It received several complaints about its automatic emergency braking system.
Honda is generally known for building sturdy, reliable cars, but it does make a mess of things every once in a while. The whole Takata saga wasn’t its fault, but the 2017 recall of 2.1 million Accords didn’t do it any favors.
Currently, the Feds are currently all over Honda. Earlier this month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it was looking into a Honda Pilot Auto Stop/Start problem. Now Honda faces a second investigation into its automatic emergency braking system.
The NHTSA received 278 complaints regarding the automatic braking activating for no reason. The complaints were made against 2018 to 2019 Honda Accords and 2017 to 2019 Honda CR-V models. Neither model has an active recall for this particular issue.
The NHTSA is now calling for Honda to provide more information about these complaints, including any lawsuits, crashes, or deaths. In addition to this information, it wants to know how Honda’s emergency braking system works, down to the hardware and software components. Since the system is used on various models, the NHTSA also wants information about the 2017 to 2018 Acura RDX, 2017 to 2019 Civic, 2017 to 2019 Pilot, and the 2019 Passport.
According to Automotive News, Honda has until 12 August to provide this information or face civil penalties of up to $122 million.
The Feds are clamping down hard on automakers this year. Tesla is facing an investigation into 830,000 of its cars, and it wants to expand what your car’s black box records during an accident.
The investigation into Honda’s emergency braking system also coincides with the government working on a new proposal to make automatic emergency braking and pedestrian detection a requirement on all new light-duty vehicles.
According to Automotive News, Honda is happy to comply. “Honda will cooperate with the NHTSA through the investigation process, and we will continue our own internal review of the available information,” said Honda’s spokesperson, Chris Martin.
While Honda and Tesla appear to be the NHTSA’s primary targets, it received nearly 400 complaints about crashes related to driver assistance systems in June. Tesla received 273 complaints, while Honda received 90.
The NHTSA lacks information and context about these incidents, which is likely why it’s calling on Honda to supply such a vast amount of insight into its technology.
