What 53 owners told NHTSA about the 2022 Dodge Durango

I was driving slowly in heavy rain and pulled up to a red light behind another vehicle. Just as I was almost fully stopped, my car suddenly accelerated on its own and struck the vehicle in front of me. The car is equipped with an automatic braking system that should apply the brakes when there is an obstacle. Instead, not only did it fail to brake, it accelerated fully. If the car in front of us had not stopped us, we would have entered a very busy intersection, where we could have been seriously injured and might have hurt others. We were about to enter the freeway, and if this had happened there, the outcome could have been catastrophic. There were no warning lights or alerts of any kind. It happened completely out of the blue. We had the car towed to the dealer in Santa Barbara, where no problem was found. We then took it to the dealer in Thousand Oaks, where we purchased it, and again no problem was found. The vehicle’s black box was checked, but because the car was traveling under 5 mph at the time, nothing was recorded. We contacted Chrysler and reported the issue. So far, no action has been taken, and for the past week they have not even returned our calls. The incident occurred on [XXX]. We cannot drive this car. We also cannot sell it, because we cannot knowingly expose someone else to such a life-threatening risk. Since the problem has not been identified and fixed, it could happen again. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11711142

Vehicle Sudden Unintended Acceleration – Safety Complaint Vehicle: 2022 Dodge Durango Weather: Rain Situation: The vehicle was at an almost complete stop at a red light and in a 5 feet distance from the car in front. Without pressing the accelerator, the car suddenly surged forward at significant force and hit the vehicle in front of us. There was no driver input on the accelerator. The incident appeared to be caused by an electronic or computer malfunction, possibly related to moisture from the rain. This could have resulted in serious injury or death if another vehicle had not been in front of us to stop the acceleration. Please investigate this issue, as it represents a major safety risk.

NHTSA ODI 11699660

After about 3mins of driving my vehicle I started to smell burning plastic, a couple seconds later I saw a view black squiggly lines which was smoke which made me look around. At that point I saw the USB port engulfed in flames. As I was driving I panicked and pulled over on the side of the road and looked for something to put the fire out. I thankfully had a bottle of water in my vehicle which I was able to pour over the fire to put it out. I didn’t know what to do after that as there was no available Chrysler dealership in the area I was in so I went to Firestone and asked if someone could help me because I was scared to drive it not knowing if it would ignite again and my route home requires me to get on the freeway and didn’t want to risk something happening on the freeway. The guy from Firestone removed the charger from the port for me and told me I needed to take it to the dealership. I called Chrysler corporate to make them aware and made a service appointment. Without the bottle of water in the car I don’t necessarily know that the situation would have ended this way since the damage is isolated to the port and my charger only from what I can see. I wanted to make this report so that this can be brought to the attention of Chrysler and the necessary recalls and be published to prevent this from happening to anyone else .

NHTSA ODI 11502325