Toyota RAV4 Prime sudden acceleration problems

Filed Feb 7, 2026 · Acceleration, Airbags · CA · crash

On Friday Jan 30 around 3pm, this Rav 4 entered the short drive way in front of the garage. The car stopped, the automatic garage door was engaged. Suddenly, the car advanced, passing through the opening garage door and into and through the back wall of the garage. This is a sustaining way for the second storey. The front of the car displaced the counters inside, demolished the kitchen, almost toppling the fridge. Given the damage to the garage done and the damage inflicted, my interpretation is that an unintended acceleration event occurred. The airbags did not deploy. My wife, [XXX] , was driving at the time and was alone in the car. The air bags did not deploy Significant damage was done to the kitchen. And because the wall was a sustaining wall, there was serious damage to the support beams throughout the house. Estimate is $118,770 plus $30,000 for the repair work in the attic. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Aug 1, 2025 · CA · crash

On July 24th, I experienced sudden unexpected acceleration with my 2021 Toyota Rav4 Prime XSE (41,600 miles) while driving in the electric mode. I was lining myself up to reverse into my garage and as I paused to switch gears to reverse, the car suddenly accelerated full-speed towards my neighbor's house. I slammed the brakes but that had little effect. The car slammed into the house, through the garage door and my car was only stopped when hitting an SUV parked in the garage, pushing it forward about 2 feet. No air bags were deployed, the collision detection system on the vehicle did not seem to work and tire marks from my braking were visible from the middle of the road. I have found a number of very similar incidents with Toyota cars described online. Cars were often turning into parking spaces at slow speeds and ended up accelerating into lamp posts or buildings. If there hadn't been a car parked in the garage, I can't imagine what might have happened as the car was probably going 35 mph+ upon impact. There were no warning lights and the collision shop informed me that there were no diagnostic codes when they downloaded the computer.

Filed Jul 1, 2025 · Brakes, Electrical · TX · crash

While driving at no more than 5 mph, looking for a parking space, the car suddenly accelerated dramatically. I vigorously applied pressure to the brake but the car continued to go forward, sideswiping a parked pickup truck and crashing through a metal fence and coming up against a rock wall. Fortunately, there were no pedestrians walking through the parking lot and no one was injured. I don’t know if the problem has been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center. The vehicle has been inspected by an inspector hired by the manufacturer and also inspected by my auto insurance representative. There were no warning lamps, messages, or symptons of this sudden unintended acceleration prior to the failure.

Filed Oct 24, 2024 · Airbags, Brakes · CA · crash

MY [XXX] ’S) SUDDEN ACCELERATION INCIDENT [XXX] - TOYOTA RAV4 2021: I was gliding into a parking space with my foot on the brake and as I went to straighten out the wheel to come to a full stop the car lurched forward full speed and smashed into the car parked in the row that was facing me. Good thing there was no one in that car, it had been backed in so I hit the rear end of it. The damage is so extensive it is beyond comprehension. My airbags did not deploy, which they should have. I saw that the ‘malfunction brake’ orange light was illuminated as I went crashing into the parked car and could not believe that the automatic anti-collision brake system failed - it was as if the car was possessed and the scariest thing ever. Towed to the dealer I bought it from. I have now read all of these other incidents that are the same as mine and this is no joke. We all could have been killed and there are people that most likely have been that have never been reported. I have been driving for over 40 years and have never experienced anything like it. Computers and software have glitches all the time, and if Toyota does not do something about this that means they do not care if their customers die. That makes them murderers. I loved my RAV4 more than anything, it is an eplugin hybrid and the best! I would/will never drive that car again, ever, and I am going to see to it that Toyota Corp, who is liable, reimburses me every penny I spent on that car, plus any legal fees and hourly wages for how much time I now have to spend on dealing with this whole thing, one of which is having to prove to my insurance company that this was NOT my fault so my rates do not go up! The dealer paid off my lease and never made me come pick up the car as I never had it fixed. Of course my insurance went up as they had to pay the damage to the other car! I now have filed a small claim with my local court to recoup the money for increase in insurance, deposit for Rav4 INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT

Filed Aug 2, 2024 · Engine · NY · crash · 1 injury

I was slowly pulling (front end forward) into a parking space at a local retail store. Parking spots are perpendicular to building. There is a space about the width of a sidewalk that runs along the front of the building. As I was coming to a complete stop, the car suddenly accelerated on its own, crashed into the building and then stopped. The airbag did not deploy. The car is available for inspection. Both Toyota and Farmers Insurance have said they will pull data from the event logs. The unintended acceleration malfunction put me and others at severe risk. The storefront has a concrete and glass front which was damaged from the impact. If an employee or shopper had been in the area of the crash, they could have been severely injured. I suffered a contusion of the sternum and stiff neck and shoulders. The vehicle's event data has not yet been pulled and evaluated. There were no advance warning signals.

Filed Jul 30, 2024 · Transmission · IL

I have oiwned the car for 3 months and there has not been a problem previously. As I was pulling into a parking space at work, going less than 5 mph, i took my foot off the accelerator and coasting in while intending to brake, stop, and turn the car off. Suddenly, the car accelerated forward quickly, propelling the car over a tall curb, over a small grassy area, and onto the open parking lot. I subsequently applied the break, the car stopped, I drove back to the same spot. and was able to park and turn the car off. A report was filed with Toyota, completing an unintended acceleration form (UA), and Toyota filed TAS case number 24212013.

Filed May 15, 2024 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · MA · crash

I was driving very slowly in my driveway. I turned to enter my garage. As I put my foot on the break, the car accelerated crashing into my house. There was sudden unexplained and unintended acceleration on my RAV4 prime.

Filed Apr 30, 2024 · TX · crash

On Friday 4/26/24 at about 8 PM, I pulled vehicle into garage and suddenly was aware that vehicle was crashing into shelving against the garage wall in front of its usual stopping place. I recall application of brakes and believe that I put into reverse in order to stop progression/acceleration. After it stopped, I was able to get out of the vehicle and describe the incident to my husband who came out from the house, having heard the crash. The hood and front parts of the car were damaged and it is currently in the collision shop. The shelving unit was destroyed. I am concerned that an unintended acceleration took place and do not know the mechanism.

Filed Jan 4, 2024 · Acceleration, Brakes · NY · crash

I was pulling into a parking space at a slow speed and breaking when my car accelerated violently and caused me to go across a median and strike another parked vehicle. Police came and did a report. I took my car right away to dealer and they had me take it to their collision shop to be repaired. They said they would try to find the unintended acceleration problem after it was repaired. No warning lights or airbags.

Filed Aug 3, 2023 · Acceleration, Brakes · NY · crash

Driver was parking the car in a parking lot at a very slow speed. The car suddenly shot forward at a very high rate of speed, requiring evasive steering from trees and a fence, until the car crashed head-on into another vehicle. The driver is very certain the brakes only were applied during the entire time the car shot forward. Airbags were not deployed. Bystanders were within six feet of the car at one point during the acceleration, prior to the crash. There were no injuries. Earlier, on the day of the crash, the car had a sudden, strong, yet brief acceleration of the vehicle during normal braking while approaching a rotary, unlike normal ABS. ABS itself seemed unneeded (the approach to the rotary was well within the speed limit, on dry condition roads). This issue occurred twice in the two months prior to the accident. There were no known warning messages in the car or the phone app for the car in any of these cases or at the time of the crash. The manufacturer has been notified of the crash, a product liability case has been opened, and an engineer was sent to look at the car. A data download from the airbag event data recorder (Bosch CDR) was done, a report was generated, and the report was provided to the car owner. No data in the formatted report is provided regarding Vehicle Speed, Accelerator Pedal, Cruise Control Status, Brake Torque, etc. Unformatted hexadecimal data is included in the report, without a data schema to decipher the data. It is not known if any other analysis or information about the car was reported by the engineer, beyond the Bosch CDR report. The owner is not aware that the problem has been reproduced or confirmed by anyone involved, or of any other inspections than the one described here. Manufacturer has not yet provided the owner with a report response. The car is currently at an auto repair shop and no repairs have begun. The shop is awaiting an appraisal by the insurance company before doing the repairs.