NHTSA Complaint #11695696 — 2020 HYUNDAI PALISADE

I was driving through town at a low rate of speed (20-30 mph) with 2-3 car lengths between me and the next vehicle. I continued through light to next light. This distance was on an upward incline. After traveling approximately 500 ft, I noticed the traffic slowing in front of me and took my foot off the accelerator to start to slow down. This is when the car suddenly accelerated (instead of slowing down as would be expected when traveling up an incline), picking up speed quickly. The car's response happened so quickly that I was unable to swerve to avoid hitting the car in front of me. I hit the car in front of me that was slowing down at the light which then subsequently hit several other vehicles that were in front of it that were also slowing/stopped for the light. The front airbag deployed as a result of the collision, knocking my glasses off. The vehicle was still continuing in forward motion after the collision….Traffic Crash Report states, “... [witness] went up to Unit 1 [Palisade], and the tires were still spinning…” As I was in shock after the collision, a bystander came up to the vehicle to turn it off and this is when the wheels/forward motion was completely stopped. This Palisade is equipped with Forward Collision Avoidance Assist (FCA) system. There was no warning given nor did the vehicle attempt to slow down during the event so I believe that this system failed to operate which contributed to the collision. I also believe that there was a failure with the engine/electrical system, ETC, and/or transmission that caused the system to suddenly accelerate while traveling uphill AFTER I removed my foot from the gas pedal. The vehicle was totaled by my insurance company. They did say that they were sending an engineer to review the Event Data Recorder. I have not seen any results from that nor do I have the vehicle in my possession as it was totaled.