NHTSA Complaint #11555686 — 2022 TOYOTA COROLLA

My daughter was driving yesterday when the steering wheel locked suddenly. She was sideswiped by another vehicle that hit the wheel well and forced the steering to work again. The occupants of the other vehicle did not pull over so she drove on to my work where she broke down crying and explained what happened. I took the car in yesterday to diagnose any issues with the car and was told that this is a feature that Toyota has when the car hits something like a pothole at faster speeds. My daughter could not have been going terribly fast considering it was 5:00 p.m. in Los Angeles on Olympic Blvd. during the height of rush hour; however, most concerning is I was told that according to diagnostics this is the third time the car had done this due to "aggressive acceleration". They told me that the jolt from the other car hitting the wheel well must have reset the sensor so the steering wheel could start working again. They said this is a normal safety feature on all Toyota hybrids. I asked for more clarification on what exactly we should do to prevent this happening in the future and they said to accelerate slowly so the sensor has time to keep up. This seems like an incredibly unsafe feature. I emailed Toyota's corporate office for clarification but received nothing to date. I am extremely nervous to drive my car and especially to have my 16 year old daughter drive it! I do have the diagnostic printout the Toyota Service Department gave me yesterday and am happy to share if you would find it useful.