NHTSA Complaint #11426308 — 2019 CHEVROLET EQUINOX

I was out driving on a normal errand when my car suddenly seemed to lose all ability to accelerate. When I pressed on the accelerator nothing happened and I could only advance in the car at less than 5 MPH. Fortunately I was just leaving my neighborhood and on a residential street where the speed limit was only 35 MPH anyways, but I shudder to think about what could have happened if I lost the ability to accelerate when I was on a highway or interstate, or even making a turn in front of oncoming traffic on a normal road. As any driver knows, you estimate your ability to safely turn in front of oncoming traffic based on your car's accelerator working. If I had made that judgment, attempted to turn, and not been able to accelerate and instead been left in the middle of oncoming traffic, I could have been hit and seriously injured or worse. There were no warning lights or anything that appeared prior to the incident. After losing the ability to accelerate, I received an email from Chevrolet within 10 minutes stating "An issue with the emissions system in your 2019 Chevrolet Equinox has been detected. Please service your vehicle within 7 days. Please disregard this message if your vehicle is already in for service. Inaccurate notifications can be generated during service." My car ended up being towed to the dealer for service where they confirmed and reproduced the problem. They said something about the emissions system valve(s) had to be replaced, and that this was a relatively common problem they had seen in other Chevrolet Equinoxes too, but were not aware of any recall being issued yet.