Automatic Brake Issue Prompts NHTSA Investigation For Insight, Passport
At least three crashes and two injuries have been caused by Honda’s automatic braking system according to the NHTSA.
Honda’s safety features are causing a bit of grief for Insight and Passport owners. According to Reuters, the NHTSA has started an investigation into Honda’s automatic braking systems. The report indicates the brakes are acting in a way outside of their desired parameters. “Inadvertent activation” can affect Insight models from 2019 through 2022, and the new Honda Passport.
At present, 250,712 cars are affected by the safety recall, which has documented 46 complaints. Of those, three crashes have been reported, and two injuries. More importantly, two fires had been reported as well. Crashes create a close look at the cause, but fires put a sharp focus on which ever issues may be present. As it stands, the investigation is in a preliminary stage, so there isn’t an official recall as of yet.
Known as Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS), this feature is standard on the Passport. It is designed to act in three stages. The first stage gives audible and visual alerts to an impending collision. Once that stage is surpassed, the next stage continues the warnings, and applies light braking. And finally heavier braking is applied if the driver does not intervene.
While it can’t always avoid a collision, it is meant to at least reduce impact forces if an impact does happen. Considering the nature of the complaints, there’s two scenarios that may be happening. Drivers might be leaning on the safety systems too heavily. If they believe the car is always out to save them, they may be a little less cautious with their driving attentiveness. Or, the system may be intervening more than anticipated, and cause the car to unexpectedly slow down, creating a rear-end collision.
Other models in Honda’s showroom use Honda Sensing technologies, but aren’t included in the investigation just yet. However, as similar complaints are gathered, this may expand to more models. A fix would likely be carried out by Honda dealers with a software update, given the investigation doesn’t show any malfunction of any particular components.
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Photos courtesy of Honda
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