The vehicle uses an in-cabin infrared camera to monitor driver vigilance. The camera has known limitations "seeing" the driver's eyes through certain glasses, including regular prescription glasses needed for driving. Because of this limitation, the system incorrectly believes that the driver is being inattentive and looking away from the road. Alarms are activated, and eventually the ADASs indicated (adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist) deactivate suddenly at highway speeds, putting the occupants of the vehicle as well as other vehicles at risk from distraction and the sudden slowdown and potential veering from the lane. Hyundai has known technical service bulletins about this issue but no remedies (telling drivers not to use their prescription glasses or to pick glasses based on their infrared light transmissibility is not a solution).
Hyundai Ioniq 5 adaptive cruise problems
36 of the 1,354 owner complaints about the Hyundai Ioniq 5 describe adaptive cruise control problems, most of them for the 2025 model year.
- owner complaints
- 36
- worst model year
- 2025
By model year
Often reported together
What owners say
Several times now (over 5), we have experienced issues where our car has briefly accelerated on its own and then either (a) braked hard on its own, too, or (b) the accelerator pedal stop working until we pull over, come to a complete stop, and either park or restart the car. We have experienced this multiple times on both surface streets and on highways. When this has happened on the highway, we've had to literally merge across multiple highway lanes so we can pull over or exit — all without being able to accelerate. This has happened to both of us as drivers, both alone and together, and both with the adaptive cruise control feature enabled and without it enabled. We have taken it to our local Hyundai dealer (Stevens Creek Hyundai) for inspection twice. Both times, they drove the car 100 miles and could not reproduce the issue, so told us there's nothing more they can do. We have insisted that this does not reproduce on demand; it is intermittent and has happened to us only once a month or so on average. They still said that unless they can reproduce it, they cannot fix it. They also asked us to record a video the next time it happens, but this is infeasible, since we'd have to be recording a video *constantly* while driving, since this issue is intermittent and happens randomly. We have multiple videos we've recorded immediately *after* an incident happens, after we've pulled over. No "check engine" light is on or anything else out of the ordinary. This has obviously been extremely scary and disturbing every time, especially as we also have a child. It feels extremely dangerous to keep driving this car.
While driving this EV with cruise control on, the dashboard suddenly showed a message that “Smart Cruise Control conditions not met”. Attempting to re-engage the cruise control did not work and then the vehicle suddenly lost all propulsion (pressing the accelerator did nothing). The car quickly slowed to about 20 mph before we could maneuver it to the shoulder and turn it off. After a couple minutes, we restarted the car and drove it to the dealer. There were no other messages or warning lights or indicators. The dealer could not find anything wrong and asked us to pick up the car and resume using it. We use both a home charger (Emporia) and roadside (Tesla) chargers.
While driving on the freeway with adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assistance on heading east into the morning sun my car suddenly attempted to veer strongly to the left as I exited the shadow of an overpass. I was able to stop the lane assist because I had a firm two handed grip on the steering wheel. Even with the firm grip and attentive driving I nearly left my lane as the wheels suddenly and strongly jerked to the left.
When I use the adaptive cruise control and use the lane keeping assistance the system keeps giving me an error message that I'm not looking at the road. I believe this is a known problem and Hyundai pushed an software fix TSB 25-G1-16H in November 2025. My car appears to have the update but still repeatedly gives me the same error message. It's very distracting and since the error message flashes on dash where you usually see the camera monitoring right side of car that feature is impaired. I have had at dealership twice and while the technician knows its an issue there's nothing they can do without Hyundai's decision to correctly fix with software update. I am over 6' tall and where glasses, two things I can't change.
The contact owns a 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 5. The contact stated that while driving at higher speeds occasionally, the vehicle suddenly lost motive power. The "Smart Smooth Cruise Control Conditions Not Met" warning message was displayed on the instrument panel. The contact restarted the vehicle as a temporary fix; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer where it was diagnosed with an unknown electrical failure. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the same local dealer; however, the cause of the failure could not be determined. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 47,000.
Description of Safety Defect:The integrated Forward Attention Warning (FAW) driver-monitoring camera located on the steering column continuously fails to track facial structures or pupils during routine daytime driving. This occurs despite maintaining a proper driving posture, adjusting the steering column layout, and removing any facial obstructions.Safety Consequences:When the system falsely registers a "distracted driver" state due to its faulty sensor calibration, it routinely triggers erratic high-pitched chimes and immediately disables active highway driver assistance systems, including Highway Driving Assist (HDA), Lane Keeping Assist (LKA), and Smart Cruise Control. This abrupt loss of active steering guidance and vehicle speed maintenance creates sudden, hazardous driving situations on open highways. Furthermore, to get the faulty alert chimes to clear, the driver is forced to take their eyes off the roadway to stare directly into the steering column sensor camera, actively causing driver distraction.
The driver attention warning feature is defective and often requires you to take your eyes off the road and stare at the DAW sensor in order to eliminate the car's constant "attention" warnings. Even while looking straight ahead while driving, the DAW is often erroneous and will disengage safety features (e.g., lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, etc.) because the DAW erroneously thinks that the driver is not paying attention. As another example, if you are driving uphill/downhill or on a curved road and are looking at the road ahead of you at a slight angle, the DAW will erroneously report that the driver isn't paying attention. The system will then disable the cruise control and lane keeping assist, creating a hazardous situation. Alternatively, the driver can look DOWN (not looking at the road) at the DAW sensor and stare at it until the car reacts. This takes your eyes off of the road and creates hazardous situations. As someone who wears prescription glasses, the problem is even worse. I cannot set a comfortable seat/steering wheel configuration where the DAW can "see" through my prescription glasses. If I want to drive in my normal position, I either need to take my glasses off or turn off the safety features (e.g. lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control) in order to drive. Hyundai is well aware of this problem and it exists across much of the Hyundai and Kia platforms. Dealerships say that the car is working as intended. In reality, the defective DAW system creates more risk and contributes to a significantly less safe ride (as I'm constantly taking my eyes off the road to stare at the darn sensor).
The Driver Attention Warning system fails every time I put the car in Cruise Control. I have adjusted my seat and the steering column but no relief. I have removed my hat and sunglasses with no relief. I have my hands at 8 and 4. The DAW IR tracking causes a visual warning in the dashboard and then a horrific cacophony if I try to ignore the warning. Two weeks ago an OTA was downloaded which purported to improve the sensitivity of head movement. It is not improved, if anything it is quicker to warn. In settings I turned off the Lane Following Assist and Driver Warning Assist each time I start the car. This does nothing to impact the failure of the DAW. The lack of Cruise Control on long drives causes fatigue and does not help with safety. The constant harassment of the DAW warning does not lend to safer driver. This whole system is intrusive and not making driving safer.
7 incidents of electrical drive problem incidents 1-3car would not start despite full battery Incident 4 same thing and car went to dealer, they said know problem and they would fix it overnight by downloading new software and charge about $400 for new 12V battery Incident 5 While on freeway using cruise control card speed varied wildly I disabled cruise control and with manual throttle same problem Incident. 6 In middle of traffic car went blank no lights or anything. I tried to restart 3 times and nothing, so I sat back and was in process of calling for tow. I did nothing and car violently accelerated and turned into steel pole. Only injury I had was bump on head that went away. As soon as the ghost mode engaged I hit the brake which likely prevented more damage to me, but front end of car was damage Incident 7 While I was detained someone else drove car to dealer and driver reported felt like driving on ice with rapid direction and speed changes Currently at dealer where neither dealer or Hyundai will take of problem and I get run arround from Hyundai and dealer. Dealer claim the don’t know is the problem. Dealer has had car for approximately 65 days Bottom line, the car is totally unsafe to drive and very dangerous
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Hyundai Ioniq 5 adaptive cruise
Which Hyundai Ioniq 5 years have adaptive cruise control problems problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2025 (15 complaints), 2023 (12 complaints) and 2022 (5 complaints).
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