2020 Honda Civic Driver assistance Problems

on 7-28-26 After filling my vehicle with gas at the next red light, all lights on dashboard went on flickering warning (Christmas tree effect). on 7-29-26 After researching online Roadside came out and did Battery and alternator test that passed. I did hard reboot from instructions I found online and after several attempts the lights cleared twice, the morning of 7-30-26 when leaving for work the flickering lights came back on. Vehicle had a slight tremble but cleared after a few seconds while vehicle warmed up. I went to get the battery checked at the shop and it passed also had air filter changed. Lights still on, car is running fine, but I feel unsafe to drive and have an appt at the dealer for a diagnosis check on 7-31-26.

NHTSA ID

11753827

Incident

Jul 29, 2026

At least a half dozen times the car would brake automatically when nothing was in front of the car. The BRAKE warning light would appear on the dashboard as the car abruptly slowed down. The car slowed down but never came to a complete stop. This happened at various speeds. Once on the freeway at high speeds, 3 times just before an intersection where I had a green light and other various times. I brought the car to 2 different dealers. They could not replicate the problem so they said there was nothing they could do. The courtesy car driver who gave me a ride said they occasionally experience the same thing in the courtesy car.

NHTSA ID

11748962

Incident

Jul 11, 2023

The collision mitigation braking system consistently detects objects in the road and forcibly brakes when the road ahead of me is completely empty. This has happened 4 or 5 times just in the last year. The first time it happened I was driving on a completely empty road when the CMBS activated and kept slamming on the brakes until I pulled over and restarted the entire car. I don't always have to restart the car every time, but if it ever happens on a busy road it will cause an accident. The dealership refuses to inspect the system or try to recreate the problem despite the fact that there was a class-action suit against Honda for this exact CMBS malfunction in several other models. They just tell me to manually turn it off every time I get in the car. I am human and sometimes I forget, so this is not a solution. I'm afraid that this buggy "safety" system is going to get me and my child killed one of these days. I am happy to have the system inspected, but it doesn't keep a log of every time it activates so there's no real way to verify the false positives, and it happens randomly so it's very hard to recreate.

NHTSA ID

11705453

Incident

Nov 10, 2025

ALL SAFTY LIGHTS APPEAR ON DASHBOARD. SAFTY FUNCTIONS NOT ENABLED.

NHTSA ID

11684963

Incident

Mar 27, 2025

Phantom braking. Really dangerous

NHTSA ID

11673092

Incident

Jul 12, 2025

My automatic Breaks that prevents me from rear ending a car keeps engaging when I am a few car lengths from another vehicle. It’s happened once yesterday and once today. Both times in heavy traffic areas. I’ve had the car for two years and this is the first time this has happened. Thankfully no one was following close behind because they may have hit me. I’m afraid this is going to happen one day when someone is too close and I’m going to get rear ended. It’s really scary and dangerous. I’m scared to drive my car.

NHTSA ID

11664056

Incident

May 30, 2025

Very frequently, the brake alert system comes on while on the highway causing my vehicle to engage the braking system. This happens whether or not there is a vehicle in front of me.

NHTSA ID

11660173

Incident

May 10, 2025

The vehicle’s emergency braking system randomly applies the brakes even when the front is not obstructed. Front sensors are kept clear of any debris, dirt, or bugs. I went to Honda of El Cajon in El Cajon, Ca and they could not help me even though the service advisor admitted that another Honda CR-V driver had the same problem the same day. This is a safety concern as my car has applied he brakes while on the freeway and at stop signs at random. Honda has failed to acknowledge the issue.

NHTSA ID

11633970

Incident

Dec 5, 2024

CMBS automatically and unexpectedly deploys for no reason: there is no car or obstacle in front of the car. This has happened multiple times. I have taken the car to the dealer twice with this complaint and they were unable to duplicate the issue, so I was told they couldn't find anything wrong. I now disable the system each and every time I start the car because if I don't, I foresee a circumstance when freeway driving that I would be severely rear-ended, causing me major injury, or even death.

NHTSA ID

11617341

Incident

Dec 15, 2020

Gas door opens randomly and it’s happened more than a few times now which is becoming a safety hazard especially because I drive 80 miles daily for work. Also my automatic brake senor is a hazard because it’s going off when cars or objects are farther away; which leads to the 3rd issue with my seat belts which is either to tight on the chest area and possibly choking me when the car automatically brakes when objects aren’t near or in close distance to my car

NHTSA ID

11594495

Incident

Jun 9, 2024

I was driving on 4/24/23 going 75 MPH. The car made a rev up noise and be RPM’s suddenly increased and the speed was decreasing. The car was losing power. I had to pull over to the side of the road and shut the car off and let it sit for awhile. The. When I started it back up it ran fine. This is a safety issue as I had to pull over on the highway and sit on the shoulder and could have been hit. No lights came on the dash at this time.

NHTSA ID

11585322

Incident

Apr 24, 2024

Phantom braking, has occurred over a dozen times. Caused me to spill hot coffee all over my face and neck causing mild burns.

NHTSA ID

11583498

Incident

Feb 23, 2024

Was T bones September 3rd 2023 exiting the freeway by a Ford F-350. Injury to left side of vehicle mainly . Airbags not side airbags deployed. Went through insurance and was told to report it to the manufacturer. Due to this I now need double knee surgery as I have tears and fluid and now have spinal injury .

NHTSA ID

11566504

Incident

Sep 3, 2023

WHEN RIDING DOWN THE HIGHWAY AT THE SPEED OF 70 MPH THE CAR SLAMMED ON BRAKES ALL BY ITSELF, ALMOST CAME TO A STOP AND THEN EVERYTHING WENT BACK TO NORMAL . i AM AVAILABLE FOR INSPECTION OF THE CAR. MY GRANDAUGHTER AND I WERE IN THE CAR AND IT WAS A VERY SCARY ORDEAL AS THE CAR WAS TRYING TO OR DID SLAM ON BRAKES. THE PROBLM HAS NOT BEEN REPRODUCED OR CONFIRMED BY A DEALER, HOW COULD IT? HAS NOT BEEN INSPECTED NO WARNING LAMPS, MESSAGES, SYMPTOMS, NOTHING OF THE SORT

NHTSA ID

11565076

Incident

Jan 11, 2024

A lot of times the warning collision on dash will flash to “BRAKE” when going through caution lights usually around fire stations and also approaching steel bridges… I don’t know if it sees the steel deck and thinks it’s a car, but whenever I get in my car, I deactivate the automatic emergency braking system because I don’t want it to automatically brake for me like it’s done in the past.

NHTSA ID

11561439

Incident

Nov 30, 2023

Bought my 2020 Honda Civic si at 48 k miles. Noticed mild clutch slip and vibration on the shift knob. Dealership states I don't know how to drive manual transmission. I've driven manual transmission for 18 years. I'm not stupid. Dealership states it's wear and tear and not part of the warranty. My window motor auto feature does not work. Bluetooth connectivity issues. Collision braking system activated with no vehicle in front of me while I was going 40 miles an hour. Could have been rear ended. I'm at 50k miles not a good buy and bad service from the dealership. Mossy Honda lemon grove ca

NHTSA ID

11534457

Incident

Jun 12, 2023

My infotainment center has repeatedly failed during operation. It is distorted while driving, freezes, stuck on previous screen display. This causes all safety features to be inoperable. I can’t see the camera back up display. I can’t see the map or upcoming exit/next direction. The Honda genius features are impacted by this. My vehicle suddenly thinks I am exiting while I’m driving and randomly slams on breaks with no vehicle or object in front of me, it jerks my wheel even though there is no car or barrier next to me. I have resorted to turn off all of the safety features due to the infotainment center glitches making my vehicle very unsafe to operate. I have been in several near miss single vehicle accidents. Picture added to show screen distortion and no direction listed. Should be displaying navigation and upcoming turn but is frozen and distorted.

NHTSA ID

11519751

Incident

Apr 1, 2023

I was driving getting ready to switch lanes and all of a sudden my car made the beeping noise and slammed on the brakes on its own

NHTSA ID

11476727

Incident

Jul 28, 2022

When driving at highway speeds with adaptive cruise control, vehicle will slow down or brake without any object/vehicle ahead. This usually occurs at curves, with no vehicles in current lane. I would then need to immediately step on the acceleration in order to continue highway speeds. This may cause unnecessary stress on the vehicle due to constant issue occurrence. At times, a blinking warning message from the emergency braking system will appear on the dashboard during these conditions. This causes a safety issue because cars in the back will not expect braking/slowing down when there isn't any obstruction from all perspectives. This is dangerous on the highway due to the increased driving speeds of surrounding vehicles. I have not taken it to the dealer due to the vehicle being out of warranty, however it has always had this issue. Vehicle was bought new at dealership.

NHTSA ID

11469344

Incident

May 1, 2020

The automated emergency braking system activated bringing me to a sudden and complete stop. I was traveling at a lower speed (<20mph) with sufficient space both in front and behind my vehicle which prevented this incident from becoming an accident. This occurred at night. The braking system automatically engaged as I was releasing my foot from the gas pedal to coast. Should this happen at higher speeds or with traffic closer behind me, an accident could have happened. The system has not been inspected as of now and has not been reproduced or occurred a second time. There have not been any warning lights, messages, or other issues with the car since I bought it brand new.

NHTSA ID

11454873

Incident

Jan 8, 2022

On multiple occasions, the collision mitigation braking system has had false-positive detections. There is one section of road where this occurs extremely frequently (maybe 20% of the time I drive through). On this section of road, it will not activate the brakes, it only beeps and displays "BRAKE" on the instrument cluster, but is extremely disconcerting and distracting. On another occasion on a different road, there was clear road ahead of me when the collision mitigation braking system had a false detection, and did activate the brakes and was incredibly close to causing a collision with a car driving behind me. On this same stretch of road, Ive had this occur two other times (out of hundreds I've driven on it), but no one was behind me and would not have caused an accident. In both of these spots, the road is fairly straight and the speed limit is 40 MPH. This hasn't been inspected by a dealer. This hasn't been inspected by Honda, the police, or insurance. There were no prior warnings to this issue occurring.

NHTSA ID

11454071

Incident

Jul 17, 2021

The automatic braking system for my car went off in the middle lane of a 3 lane highway. luckily there was no cars driving around me so i was not hit. It sensed something and dropped my speed from 55 to 20 in a couple seconds throwing me forward. If not for my seatbelt and my arms my face could have hit the steering wheel. This happened multiple times.

NHTSA ID

11453861

Incident

Mar 1, 2021

Warning light appeared on dashboard for obstructed radar sensor. Sensor was not obstructed. This was followed by additional warning lights that safety systems were malfunctioning, ACC, collision warning, automatic emergency braking systems are offline. Reported to local dealer.

NHTSA ID

11453522

Incident

Feb 19, 2022

The contact owns a 2020 Honda Civic. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the Forward Collision-Avoidance Automatic Emergency Braking erroneously activated causing the vehicle to abruptly stop. The contact indicated that the failure had occurred on eight separate occasions while driving between 5 and 65 MPH. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer however, the mechanic was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 7,000.

NHTSA ID

11443597

Incident

Mar 1, 2021

Mileage

7,000 mi

The contact owns a 2020 Honda Civic. The contact stated that while driving at 60 MPH, the vehicle ahead of him attempted to make a right turn. Although his vehicle was at a safe distance from the vehicle ahead, the Forward Collision-Avoidance feature independently engaged, and the warning light illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact stated that the feature did not recognize that the vehicle was making a turn and that the abrupt stoppage could have caused a rear-end collision with the vehicle behind him. The dealer nor the manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 12,300.

NHTSA ID

11442968

Incident

Dec 7, 2021