NHTSA Complaint #11433443 — 2018 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER

Where the incident happened? The incident happened at the following google coordinates (39.21707240377137, -77.6491829535095) on an unpaved, but well-maintained road. When this incident took place? 09/11/2021 – around 10.30am Who is travelling with you? I was travelling with my wife (Vijaya) and Pet Dog (Leo). Both my wife and I have the seat belts on. How are the driving conditions? A bright and sunny morning with clear visibility, minimal wind and no rain. The road is totally dry. In a way perfect driving condition. How the incident happened? A white truck came in the opposite direction and since the road is narrow I pulled my highlander to the right, where there is some loose gravel on the side of the road. When I pulled to the side I am almost at a standstill and after the truck had passed started moving the car towards the middle of the road. At this moment the Highlander suddenly started swiveling to the left, and the traction became very wobbly and when tried to apply brakes, brake did not work at all. In stead the car started going out of control on the left side and is about to crash into 2 large trees on the side of the car. At that time without having any control over the brakes, I tried to steer towards right and the car turned sharp towards right, crossed road and fell into a 15 feet ditch on the right side of the car. What is the Car behavior witnessed? Total loss of Breaks, self-acceleration, and unpredictable steering control. The whole incident might’ve happened in about 10-15 seconds. Neither the auto-braking nor the collision control has triggered. Not sure what triggered this behavior of the car. It appeared as if the car tried to auto-correct the traction and something malfunctioned.