NHTSA Complaint #11605453 — 2023 NISSAN FRONTIER

The Nissan Frontier (and perhaps other Nissan vehicles employing the same system) equipped with the 'Intelligent Cruise Control' (ICC) exhibits dangerous behavior when a followed vehicle comes to a complete stop with ICC enabled. When this occurs, the Nissan will come to a complete stop, then a warning chime will sound and the vehicle will immediately start moving quickly forward. Since the ICC brings the vehicle to a stop very close to the followed vehicle, if the driver is thinking the ICC will hold the vehicle in a stationary position, it is possible that this behavior could result in the Nissan rear-ending the followed vehicle. This is the result of a flaw in the design of the Nissan Intelligent Cruise Control that releases the brake with little warning when the traffic in front of the vehicle is stopped. A proper design would hold the brake until some manual driver action is taken such as physically pressing the accelerator or the brake. My personal experience was that I was on an Interstate freeway in very slow traffic. This was the first time I had the ICC enabled in slow and go traffic. It was working fine and, when the traffic came to a complete stop, it properly stopped behind the vehicle in front of me. Then, to my shock, my Nissan beeped and started to accelerate forward nearly rear-ending the vehicle in front of me. Luckily, I was able to press the brake in time to avoid a collision, but this is a flawed design and represents an unnecessary danger to the Nissan as well as followed vehicles.