What 22 owners told NHTSA about the 2024 Toyota Prius Phev

I was driving my 2024 Toyota Prius and was involved in a front-end collision. The impact was strong enough to cause significant front-end damage, but the front airbag did NOT deploy. I was wearing my seatbelt at the time. This is a serious safety concern because the airbag should have deployed in this type of frontal impact. If the crash had been worse, I could have been seriously injured. I believe this may be a safety defect in the airbag system.

NHTSA ODI 11725998

On August 15, 2025, I was backing my vehicle when the rear view camera screen went blank, providing no image of what was behind me. With no warning and no image, I collided with a rock and landscape, causing damage to the rear of my vehicle. At the time of this incident, my vehicle had an open, unrepaired safety defect under Safety Recall 25TA13, which specifically addresses the condition that the rear view camera image may freeze or not display while reversing. I was not aware the recall existed at the time of my accident, and the recall remedy was not completed on my vehicle until February 12, 2026 — nearly six months after the incident. I filed a claim with Toyota Motor North America. They inspected the vehicle on February 11, 2026, found the camera functioning at that time (after the recall had since been remedied), and denied my claim. They cited owner's manual language advising drivers not to rely solely on the backup camera, but did not address the fact that the recall was unrepaired at the time of the accident. Additionally the parking collision warning and automatic braking should have engaged. The rock impacted the car right near one of the car cameras....so the collision warning and braking should have engaged. I am filing this complaint because I believe the unrepaired recall directly caused my inability to see behind my vehicle, and that Toyota's delay in notifying me and completing the remedy contributed to this incident. I am requesting that NHTSA review whether Toyota's notification and remedy timeline for Recall 25TA13 was adequate, and that this incident be added to the record of complaints associated with that recall.

NHTSA ODI 11723621

We are writing about 2 separate issues we had with our 2024 Prius. 1. Acceleration caused accident on Sept. 8, 2024. Driver was parallel parking. He backed into the space and was then going to straighten out the car. The car accelerated unexpectedly and caused the vehicle to go up on someone’s lawn. The vehicle was stopped by the stoop of the house. The airbag was deployed. Thank God the driver was unharmed. He was parking and going under 5 miles an hour in reverse and then in drive to finish parking. The car just flew out of control. 2. Sudden braking when backing out of driveway or parking space. This happened a total of 4 times, twice to both drivers. Driver was backing out of the garage looking at the screen to make sure nothing was there. She was inching out when the car braked suddenly and forcefully by itself. It was so strong a brake that it felt like something was hit, but nothing was there. This happened again when backing slowly out of a parking space in a lot. Coincidentally, we had an appointment with Toyota to bring the car in for a recall 2 days after the above accident. The recall was for a door problem. We had planned to tell them about the brake issue at that time, but obviously, we never got to bring the car in. Both these issues with the Toyota 2024 Prius are frightening and dangerous. This time no one was hurt. We have informed Toyota about these problems and hope that you and them address these issues in order to prevent this from happening to others. Our insurance company is repairing the vehicle. We have to say that when it is returned to us, we will be frightened to drive it unless these problems are taken care of.

NHTSA ODI 11615986

The contact owns a 2024 Toyota Prius. The contact stated that while parallel parking and straightening the vehicle, he tapped the accelerator pedal, and the vehicle suddenly accelerated aggressively and crashed into a stoop. While reversing previously on three occasions, the vehicle braked suddenly without application with no object in the surrounding area. There were no reported injuries. The air bag deployed. There was smoke detected from the engine. There was no reported fire. A police report was filed. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 3,000.

NHTSA ODI 11613797