What 53 owners told NHTSA about the 2023 Hyundai Elantra Hev

I was performing a low-speed maneuver to reverse-park into my driveway. After making a right turn between my driveway and the driveway of a neighboring townhouse across the street, I came to a complete stop. When I shifted the vehicle into reverse, the vehicle did not reverse as expected and instead unexpectedly accelerated forward. I applied the brake but was unable to stop the vehicle before it traveled forward into the driveway across the street and struck the garage door of a neighboring townhouse. The maneuver was being performed at low speed. Weather conditions were clear, and the driveway surface was dry. The cause of the unexpected acceleration is unknown at this time. No warning lights, messages, or alerts were observed prior to or during the incident. Immediately following the collision, I placed the vehicle into park and applied the parking brake, at which point the vehicle came to rest. Upon impact, the driver-side front airbag deployed. Smoke and a burning odor were observed coming from the deployed airbag. The incident posed a safety risk due to the vehicle’s unexpected forward movement during a low-speed maneuver and resulted in property damage. No injuries were reported. The vehicle remains available for inspection.

NHTSA ODI 11708433

The cruise control function ceased to properly function after automatically increasing the speed to 110 mph. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. This is a safety risk for myself and for others on the road. If another combination with this fault were to occur (either physically to the driver or to the software), this could lead to an extreme hazard due to the potential for excessive speeds. The first occurrence for this vehicle happened on 4/21/2025; however, additional instances have been reported going back at least a year for other owners of this same model. Initial issue occurred while setting cruise control from 45 mph to 35 mph and then back to 45 mph. The last instance of 45 mph is when the cruise control quickly increased the set speed to 110 mph. The set speed could not be reduced after the issue occurred. This issue is difficult to reproduce, but will always occur after the first instance until the vehicle is restarted. The vehicle has not yet been inspected by the manufacturer. This is a known issue that has occurred for more than a year now. It appears to not be addressed due to the lack of reproducibility. However, when the software issue happens, it is continually reproducible until the vehicle is restarted. No other warning lamps or erroneous events occurred at the time of the software malfunction.

NHTSA ODI 11655984

See attached document for complaint.

NHTSA ODI 11610431

The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The contact had received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V589000 (Electrical System, Vehicle Speed Control) and the recall repair was completed by a dealer. The contact stated while driving at approximately 60 MPH with the cruise control activated, she momentarily disengaged the cruise control to slow for traffic. The contact stated that when the cruise control was re-engaged, the vehicle independently accelerated to almost 100 MPH. The contact was able to slow the vehicle by tapping the brake pedal. The contact stated the failure became a recurring failure. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The local dealer who completed the recall repair was contacted and informed the contact that there was no available appointment until December 16, 2023, for the vehicle to be serviced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 18,000.

NHTSA ODI 11556490

The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The contact stated that while driving at highway speeds, the Forward Collision Avoidance: Automatic Emergency Braking brake light illuminated, and the vehicle experienced phantom braking, causing the tires to skid and the speed to abruptly decelerate. Moments later the Forward Collision Avoidance: Automatic Emergency Braking light turned off, and the vehicle operated normally. The failure had occurred on several occasions. Additionally, the vehicle had experienced unintended acceleration, causing the vehicle to lurch forward. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of failure. The failure mileage was 1,500.

NHTSA ODI 11552088

While driving down an interstate at approximately 58 miles per hour, I turned on the cruise control and went to adjust it to 65 miles per hour. The car rapidly accelerated and it appeared on the dash that the cruise control defaulted to 110 miles per hour, which appears to be the maximum on the system. I tried to turn the speed down, but the cruise control would not go below 110 miles per hour. I immediately deactivated cruise control and continued to drive at normal speed. I tried multiple times thereafter to set cruise control, and it would again, rapidly try to accelerate the car to 110 miles per hour and would not let me decrease the speed. After stopping at a rest stop, turning the car off and on and driving again, it appeared the glitch was fixed and I was able to operate the cruise control normally. Please note that the "adaptive" part of the cruise control, including steering assist/lane departure worked fine the entire time.

NHTSA ODI 11548907

I turned on Cruise Control at 60 mph and it immediately set itself to 20 mph, braking fast to slow down quickly. This caused the car behind me to slam on his brakes so he would not rear end me. I tried increasing cruise control speed to no avail. I had to turn it off. Once I did not have any cars behind me, I tried once again so I could take a video and of course, it worked as it should. Not five minutes later, my radio turned the volume down to zero, all by itself. 20 minutes later, when I slowed to turn into a parking lot, my car lagged and acted as if it didn't have gas enough to go up a small incline. Pressing on the gas pedal didn't do very much but I made it up the incline and was able to park. I will be calling Hyundai Dealership tomorrow where I purchased the vehicle last year. I do not have any type of pictures or recordings as it just happened and it was a pretty scary event considering I was almost rear ended.

NHTSA ODI 11542784

The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Elantra. The contact stated while driving 30 MPH with the cruise control activated, the vehicle independently accelerated to 110 MPH and seized at that speed. Additionally, the contact was unable to deactivate the feature. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who was able to duplicate the failure; however, the dealer was unable to repair the vehicle. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 50.

NHTSA ODI 11532097