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The American Honda Motor Company has been hit with a class action lawsuit by a vehicle owner who claims that the company’s “Honda Sensing” technology suffers from safety flaws.
Plaintiff Phylistene Ward says the sensing system detects “false positives” or “false alarms,” which result in safety protocols being engaged without warning the driver.
The plaintiff states that she leased a new 2019 Honda CR-V from a Honda dealership in Illinois in June 2019. She says she experienced the defect in the sensing system shortly after she leased the vehicle.
Ward alleges that the CR-V flashed all of its warning lights and alarms during multiple instances, which made her bring the car back to the dealership for assistance and repair.
The plaintiff states that the dealership did not have a solution to the problem besides clearing the error codes. In addition, the dealership performed a test drive but was not able to duplicate the defect.
Ward says she brought the vehicle back to the dealership on five occasions, but they have not been able to fix the car’s sensing defect.
“To this day, and despite five attempts to repair the Defect, Plaintiff’s 2019 Honda CR-V continues to suffer from the Defect, placing her at heightened risk of an accident while also frustrating her ability to operate the vehicle in the manner in which Plaintiff and Honda intended,” the Honda class action complaint notes.
The Honda sensing depends on radar sensors, cameras and computers that are used to avoid collisions by sensing the area surrounding the vehicle. The device will automatically apply the brakes if it senses the need to do so, according to Ward.
In addition, the Honda Sensing technology includes “Collision Mitigation Braking System,” a “Road Departure Mitigation System,” “Adaptive Cruise Control with Low-Speed Follow,” “Lane Keeping Assist System” and a “Cross Traffic Monitor,” according to the plaintiff.
Some of the defects that Ward experienced from the sensing technology include abrupt braking on the highway without warning, displaying numerous warning messages from a false indication of a hazard and alerting drivers to immediately apply the brakes without reason to do so.
Had she been aware of the car’s defect before she bought it, Ward claims she would have either decided not to purchase the vehicle or she would have paid less for it.
The Honda class action lawsuit claims that Honda has sold over 300,000 CR-V vehicles in the past four years.
There are two proposed Classes in this class action lawsuit:
Main Class: All current or former purchasers and lessees of a Honda CR-V equipped with the Honda Sensing system who purchased or leased their vehicles in the United States (other than for purposes of resale or distribution.)
Illinois subclass: All current or former purchasers and lessees of a Honda CR-V equipped with the Honda Sensing system who purchased or leased their vehicles in Illinois (other than for purposes of resale or distribution.)
Do you own a Honda CR-V and had issues with the sensing technology? If so, leave a message in the comments section below.
The plaintiffs are represented by Michael S. Morrison of Alexander Krakow + Glick LLP and Aaron D. Radbil of Greenwald Davidson Radbil PLLC.
The Honda CR-V Sensing Defect Lawsuit is Phylistene Ward v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc, et. al. Case No. 2:20-cv-00511, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
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201 thoughts onHonda Class Action Alleges Defective Safety Technology
I have a 2018 CRV Touring model with 11,672 miles on it. Taking my son to the airport the other day the Braking warning came on and the brakes applied without me touching anything. Very scary! No cars in front or behind me (thank goodness). Good weather, nothing in roadway…
Called dealership and they said they would turn off the mitigation switch for me if I couldn’t do it myself by going to the menu. I’ll have a try today. Scared to drive it now. This is my 4th Honda, had an Accord, a Pilot, an Odyssey and now this CRV. Have always trusted my Honda’s in the past and enjoyed them but no longer.
This happens too on the honda accord 2018 i hate the sensing its so unsafe had i known how bad it was I would have skipped this car
Purchased my 2020 CRV in January and has done this 3-4 times already. Yesterday day was the last time it slammed on the breaks and are came to a comete stop and the engine turned off n the middle of an intersection. Lucky Noone was behind me or I would of had another car in my back seat. This also happened on a highway exit ramp, again I was fortunately alone as I often have my girlfriend with me. This vehicle is dangerous and will eventually cause an accident or worse.I want to take it to the dealership but I’m quite sure they won’t do anything.
I was basically put in a position of trading in my Honda CRV Ex-L for my safety and my family’s safety. I wrote about the issues in an earlier msg. The thing that scared me most was when the brakes were automatically applied with no other cars around me. I finally got a Honda Mgr to tell me these issues were not normal because I took a video of it and brought it in to show them. If I coukd attach it here I would. So I traded my car in thinking I was only gonna pay about $5000 for it but it turned out to be $12000 because prices went up due to demand and lack of new cars. They gave me $25,500.00 for my car since it only had less than 16,000 miles on it. San Marcos Honda is a fair and honest dealership. Some in San Antonio, not so much. I believe the problem lies in the in the fact that they don’t have the right tempered glass on the windshield to protect the camera. I placed one of those windshield protectors over the glass on the windshield on the outside and the camera did not get heated up like it does in direct sunlight. And it was hot inside my car but the glass itself didn’t get real hot to effect the camera. I did that because one of the people at Fernandez Honda told me that the reason the glass got so hot was because I had a reflective windshield cover that was on the inside and that was the problem that it was absorbing the heat.. I don’t understand why this guy said that because by virtue of the fact that reflective means it doesn’t absorb the heat, tells me he didn’t know what he was talking about. How stupid is that. I also had one guy at Gillman Honda tell me that it was normal for my car to behave the way it was behaving. They think their customers are stupid. I have no issues with this new car as yet. I also believe a lot of these vehicles originate from the same manufacturing company which is not putting the correct parts on these cars. Ie: the windshield. Or windshields arrive at the dralerships damaged and are replaced with the wrong tempered glass windshield. That just makes sense to me. I hope this lawsuit goes thru and I can get my money back. I like the car, but I hate the deception and lack of acknowledgement of the problems people have had since 2016.
We have a 2017 CR-V and had this same issue happen to us. Luckily it’s only been once. However we have had a “Shutter Grille Problem Reduced Power” warning multiple times and when asking the dealer about both issues they looked at me like we were crazy.. They’ve never heard of such problems. Attempted to show them all the forums of the same issues and they shrugged it off. Was hoping for an answer prior to this crv heading back cross country.
I own a 2018 Honda CRV and am having the same issue as everybody else in the comment section. All the lights came up on my dashboard relating to the Honda Sensing: “Adaptive Cruise Control Problem”, “Collision Mitigation Problem”, “Lane Departure Problem”.
There have also been a few times the safety system randomly engaged the brakes while on the highway with no car in front of me. Luckily, I was able to get the car back in control. Now I just leave the lights on because the Honda Sensing is disabled when they are on and the car honestly drives SAFER with the Sensing disabled.
My 2017 CRV started failing (this spring) the same way as others have mentioned in these posts. After reading a lot of feedback about the dealerships not being able to repair this problem and charging lots of money to “try” fixes, I decided to simply disconnect the battery and reconnect it whenever this happens (about 1-2 times a month). This resets something (relay??) which makes a clicking noise when the battery gets reconnected. Then, a short drive (say a 1/4 mile or so) and all systems return to normal, cruise control works again and all safety system lights go off.
This is not my first Honda, my wife and I have matching 2017 CRV’s currently (hers is fine so far, mine, not so much). I have also owned a couple civics in the past.
Unfortunately, this problem has left me very apprehensive about Honda’s and specifically the CRV. I no longer feel like I’m driving a “safe” vehicle.
I was planning to buy a new Ridgeline next spring, I now am having second thoughts about Honda all together, especially when Honda doesn’t seem to even acknowledge that their is an issue.
Makes me feel like Honda is simply about the Money, nothing else….
Is there a law suit started yet my 2019 CRV did the same thing is past week. I do not trust it any longer. Dealer is no help at all
I have a 2019 CRV EX-L. I bought it in March 2019. In May my car was parked in the Garage all summer as we went to AK for the summer. It was the following June 2020, when the weather got much hotter, that I started having issues with all these notifications showing up on the dash. I do not have an issue with it if the weather is cooler. I took it to Gillman Honda on I 35 in San Antonio the summer of 2020. and they told me it’s normal and that there’s nothing they can do to fix it. Then I started parking in my garage because there was finally room in my garage after my husband took a bunch of stuff out and brought it to Alaska to the cabin the summer of 2020. I noticed then that if I parked the car anywhere where the sun beamed down on it, it would get really hot inside and then the sensor in the camera on the windshield would send notifications to the – with all these beeping sounds and other sounds that scare me when they first go off. And yes I do recall having an issue where all of a sudden the brakes were applied and I didn’t apply them myself. I thought it was a safety thing where the sensors picked up something on the road and I just didn’t see it. The Honda dealership I took my car to today, basically said the same thing Only they suggested to buy cloth windshield coverings for the inside of my car. The ones I had before were the silver aluminum type looking ones that unfold and he said it attracts the heat and makes that sensor hotter. Well I did what he asked I bought the ones that are more cloth like that kind of have wire going around and you twist and fold them up to put them away and that didn’t do anything. I still have the same issue with the sensor Because the camera itself is not being covered from the sun because there’s no way to do that. The camera sits in a Box that is literally glued to the windshield so unless you cover it on the outside it’s never gonna get covered and it’s never gonna be protected from the sun. The guy at Fernandez Honda where I took my car today was very nice and his name was Eli. He was definitely trying to be very helpful but I don’t think he understands fully what’s going on. I sent a message by text back to Honda telling them that I was not happy because I was still having the same issue after doing as was suggested to me. The next thing I know I get a call from a girl named Jeanee, Who works at that Honda dealership who was trying to get me to trade my car in for a different one. The only way I’m going to trade it in is to get a newer model of something other than a CRV and not have to pay anything. They have known about this issue since 2017 and never said anything to their customers who are continuing to buy CR v’s..
Good Evening! I currently own a 2017 CRV. The safety lights will come on and stay on till my husband removes the battery cables to reset the car. We have had the vehicle towed on a rollback to the dealership for repair but have been told, “We can’t find anything wrong with it.” I actually like my CRV but I am frustrated with theses issues. If this happens when I am traveling by myself, I have keep driving the car till the lights eventually go out. During this time, none of the safety features work. We bought an extended warranty due to this issue.