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2025 TOYOTA PRIUS — VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

crash · 2079804 · 2025-04-02

Vehicle

Make
TOYOTA
Model
PRIUS
Year
2025
Manufacturer
Toyota Motor Corporation
Component
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Speed
2 mph

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
0
Fire
No
Crash
Yes
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

As I was pulling my car into a parking space with the brake applied lightly, the car suddenly lost braking and lurched forward when the front wheels touched the curb. This caused the front of the car to jump the curb and hit a tree a foot or two away. My foot was on the brake during this and the car did not brake automatically, or engage any other sort of safety measure. This was terrifying and I could have easily hit a pedestrian or injured myself and the passengers of my vehicle on impact. I completely lost control of the vehicle's braking due to this issue. Since the incident happened today, my vehicle has not yet been inspected. No warning lamps of any kind had been activated. The car was nearly brand new. Upon further investigation, there are numerous reports of similar events happening to Toyota hybrids over the years. A simple google search for this turns up many reports. These reports center around sudden loss of braking from the regenerative braking system and a "lag" before conventional braking is applied that causes the forward lurch due to the momentum of the car. Many others on online forums seem to also suggest running into this issue specifically when the wheels hit a bump. This sounds exactly like what happened to my car, causing it to lose control despite my having the brake applied. It is insane that such a problem has existed for years in the braking system without being fixed by Toyota.

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11652443
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown