In 2024, the NHTSA opened a probe into Honda over an issue with its automatic emergency braking system.
On Monday, as it also expanded an investigation into Ford Motor Company, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it is also upgrading its probe into American Honda vehicles over crashes with injuries related to its automatic emergency braking system.
Specifically, this investigation covers 2019-2023 examples of the Honda Insight hybrid and the Honda Passport SUV. The safety agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) begins with a preliminary probe of an issue, to determine whether there’s a potential danger to the public and if a full-scale recall is needed. Now, this expanded investigation is an “engineering analysis”, where the ODI will actually get hands-on with vehicles, rather than just researching complaints and accident data, to root out the cause of inadvertent AEB activations.
In the earlier phase of this investigation, Honda provided its own analysis of 412 reports related to the defect alleged by consumers to the NHTSA. The company said, per the agency’s latest report, “some customers possibly had an inadequate understanding of the AEB system and its limitations.” Going further, it also told investigators its dealer technicians couldn’t replicate a problem with the AEB activating unexpectedly, and thus told customers what they experienced is “normal AEB operation”.
To date, though, the ODI has received 106 consumer complaints of their cars engaging in “phantom braking”, where the AEB activates for a perceived obstacle that isn’t actually there. In those incidents, sudden and sharp emergency braking can result in a rear-end collision depending on when it happens. In total, investigators reviewed 475 reports (including the consumer complaints) involving individual vehicles with the alleged AEB defect. Three of those reports indicate a crash from the AEB activating unexpectedly — and two of those accidents allege injury. Fortunately, there is no record of any fatal accidents.
As part of its expanded probe, the NHTSA also included the 2023 model year Honda Passport, as the preliminary investigation only included models through 2022. With that extra model year in play for the Passport, this analysis includes 295,125 vehicles.
Honda did not make any official comment on the investigation, at time of writing. It has not voluntarily recalled the potentially affected vehicles yet, though it may have to if the NHTSA determines there is a significant safety risk that requires the automaker correct the alleged defect within its automatic emergency braking system.
