While driving at highway speeds (approximately 70 MPH) with the vehicle's Assistive Driving functions engaged, the Driver Monitoring System (DMS) malfunctioned. Despite maintaining constant visual attention on the road ahead, the system issued repeated, erroneous audio warnings claiming driver inattention. I attempted to adjust my head and eye position to satisfy the sensors, but the system failed to register my compliance and continued to cycle through warnings. Consequently, the vehicle initiated an unwarranted "fail-safe" maneuver and suddenly applied the brakes while traveling in the flow of traffic. This uncommanded, rapid deceleration created an immediate and severe risk of a high-speed rear-end collision with following vehicles. The failure appears to be a false-positive defect in the eye-tracking software logic and its integration with the braking system. The vehicle is available for inspection to analyze the system data logs.
NHTSA ODI 11714869