NHTSA Complaint #11560030 — 2023 TOYOTA BZ4X

I submitted this form earlier, but I’m unsure whether it went through. If this is a duplicate, please disregard. An incident of sudden, unintended acceleration occurred while pulling into a gravel parking area on a hillside at dusk. While turning, the vehicle suddenly lunged forward and struck a tree stump. It would have been avoided without the sudden acceleration. The driver slammed on the brakes, and the vehicle came to rest right at the edge of a downward slope. Five seconds earlier, and a family member, who had come out of the house to show where he wanted the car parked, could have been killed, or seriously injured. The car was towed to Toyota Of Erie, where it was inspected by a corporate inspector. It remains there until a decision is made. The adaptive cruise control, which was used on the trip, had been canceled, and the brakes were used several times after exiting the freeway. There was apparently no warning from the front camera and the collision avoidance system about the tree stump, though the driver had seen it prior to making the turn. The incident happened very quickly, but there was no noticeable red warning flashing on the screen. This time there is only damage to a car fender, and a tree stump. What about next time? Suppose the vehicle is slowing into a parking space, there is a child exiting nearby van and the car suddenly accelerates? No thanks!!! This problem needs to be solved! The floor mats in the BZ 4X are secured to the floor so they are not an issue. The driver of the vehicle can play an instrument with foot pedals and is therefore very aware of foot placement-so operator error is not the problem. Perhaps there is just too much autonomous driving technology and software layered over the basic EV platform. Can’t we just have the choice of a basic EV until these other problems are worked out? I signed up to be a pioneer in the adoption of electric vehicles, but not a guinea pig for autonomous driving.