Troubles with Hyundai Ioniq Electric from models 2017-2019 were first reported in Korean Market. Later the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigated the vehicles and issued a recall of those vehicles. Hyundai told NHTSA that they weren’t aware of any crashes or major injuries in reference to these unintended accelerations.
It was observed that drivers using the Hyundai Ioniq Electric vehicles saw that their vehicles are moving forward without setting foot on the pedal. Now they will be able to fix the software free of charge from dealers. Every car owner of Models 2017-2019 Hyundai Ioniq Electric will be receiving contact from the company to fix this potential threat. Around 2,679 vehicles are to be fixed with this recall. Without which the vehicles may enter a ‘fail-safe’ mode causing the EV Ready lamp to flash. In addition to this, there will also be reduced acceleration and overall power output. In some rare instances if a specific set of sequences are met, the ‘fail-safe’ mode, a slow, unintended acceleration may occur even after the full accelerator pedal is released.
Interestingly this is not the first time Hyundai vehicles are having “unintended acceleration”. Ten years ago there were major issues with fuel-powered vehicles as well, where the issue was pointed to sticky gas pedals. It also pointed out the issue of drivers not knowing the pedal location and potential floormat intervention.
Issues with pedals
Tesla faced accusations as well in the past. It was a major effect on the company back in 2020 where even California resident Brian Sparks wrote that the vehicle had roughly 30 times more unintended acceleration. Adding that this puts the public and Tesla vehicle owners at potential risk at a much higher rate. It was unclear if Sparks owned a vehicle himself or was talking on behalf of Tesla vehicle owners. But he stated that he was selling his Tesla Stock.
Tesla then writes in a statement, “Over the past several years, we discussed with NHTSA the majority of the complaints alleged in the petition. In every case we reviewed with them, the data proved the vehicle functioned properly,” Also, Tesla added that they investigated it with the car owners and were informed that the vehicle was performing as designed and there was no issue with it. Stating, “This petition is completely false and was brought by a Tesla short-seller. We investigate every single incident where the driver alleges to us that their vehicle accelerated contrary to their input, and in every case where we had the vehicle’s data, we confirmed that the car operated as designed.”
