NHTSA Complaint #11564761 — 2018 FORD ESCAPE

While driving this vehicle (~88,000 miles) on a route of ~100 miles, the car started shuddering / shaking at highway speed for 30 - 90 seconds every 10 - 15 minutes. I was 50 miles in to the drive when the shaking began. The shaking was startling and distracting. I drove the car to the dealer that night. While driving to the dealer, the car continued to shudder / shake for even longer durations at greater frequency. Additionally, the car had weak acceleration when the gas pedal was compressed. This created significant challenges when trying to navigate traffic (merging on to highway, accelerating car from stop, etc.). I have a video of the dash which shows the car exceeding 4000 RPM and not exceeding 25mph. I can share this video over e-mail, but could not attach to this form. - The dealer believes this is a malfunction of the powertrain (transmission). It is available for inspection at the time of this writing. However, I am working with Ford and the dealer on a repair solution as this is my primary car. - My safety was at risk because the car shaking was distracting and the lack of acceleration presented challenges with merging, passing cars, accelerating from stop, etc. - Vehicle is currently with dealer beginning inspection - initial suspicion is transmission issue. - No warning lights came on as I was experiencing this issue.