Owner-reported complaints naming the driver-assistance system, filed with NHTSA
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Reports naming forward-collision avoidance, lane keeping, back-over prevention, cruise control and related electronic driver-assistance systems. Every record below is an owner-reported complaint about the 2026 Kia Sportage submitted to NHTSA — not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. 8 reports on file name it.
Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.
Shown in the owner’s own words, exactly as filed
Wiring harness keeps getting chewed up by rodents in engine bay. Had to have Kia fix 2 times for the parking distance sensors. Have done lots of prevention things to keep from engine bay, but attracted to this vehicle. My 2 other vehicles no problems. They are not Kias. It causes loss of driver assistance systems.
While adaptive cruise was engaged, the vehicle read Alabama highway 80 west state road sign and incorrectly interpreted the sign for a speed limit sign which is 55 MPH.The vehicle displayed a “80 MPH” speed limit sign on the instrument cluster and then began to accelerate. When I took it to the dealer for repair, the “turned off safety feature”.
My car had begun to accelerate when pressing the brake pedal. The first time it happened the car kinda stuttered as it fought itself, but the car stopped. That was also the only time it stuttered and corrected itself. The next few times it happened, the car was not as easy to control but was able to stop safely. I took the car in to the dealer to have it checked, but the problem could not be replicated. I even told the dealer the date and time of one of the events and they weren't able to do anything with that information. Just hours after I picked up the car from the dealer, it happened again. Only my daughter was driving and the car just took off as she was braking. She wasn't able to stop it, and the fail-safes that are supposed to avoid accidents and force the car to stop never kicked in. We rear-ended someone not going very fast since she was far away from them when she began to brake. But since the car started accelerating, it was enough force to have both airbags deploy and wreck the car. Kia Corporate requested that we send the ACU to them, but when no one was available who could do that, they said their hands were tied and wished me well. The insurance company offered to have them send someone qualified to pick it up, but they just washed their hands of the entire case. My case # with Kia is 26150176. Had this been the only car affected, I would be less concerned... but my husband's 2025 Sportage SX-Prestige has also been having the same issue and also has an open case with Kia Corporate. He's just had better luck in stopping the car once it takes off. And the dealer looked over it and tried replicating the issue in his car too with no luck. His case # with Kia is 26150395. The strange thing though is that this issue started happening to both cars very suddenly. I had had my car for 9 months before it was totaled, and it only started happening to both cars less than a month before the accident.
When attempting to disengage the cruise control, I must apply sufficient force as to actually apply the brakes. My expectation is that a simple tap on the brake pedal would release the cruise control and begin a coasting mode. This is not the case; the SUV continues at the same forward speed until I press the brake pedal the second time a little harder.
Comparing this 2026 KIA Sportage to what I have in the garage with 2019 Lexus RX 350, 2018 MB E300, and 2021 Honda CRV, the front collison of this KIA does not work as it should. If I keep moving the vehicles toward a car, the collision avoidance should give me a warning an brakes for me, however, this 2026 KIA Sportage does not respond at all. In addition, in order for the front sensors on the bumper to work, I need to press on the brake. The dealer said that there is nothing with this system and there is no way to prove it unless I ram into another car.
I was stopped in the left hand turn lane, then accelerated to cross 2 lanes of traffic. I then let off the accelerator, and applied the brakes to stop, and the brakes did not function. I then rear ended a vehicle in front of me due to the intermittent loss of brakes. It may have also been the propulsion system kept going. Either way the vehicle maintained the same speed of about 15mph until I collided with the vehicle in front of me which stopped me. The brakes worked fine again after the collision. There also was no Forward Collision Avoidance system that was triggered in any way. This vehicle is a Rental Car.
I am reporting a potential safety issue involving the lane assist system on our Kia Sportage. On Monday morning, my wife was driving on a straight road and began turning left onto a side street. During the turn, the vehicle’s lane assist system suddenly applied a strong steering correction. The steering wheel jerked unexpectedly and momentarily resisted the driver’s attempt to correct the steering. This sudden steering intervention caused the vehicle to veer toward a guardrail, resulting in a collision. The driver did not intentionally steer toward the guardrail and attempted to correct the vehicle, but the steering wheel resisted input at the moment the lane assist system intervened. A dashcam in the vehicle recorded the incident, and the responding police officer reviewed the footage at the scene and concluded that the steering wheel jerked toward the guardrail. The police report notes that the accident appeared to involve a possible vehicle malfunction. After the incident, we discovered that this vehicle is included in NHTSA Campaign 26V046000, which states that a software error may cause the instrument panel display to fail to show critical safety information such as warning lights. If a malfunction warning occurred but was not displayed, the driver would not have been aware of a problem with the system. The lane assist feature in this vehicle also automatically reactivates each time the vehicle is started, meaning the driver cannot permanently disable it. Because the steering intervention occurred unexpectedly during a normal turn and resulted in a collision, we are reporting this incident so it can be reviewed as a potential safety defect involving the lane assist or related vehicle systems.
I turned on my vehicle and began driving in Philadelphia. I noticed the dashboard where the speedometer was supposed to be was dark. The Apple car play on the right side of the dashboard was on but no other components were visible. Such as turning signal, lane keep assist, speedometer, etc. I was on the highway and this was extremely scary. This vehicle has less then 200 miles. I’ve taken it to Kia and they are looking into it. But this is a big concern. I have videos of this but it won’t let me add them to this file.
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.
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