2021 Ford Mustang Mach E acceleration problems

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Vehicle: 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E Component: Image Processing Module A (IPMA) / Front Camera / Forward Collision Avoidance System The IPMA and front camera system have failed, disabling Pre-Collision Assist, AEB, forward collision warning, and adaptive cruise control while driving. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Warning messages "Front Camera Fault Service Required" and "Pre-Collision Assist Not Available" first appeared August 24, 2022 and have recurred consistently over nearly four years. No accident, physical damage, or obstruction was present at any occurrence. This failure puts safety at risk by silently disabling AEB and forward collision warning during normal driving — systems a driver may depend on in an emergency braking situation with no advance notice they are unavailable. The problem was confirmed by a Ford dealership in February 2026. Their repair order documents: "RAN IPMA SELF TEST AND FOUND DTC SET U3000-49... HARDWARE TEST FAILED... FOUND TSB RELATED REC REPLACE MODULE." The dealer contacted Ford, who authorized 50% off the module replacement only, characterizing it as a "loyal customer discount" rather than a warranty or goodwill repair. I declined to pay for the fix. NHTSA Campaign 11028164 (superseding TSB 25-2156) covers this exact failure. Ford's own TSB acknowledges the defect and the dealer confirmed it applies to my vehicle, yet owners are being quoted up to $8,000 for a known safety system failure. I'm requesting NHTSA investigate whether this warrants a recall. First occurrence: August 24, 2022 (mileage not recorded) Service visit: February 17-18, 2026 at 80,029 miles Current mileage: 83,988 Attachments: photos of both fault messages, dealer invoice

NHTSA complaint #11734458 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

When in cruise control, any speed, car suddenly accelerates This happens while driving, or sometimes after stopping and then resuming previous set speed. For example I was driving in cruise control at 38 mph, when the car suddenly sped to 50mph. Or when on a highway, driving at 55mph, the car suddenly accelerated to 70mph. Started about 3 weeks ago.

NHTSA complaint #11689770 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

A KNOWN faulty camera problem for 100s of Ford EVs. Starts off as very intermediate warnings until it stops working all together. This problem doesn't allow you to use cruise control and a host of other standard safety features. This should be a recall, I can't imagine someone getting hurt or worse because ford isn't getting ahead of this thing.

NHTSA complaint #11672810 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Was driving and suddenly all errors started popping up Hill start assist warning 1 pedal driving unavailable Pre collision assist not available Antilock brake fault, etc Lost braking power, steering got stiff, accelerated suddenly.

NHTSA complaint #11666168 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

It accelerated unexpectedly with no input while decelerating in one pedal drive mode. Cruise control was not in use at all during the drive.

NHTSA complaint #11623040 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Front camera stopped working after a long period of working intermittently (started to happen after passing warranty at 30,000 miles). Without that camera many safety features are disabled, like a front collision warning, lane departure, cruise control with adoptive speed, emergency breaking. The cable and processor issue was confirmed by Ford dealership service.

NHTSA complaint #11619109 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

The car is frequently but intermittently reporting a failure with the front camera: "Front camera fault Service required". When this happens, the adaptive cruise control and other ADAS are disabled, which is a safety hazard while driving the car, especially at highway speeds. This issue began very infrequently in March 2024 and now happens on the majority of trips when driving the vehicle. I took the car to a Ford service center for repair. They did a software update on the car and told me that they were sure that the update would fix the issue. The front camera fault re-occurred within a week after having the software update done.

NHTSA complaint #11614635 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Received intermittent warnings that the front collision warning system, cruise control and front camera were not working. The problem I think began after having my roof/windshield removed/reglued under recall. It was intermittent and I could not tell if software updates were resolving the problem, but then the problem became permanent at which time my car was out of warranty. Which does not seem fair since the problem began during the warranty period,. likely as a result of the windshield recall.

NHTSA complaint #11613817 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Received a front camera fault warning in the car. The fault disables the safety feature of pre-collision-collision assist. Had an independent service center check it out, they let me know there is a TSB from ford. Waiting for the a scheduled appointment.

NHTSA complaint #11613323 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

I am getting a warning in the car that the front camera is failing. The warning includes an error that the front camera failed, and that the forward collision is unavailable. Each time this happens, this causes the cruise control, lane centering and lane departure systems to disengage, which means the vehicles hard brakes at highway speeds when this happens. It disabled forward collision detection when this happens. Ford has TSB for this but when I took it in for repair/replacement they said it wasn't covered by anything and charged for the fix.

NHTSA complaint #11603322 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Having completed the high voltage junction box recall with the Mach-E a week or so before, I was braking in order to complete a left-turn in one-pedal drive mode (therefore lifting my foot off the accelerator causing the vehicle to slow down). I received a notification as I did so that one pedal drive mode had a fault and was deactivated (this appeared on the screen by the steering wheel). This caused the car to lurch forwards, as it shifted from OPD to standard drive mode. Fortunately no cars were ahead of me and I was able to quickly slow the vehicle by braking, but I'm alarmed as to what would have happened had this been in traffic.

NHTSA complaint #11585092 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

The 2021 Mustang Mach-E has repeatedly shown these "Pre-Collision Assist" and "Front Camera Fault" errors ever since we got it 6 months ago. The errors can come and go multiple times during any drive. For my wife it is just an annoyance since she never uses Adaptive Cruise. But for me or anyone else using Adaptive Cruise, it becomes a safety concern because this error suddenly cancels the cruise and being an EV it begins regenerative breaking and slowing down much faster than other drivers expect while its driver must react as quickly as possible to return to pedal control. It's my understanding that this is starting to happen on many modern Ford vehicles at around this age and dealership service centers have been given guidance on fixing it. Ours has been in for this service and the error is still occurring.

NHTSA complaint #11581896 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

I drove the car to work with no issues. I left work a little over 9 hours later. I was able to enter car without issues. Turned on car and didn’t notice any issues. My phone connected as usual via CarPlay and I navigated home. Leaving the work area is low speed, so I never exceeded 20 mph and just went by feeling, but once I was on a more open stretch of road, I noticed that the instrument cluster was frozen and the speed it was displaying felt too slow compared to how I felt I was going. In essence, I couldn’t tell how fast I was going. After closer examination (mind you I was driving while figuring this stuff out), I noticed that the instrument cluster would update once in say 10seconds or so (but it was variable). I tried to set cruise control to initiate blue cruise, but I couldn’t tell what speed cruise control was being set to due to this enormous lag. I also wasn’t sure if the system would also exhibit this lag. Finally, I noticed that even the lights indicator for the blinker would refresh very slowly but the audible “click” associated with the blinker was normal. The drive home was very distracted and painful due to this issue. I documented the behavior in a video if needed.

NHTSA complaint #11563672 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

I have complained several times with Ford Dealers to fix the issues involving my vehicle accelerating on its own. The vehicle within a week will accelerate on its own 4-6 times when exiting a parking spot or my driveway.

NHTSA complaint #11562009 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

After transitioning from i35 south, to Highway 183 towards Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the auto-pilot (Ford Blue Cruse) fails, the speedometer fails, the battery level indicator fails, the instrument cluster fails, cruse control picks a random speed and struggles to keep it, lane keep assist is erratic at best. This occurs every time, and in both directions, I take my vehicle on that highway. I took a video of it this last time, and offered it to Ford. They recommended I file this report with this agency.

NHTSA complaint #11559298 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Vehicle in Adaptive cruise will unintentionally accelerate when a motorcycle is lane splitting to the right of the vehicle, causing the vehicle to accelerate towards a slowing or stopped vehicle. This puts me and other motorists at risk of a crash.

NHTSA complaint #11554545 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

There is a software problem which was introduced in a previous OTA which causes drive modes to change. These drive modes are Whisper, Engage, and Unbridle. Each has their own acceleration/throttle response characteristics, as well as steering and suspension feel. You also have the ability to enable one-pedal drive in the drive mode menu. The software bug will randomly throw an error on the main screen that says "Drive Mode Not Available" change your drive mode from Whisper or Unbridle to Engage, affecting the throttle response that can occasionally lead to unintended acceleration. On occasion, it can also lead to disengaging of the one-pedal drive mode at the same time, which can cause the vehicle to not slow down when the foot is lifted off the accelerator. If the driver is unaware that 1PD has become disengaged unintentionally (which cannot be re-engaged without power-cycling the vehicle), it could lead to a crash as the driver is not expecting to use the brake pedal. In a moment's notice situation, it could be deadly. The vehicle has not been inspected, however, this problem has been reported by many other Mustang Mach-E owners. I will link my forum post at the end of this report which has other claims of this fault. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. It cannot be easily reproduced as it is entirely random. Yesterday (11/8/2023 @ 1:40 EST), I was pulling into a parking spot with concrete posts around it. This time, it happened as I was turning into the spot. I was in Whisper mode this time. I noticed the car SPED UP a bit as I was letting my foot off the accelerator, and I had to slam on the brakes. Sure enough, "Drive Mode Not Available" was up on the screen. I was about 1 inch away from this concrete post. If my reaction time was just a bit slower in hitting the brakes, the vehicle would have crashed itself, relatively outside of my control. https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/huge-safety-issue-1pd-drive-mode-not-available.31712/

NHTSA complaint #11554311 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

The front camera system has failed. The cables need replacing, which was diagnosed by a Ford dealer. I have no collision assist, no cruise control, no lane keeping abilities, nothing that has to do with the camera in front. This is a known problem that Ford is not admitting to. All years of the Mach-E are having this issue, frequently. It has put myself and others on the road in danger by not being able to function as it should. Every time I turn the car on I get multiple warnings on the dash concerning these issues. This is not the only problem and safety issue I've had with this car in less than 9 months of owning it. Something must be done to hold Ford accountable.

NHTSA complaint #11541333 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

I had my 2021 Mustang Mach-E updated with the recall software last year. In July of 2022, my High Voltage Battery Junction Box (HVBJB) still failed, giving me a service vehicle soon and SEVERELY reducing power WHILE driving. I was on the freeway and my car just started reducing speed since I was trying to pass someone and I almost hit them. I received the new HVBJB from my dealer and had been fine since. Then a couple of weeks ago, I received the errors AGAIN with this "new and improved" HVBJB that Ford said is more robust and not supposed to fail. Same thing, on the same freeway I commute (73 toll road in California). I was passing someone and the car hit me with all these errors and SIGNIFICANTLY reduced my power. Like 66% reduction. I had to get back into my lane and was able to get back a safe speed but you basically have no power to pass. This is unacceptable. I received the "new" part and yet get a failure AGAIN? On a normal commute, not at the track, accelerating to show off the EV acceleration, just DRIVING! Please make them fix this for real. My dealer said there was a new bulletin that came out after my first repair that has an updated part number, but it is not a true revised part, meaning the internals are actually differnt, it is more a housekeeping part number update due to something as simple as the sticker being in a different spot, some backend thing, etc. There has been no revision to the components that fail since they "fixed" the part back in 2022.

NHTSA complaint #11539777 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Erratic behavior when semi-autonomous Blue Cruise engaged. Fault may be due to failures/malfunctions in side view mirror camera modules.

NHTSA complaint #11525546 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

All of the advanced safety features have stopped working in my Mach E The curse control does not work either the adaptive or the standard. The pre-collision system is not working, lane assit is not working. The absence of these working systems is a danger. Ford knows about this software problem with the software, however they refuse to fix the problem at there expense. The Mach E was designed from the ground up as software driven, the manufacture should be responsible to ensure that the software is up to date.

NHTSA complaint #11514740 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Unintended acceleration from a stop when pushing accelerator. Has happened 2 times in the last 2 days. I touched the throttle from a stop 2 time and it took off like I put the accelerator to full throttle (which I didn’t). Very dangerous situation in parking lots or around pedestrians. I have scheduled an apt with my local dealer.

NHTSA complaint #11511215 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

The car shows front camera fault disabling all collision safety features as well as cruise control.

NHTSA complaint #11507431 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

Front Camera Fault & Pre-Collision Assist Not Available Error messages since August 2022 around the time after a recall for windshield reglue.

NHTSA complaint #11503102 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

* On October 16th, 2022, at about 7:00 pm, I was driving my 2021 Ford Mach-E GT when we began to change lanes (we were in the left lane heading East) as the vehicle in front of us slowed down to make a left-hand turn. There was a car behind us and two vehicles in the right lane (two-lane road in each direction) that were a few car lengths behind us as we began to change into that lane. When I turned on my signal and turned the steering wheel, I pressed the gas pedal to accelerate to get around the car in front of me to keep my distance from the vehicles in the lane I was transitioning into. Unfortunately, when I pressed the gas pedal, we experienced complete vehicle failure. I had no steering, brakes, or acceleration. Within a short time (30-45 minutes), we had no power as the lights on the vehicle, and all electrically powered devices and components were entirely out. This made it very difficult to tow the car as it is all-wheel drive, and we could not put it in Neutral to pull the vehicle. As this happened, five cars were in the area, and several had to swerve and fly off the road onto the dirt shoulder. We barely missed the car in front of us, and the car behind us had to lock up its breaks not to hit us. Our car gradually slowed down and cost off the road about 50 yards or so after losing power, as it was very difficult to get the vehicle to steer; it took everything I had to turn the wheel to get it off the road. We put on the emergency blinkers, but the vehicle lights flashed erratically inside and outside the car. We had over a dozen warnings flash on our dashboard about vehicle failure. The speakers in the car were making a thumping sound on their own as the car was flashing headlights, brake lights, and flashers on their own and very sporadically. It was like a disco club in the car as all the lights were flashing on and of at a rapid rate. The other cars stoppe and were very angry at us as the screamed at us that we almost caused an accident.

NHTSA complaint #11493140 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.

VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL

I keep receiving a fault for the front camera which seems to be a very common occurrence amongst Mach-e owners lately. After receiving this message, the cruise control abruptly kicks off. All functions of the cruise control do not work in this instance…adaptive, speed keeping, lane control, etc. This fault happens about once every couple of minutes while driving. When I’m using cruise control in ‘one-pedal’ drive mode and this fault occurs, the vehicle immediately starts braking. This happened one time as I was entering a narrow bridge in Solomons, MD, and a car behind me nearly rear ended me.

NHTSA complaint #11490513 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.