NHTSA Complaint #11660675 — 2024 TOYOTA RAV4

I was driving home in exceptionally heavy rain. Before getting home, I decided to stop at a coffee drive thru. It was still raining pretty heavily as I drove up to the pick up window. I had my foot on the brake as I waited for my order. A few minutes went by when suddenly the car shook a bit and completely shut off. A warning sign came up on the dash screen that read “engine stopped, steering power low” and instructed to put the car in park. That warning message would come up every time I tried to put the gearshift back in drive. I kept trying to restart the car many times, the engine cracked but no start. At one point I even tried putting the car in neutral to attempt to push it out of drive thru lane but the car and steering wheel were locked in place. There was no way to move either. It’s still raining at this point but it has significantly lightened up. About 15 - 20 minutes later, the car started up like normal and I was able to put the gearshift in drive. The car is less than a year old and nothing like this has ever happened before. There were absolutely no warning signs prior to this happening, everything on the dashboard and the mobile app associated with the car showed the car was in “good health.” I am SO incredibly lucky this happened at a drive thru and not in the middle of a highway or busy intersection. You are left completely helpless since the engine completely shuts off and the steering wheel locks. If this happened on a highway, it would immediately create a multi vehicle accident or potentially worse. This is a HUGE safety risk that needs to be addressed immediately. I plan to take the vehicle into the dealership for inspection because I do not feel 100% safe anymore.