NHTSA Complaint #11518264 — 2021 KIA TELLURIDE

My wife had placed our two children in the car in their car seats. She attempted to start the vehicle by pressing the brake and the starter button. Though all the dome lights and other normal electrical items were on at the time, as soon as she attempted to start the car, it instantly went dead. There was no power to anything, and all the interior dome lights did not work. No matter how often she attempted, she could not start the vehicle, even with accessory mode. It was almost as if the battery had been suddenly removed from the vehicle. At no point was the car moved outside of park. My wife removed our two kids from the vehicle, and shortly after, they were secured in our other vehicle; without my wife being in the Telluride, the car turned on itself. All interior lights were on, and the car was functional. She found that while the radio was on, the HVAC that had been on was now off. In addition, the fuel performance reset to zero. She turned off the vehicle, and we could not reproduce the issue. From a safety perspective, this was very unnerving as it involved our children in our car, but also that the car started on its own after five minutes. If we were not at home and the car could have been running in the garage without our involvement. All regular maintenance and satisfaction of recalls had been completed by a Kia-authorized dealership before this event.