, hood alignment stability at highway speeds, and brake system creaking. The co-occurrence of these distinct symptom types across 33 complaints in one week suggests either a multi-issue platform quality signal or potentially a data clustering artifact requiring further stratification.
In the News: CarComplaints.com and RepairPal catalogue over 180 reported defects on the 2025 CR-V, with electrical and powertrain categories drawing the highest complaint volume. NHTSA's engineering analysis of the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) on prior CR-V and Accord generations has accumulated over 1,200 complaints and 93 injury incidents; that analysis has not resulted in a recall as of this writing.
Why It Matters: A 33-complaint signal in seven days on a current-model-year vehicle represents an elevated early-signal rate. Safety and quality teams monitoring the 2025 CR-V platform should stratify these complaints by component to assess whether distinct root causes — engine management, glazing, and ADAS — are driving independent failure modes or whether a shared system underlies the pattern.
Affected Model Years: 2025
Complaints: 22 over 10 days
First Detected: 2026-06-02
Event ID: 5c09b5076b91ed4e
What We're Seeing: Complaints in this cluster describe unexpected or uncommanded braking events on 2025 Honda CR-V models, consistent with unintended activation of the automatic emergency braking system or Collision Mitigation Braking System. Owners report hard, sudden stops that occur without a detected obstacle or hazard, sometimes accompanied by what they describe as phantom acceleration. The pattern is kinematically similar to complaints under investigation on prior CR-V generations, appearing here on 2025 model year vehicles not yet covered by the existing engineering analysis.
In the News: NHTSA's expanded engineering analysis of Honda's CMBS covers approximately three million Accord and CR-V models from the 2017–2022 model years, cataloguing 47 crashes and 93 injury incidents. A class action lawsuit covering 2017–2019 CR-V and 2018–2020 Accord was certified in June 2024. No settlement has been reached. The emergence of this pattern on the 2025 model year suggests the underlying CMBS issue may have continued into the current generation.
Why It Matters: A new complaint cluster on a generation not currently under the existing NHTSA engineering analysis, displaying the same behavioral pattern as that analysis's subject vehicles, is a signal that Honda safety teams and regulators tracking the phantom braking investigation should evaluate for scope implications.
Affected Model Years: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Complaints: 14 over 12 days
First Detected: 2026-05-31
Event ID: bfc18342d87b3c5d
What We're Seeing: Two related complaint patterns have been detected across six model years of the Subaru Ascent. The first describes uncommanded maximum braking events in which the vehicle decelerates sharply without driver input or a detected obstacle, sometimes accompanied by a simultaneous high-voltage shutdown warning. The second describes cruise control malfunctions in which the system accelerates past the set speed and fails to disengage when the brake pedal is pressed, particularly on downhill grades. Both patterns point to EyeSight system misfiring or software-level issues in the forward collision avoidance logic.
In the News: Class action filings (Top Class Actions, ClassAction.org) allege that Subaru EyeSight-equipped vehicles across multiple models have defectively calibrated collision avoidance systems that activate unexpectedly or fail to activate when needed. A documented 2022 Ascent complaint describes an uncommanded emergency stop at 70 mph that initiated a near-collision sequence with following traffic. The suit scope includes 2022–2026 Ascent models.
Why It Matters: Forward collision avoidance failures at highway speeds carry significant secondary collision risk for trailing vehicles. The breadth of affected model years (six consecutive) and the dual complaint pattern — over-activation and under-activation of the same system — suggest the issue may be rooted in a calibration parameter or sensor integration approach that has persisted across multiple EyeSight software versions.
Affected Model Years: 2024, 2025
Complaints: 11 over 12 days
First Detected: 2026-05-31
Event ID: c626dd7a97c7d2ac
What We're Seeing: Complaints on the 2024–2025 Dodge Charger Daytona EV cluster around several braking system failure modes: uncommanded deceleration, uncommanded rollback on inclines when the vehicle is stopped, regenerative braking disengagement, and fault activation of the "Drive By Brake" mode — a propulsion-system safety function that limits speed via brake control when a powertrain fault is detected. In several cases, service electrical system warnings accompanied the braking anomalies.
In the News: Motor1 and Edmunds independently documented unintended acceleration events on the Charger Daytona EV; Edmunds confirmed one from their own long-term test fleet. Stellantis acknowledged the "Drive By Brake" function as an intentional safety response to propulsion faults. AutoGuide reports an ongoing pattern of software-related electrical faults on the platform. No recall has been issued as of this writing.
Why It Matters: Overlapping failure modes — uncommanded deceleration, regenerative braking loss, and fault-triggered speed limitation — appearing together on a launch-generation battery-electric vehicle suggest that the integrated brake-by-wire and propulsion control architecture may benefit from further calibration review. OEM safety and quality teams monitoring early-production EV platform field performance will find this complaint cluster relevant.
Affected Model Years: 2014
Complaints: 8 over 12 days
First Detected: 2026-05-31
Event ID: b4a1fe2fb73b2c7b
What We're Seeing: Complaints on the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze describe a multi-system electrical cluster including electric power steering failure with steering wheel lock-up, engine overheating accompanied by coolant loss, and in several cases, engine fires originating in the engine compartment. Some complaints describe the vehicle shutting off entirely while driving with simultaneous warning light illumination. CarComplaints.com records 84 NHTSA steering complaints and 205 engine complaints for the 2014 model year, indicating a substantial pre-existing complaint baseline on this platform.
In the News: VehicleHistory.com documents the 2014 Cruze's steering failures, engine overheating, and power loss as the predominant safety-relevant concerns for this model year. At least one NHTSA-reported incident describes brake failure followed by engine stall and vehicle fire, with no injuries in that documented case. No fatalities specifically attributed to 2014 Cruze electrical system failures have been identified in available sources.
Why It Matters: A fresh complaint cluster on a twelve-year-old vehicle encompassing steering failure, thermal system failure, and fire incidents indicates that this generation of Cruze continues to generate active safety-relevant complaint activity in the used-vehicle population. Fleet operators and used-vehicle program managers monitoring older compact sedans in this age cohort should note the continued complaint trajectory.
Affected: Automated driving system (equipment category)
Complaints: 12 over 162 days
First Detected: 2026-01-03
Event ID: 5d8d8d48b382a55d
What We're Seeing: Complaints on Waymo's 5th Generation Automated Driving System describe persistent failures in object and event detection and response across multiple operating conditions. Documented failure modes include: misidentification of pedestrians using power wheelchairs, failure to stop at traffic signals and stop signs, unexpected lane changes into oncoming traffic, and system incapacitation in standing water during rain. The complaint pattern concentrates on failures involving non-standard road users and edge-case environmental conditions where the ADS perception and behavioral planning layers appear to produce incorrect outputs.
In the News: NHTSA opened a formal investigation in January 2026 following an incident in which a Waymo vehicle struck a child near a Santa Monica elementary school during morning drop-off hours; the child sustained minor injuries. Separately, school districts in Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia documented Waymo vehicles passing stopped school buses with activated red warning lights, with at least 20 such incidents recorded in Austin during the 2025–2026 school year. Waymo's published safety data indicates the fleet significantly outperforms human drivers on aggregate injury-crash metrics; the school zone and vulnerable road user incidents represent a distinct behavioral concern within that broader record.
Why It Matters: Sustained complaint activity on an ADS platform involving school zones, pedestrian misidentification, and traffic signal compliance — now subject to an open NHTSA investigation — is a signal with implications for regulators assessing the behavioral boundaries of current-generation autonomous systems. Safety teams and regulators monitoring ADS performance at the edges of the Operational Design Domain will find this 162-day complaint cluster a relevant data point for understanding where perception and behavioral planning limitations currently manifest.