2022 Hyundai Kona Driver assistance Problems

When I first brought the car for its first service appointment (6 months after purchase), I informed the service dept at the dealership that the car seemed to accelerate itself when I was driving. They said they hit a reset button and that I shouldn't have any more problems. What I found was that the car then drove sluggishly but it did not accelerate anymore. Recently however (2.5 years into the purchase), the car started "sliding" when I hit the break pad. I took the car in again for service a few months ahead of time and they said that my car mat was wedged under the break pad and that was what was causing the car to slide when I hit the break. The car slid but also accelerated by about 5 miles, however I was able to quickly break and stop it without incident. This last service was on Friday, August 1st, and on Sunday August 3, the car slid and accelerated again - without the floor mat being wedged under the break. On Monday morning (August 4th) I called Hyundai so many times that I lost count. I was never able to speak with a service employee but I was given an appointment for a week and half later. According to ChatGPT, it is a common issue with the 2022 Kona and it should be recalled.

NHTSA ID

11678662

Incident

Aug 3, 2025

While accelerating onto the highway, the engine backfired and suddenly lost speed, violently shaking.

NHTSA ID

11642709

Incident

Feb 10, 2025

On four separate occasions now, I have been driving on the highway at roughly 60 mph, no cars in front of or beside me, and nothing else obstructing the roadway, when completely out of nowhere the emergency braking activates for 3-5 seconds. Thankfully there was only a car behind me on one occasion, and they were far enough behind to not collide after my sudden braking.

NHTSA ID

11623209

Incident

Oct 20, 2024

As I was backing out of my driveway, I noticed my camera started flashing a green screen and a message appeared intermittently with the flashing green screen saying ‘no camera signal try again later. This lasted the entire time I was backing up including once I shifted into drive then it disappeared. I feel that this is a safety risk to others who may be walking or driving by me if I am unable to use the camera. Clearly I don’t rely completely on the back up camera as I still tend to look at my surroundings as I back up. I am not even certain if someone was behind me if the warning would even work when the camera is acting up. I have not reported the problem to the dealer yet but I will first thing in the morning. The vehicle has not been inspected yet. The warning messages are described in the first paragraph. Today is first time this has happened. I have a video of this but was not able to attach it.

NHTSA ID

11548339

Incident

Oct 4, 2023

I was driving up an incline when I overheated, causing smoke to come out of the transmission case. The vehicle suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, which could have caused an accident or fire. Regarding the transmission, I opened the hood to let the vehicle cool down for an hour.

NHTSA ID

11538359

Incident

Aug 13, 2023

The adaptive cruise control does not engage in a timely fashion when activated. The speed reduces 8-12 mph before it kicks in. Speed always decreases 5 to. 21 mph on every hill. This inconsistency causes traffic to bunch around me. The dealership says nothing can be done to fix the problem. This problem is so frustrating and dangerous that I no longer use the feature.

NHTSA ID

11503418

Incident

Apr 20, 2022

Emergency braking system stopped the car suddenly. There weren't any cars in front of me or next to me. Thankfully I was driving slow through a road in our parking lot and there were no cars behind me. It has only happened once so far. Obviously it startled me and made me wonder how safe the car is to drive. I haven't said anything to the dealer, but plan to when I go in for yearly maintenance in a week. There were no warning lights or symptoms prior to this happening.

NHTSA ID

11501691

Incident

Sep 14, 2022

Two times on a highway, the car engaged the automatic emergency brakes when the driver was driving straight forward. We were not turning, breaking, or accelerating and there were no cars close to our car

NHTSA ID

11497879

Incident

Dec 17, 2022

Cruise control on the 2022 Kona is not viable. In the standard cruising gears the cruise control is unresponsive for a long duration resulting in reductions of speed of up to 11 MPH at highway speeds, in traffic. The response of the cruise control to following a car can take up to 1 minute to actually try and recover speed.

NHTSA ID

11497386

Incident

Jun 20, 2022

This is my 2nd report on the same issue. There is another report from me on the first and I will be discussing this with my Hyundai dealer today. On a 250 mile road trip, on the expressway, two separate times, the car suddenly braked hard and the emergency warning flashed on the speedometer. Each time it was about 3-5 seconds. On the second incident, my passenger thinks she noticed it happening in conjunction with a car appearing on my side. She said the side mirror warning lit up at the same time the car started braking. It could just be a coincidence though. Thankfully, neither time did the brakes fully stop the car, but DAMN, it is very scary when it happens on the expressway and I am very nervous to drive with the feature on.

NHTSA ID

11490731

Incident

Oct 23, 2022

Incident #1: Auto Emergency Breaking System sensed false situation and auto braked nearly causing high speed accident. Caused while exiting I-80 West Bound off ramp with two lanes Ramp that exits. I was in the inside lane and there was another vehicle in the outside lane. Assuming the system thought I was going to turn into the outer car and braked suddenly. Incident #2: Lane keeping system, constantly fights me for no known reason. While in Las Vegas on Flamingo Road on Oct. 10, 2022 the system suddenly jerked the car to the left and nearly into a head-on crash. My family is very lucky to be okay. Car has problems when road markings are not consistent or when using reflectors (vs painted lines) or when there are exits. It's safer to leave the system off in my experience.

NHTSA ID

11488652

Incident

Oct 8, 2022

It is called a "Smart Cruise" and it does not hold the speed. When driving on the interstate and the speed does not hold that would cause a risk of collision by other vehicles that are driving the appropriate speed. I took the car to my Hyundai dealer and a tech drove it. He said he got the same result of not holding the speed it was set at. I was told this is a problem with the Smart Cruise and that there was nothing that could be done at this time. There was nothing to say the cruise control was not working correctly

NHTSA ID

11486593

Incident

Jun 30, 2022

On 9/20/2022 I was driving on the expressway at approximately 60 mph when my car suddenly applied brakes and slowed considerably without reason and started flashing the emergency braking notification with alert noises. The notifications stopped after about 6 seconds and the car did not come to a complete stop, as I probably would not be here today, but it rattled me and now I have lost confidence in my car and feel this can cause a serious accident. The car has 1,322 miles and I have noticed one other incident at speed under 10 mph approaching traffic light.. I called my dealer to let them know. They made a note in my profile because they didn’t think they would be able to do anything. I searched Google and found others have discussed the exact same issue with the same model. This should be addressed! I will be turning this feature off.

NHTSA ID

11485593

Incident

Sep 20, 2022

The lane assist tries to drive me off the road multiple times every day putting the safety of myself and others at risk. The car has not been inspected by insurance or police. The problem has been present since the first week of owning the car.

NHTSA ID

11483593

Incident

Sep 8, 2022

I was driving on the freeway at about speed limit. I was at a safe distance (3 car lengths away) from the car in front of me. The emergency brake activated. It did not stop the car, but I felt a pause in the drive. The message on my dashboard stated "emergency brake activated". A few minutes later, the emergency brake activated again. Again, it did not stop the car, but I felt another pause in the drive. The message "emergency brake activated" also came on the dashboard. I had a passenger in the car.

NHTSA ID

11473339

Incident

Jul 9, 2022

There are multiple issues with the Adaptive Cruise Control: -When setting the cruise control speed, it can drop 10-15 mph until it kicks in. -When a car pulls in front of you with the Adaptive Cruise Control on, it takes to long to recognize it has to slow down and has to abruptly decrease speed when it finally does. -If the Adaptive Cruise Control does slow down because of a driver in front of you and that driver changes lanes, the Adaptive Cruise Control can again take 10-mph drop until it kicks in. https://www.konaissues.com/ https://www.hyundai-forums.com/threads/2022-kona-cruise-control-unusable.680949/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Hyundai/comments/q80vhz/cruise_control_in_2022_kona_limited_is_whack/ https://www.carproblemzoo.com/hyundai/kona/2022/adaptive-cruise-control-problems.php

NHTSA ID

11472535

Incident

Jul 6, 2022

During collision, airbags did not deploy. In attempt to avoid collision, automatic breaks failed and did not stop the vehicle, cruise control continued to attempt to drive the vehicle despite collision warning and did not stop- coupled with my manual breaking, the car did not stop. Car is currently at a tow lot waiting for insurance. My safety was put at risk due to airbags not deploying during serious collision, the breaks malfunctioned. At this time, the car is in the beginning stages of insurance. My car did not display any prior failure features.

NHTSA ID

11467487

Incident

Jun 1, 2022

Adaptive Cruise Control is practical non-functional. There is a major delay when setting the cruise control speed before it actually kicks in. Speed can slow down upwards 10-15 mph below the intended set speed and take roughly 30 seconds. Once it engages its spotty with it's functionality. Depending on traffic scenarios it seems to reset the ability to re-engage cruise control and will again dropping down speed taking 15-30 seconds for before re-engaging.

NHTSA ID

11467012

Incident

Dec 13, 2021

I was driving on the freeway the car in front of me was at least 4 car lengths away. My car flashed emergency breaks and locked it’s breaks coming to a stop on the fast lane of the freeway. Nearly avoided an accident. This has happened twice- both with no reason and no issue in front of me to cause the car to think it needed to suddenly use emergency brakes.

NHTSA ID

11464596

Incident

May 12, 2022

The cruise control does not engage. When setting the adaptive cruise control I have had the car slow down 15-20 mph before turning the cruise control off because traffic is backing up behind me and I become a hazard on the road. I have taken it to 2 different dealerships, the one I purchased the car from and one that is closer to my home as I moved and now live in a different state from where I purchased the car. Both dealerships claimed they were not able to replicate the issue. However, every time I drive the car and try to use cruise control I have the same issue of the cruise control not engaging. The car dashboard's speed indicator is supposed to turn green and make a "ding" sound when you engage the cruise control at the posted speed limit. My car does not do this. The speed limit on the freeway here is 80mph and it will turn green and "ding" at 81mph but still not actually engage and maintain the speed. I have had numerous incidents where cars behind me honk and have to go around because I was slowing down so much. I spoke with another 2022 Kona owner and they stated that they have had the same problem and they were told the same thing by a different dealership that they bought their vehicle from.

NHTSA ID

11449465

Incident

Nov 27, 2021