What 381 owners told NHTSA about the 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N

Incident occurred when head-in parking in a space pointed into an stores exterior wall. There were no parking/wheel stops, just pavement then wall. No adjacent cars. I was decelerating with foot completely off accelerator and over the brake pedal. The car is an EV and was in 3rd level of regenerative braking, slowing down quickly. As I completed the turn into the space and began straitening the wheel, the car suddenly and rapidly accelerated and crashed into the wall. The only likely explanation I have is that I inadvertently pressed the Driving Assist button with my right thumb or hand while turning the steering wheel, which would have activated Smart Cruise Control, and, if the necessary conditions were met, set the minimum speed to 30 km/hr. The car manual states: "If your vehicle speed is between 0 - 20 mph (0 - 30 km/h) when you press the Driving Assist ( ) button, the Smart Cruise Control speed will be set to 20 mph (30km/h)." The Foward Collision-Avoidance Assist was set to Active Assist, which should have applied the brake to stop from colliding with the wall, but instead the car accelerated. (Note, the parking assist feature does not usually recognize head-in parking.) The car has two Driving Assist settings: Based on Drive Mode and Based on Driving Style. If the latter is selected, three additional features are set on sliding scales: Distance (close to far), Acceleration (slow to fast), Response Speed (slow to quick). These three settings are adjusted automatically based on the car's interpretation of the driver's driving style, or they can be manually overriden. I have never changed these settings. Post-incident I checked the setting and it was set to Based on Driving Style with Acceleration=Fast. Concerns: Is Driving Assist to easy to inadvertently activate? Should Driving Assist not activate at very slow speeds and not auto-set to 30k/h? Why did Forward Collision-Avoidance not activate? Drive Assist should not default to Based on Driving Style.

NHTSA ODI 11605163

When parking in a supermarket parking lot I slowly approached the space while braking. As I turned left into the space and released the brake pedal to allow the car to slowly roll into the space as I always do, the car surged as if someone floored the accelerator. I veered left to avoid a head on collision with the parked car facing me and went diagonally between the right front fender of that car and the left front fender of the car parked in the space to my left. I sideswiped both sides of my car and damaged the front fenders of both cars before I was able to apply the brake and bring the car to a stop. There was a mother with her two young children loading groceries into the car in front of me. Fortunately I avoided hitting anyone, but the witnessed the accident. I was in shock. My car suffered $25 in damages. There is absolutely no way I accidentally applied the accelerator, and if I had I would never have floored it! The car malfunctioned. I reported this incident to Hyundai also. They supposedly were sending someone to inspect the car at the auto body repair center.

NHTSA ODI 11594992