13 of the 232 complaints about the 2023 Toyota Highlander are about the driver-assist systems — 6% of everything reported for this model year.
13
Complaints
4
Crashes
0
Fires
3
Injuries
Filed with NHTSA, in their own words.
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I was in an accident today in this vehicle . Upon impact, traffic was suddenly stopped on the highway. The air bags didn’t deploy and the automatic emergency breaks didn’t engage. Impact was so hard three vehicles were Involved.
NHTSA complaint #11732855 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
A vehicle turned in front of me as I was going down the highway and I collided with the vehicle at 44 mph. The airbags of my car did not deploy but the airbags of the other vehicle did deploy.
NHTSA complaint #11707839 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
LANE DEPARTURE: BLIND SPOT DETECTION
Blind spot feature is detecting a vehicle two lanes over from the lane I’m driving on. This has caused to almost result in a crash due to this safety hazard. Blind spot is always detecting a vehicle driving two lanes over. Blind spot signal on driver mirror flashes as well when such vehicle two lanes over is detected and I am about to move over to my adjacent lane.
NHTSA complaint #11696386 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL
There is a wobbling sensation on my Highlander during braking at highway speeds. There is no such feeling while driving around city. It appeared after my trip on highway in heavy rain. There was no traffic, and I were using cruise control. Suddenly, doing nothing from my side but steering, I started to feel heavy break impacts, which scared me (I was with my family). I switched off cruise control, and those break impacts disappeared. Then switched it again, and I started to feel the same, thus I switched off cruise control and drove the rest of rain area with my foot on accelerator pedal. After that I started to feel wobbling during braking at highway speeds. It seems - more on the right side. Maybe there was more water layer under the right side of the car, and the Electronic Stability Control tried to hold car on the straight line, or camera detect water on the windshield as an obstacle and applied breaks from time to time, which might case warped rotors. To my understanding it has to be warranty issue, as Toyota manual said that driving during heavy rain can cause unproper action of cruise control, but it does not say it can damage the car or warp the rotors.
NHTSA complaint #11694643 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
I was involved in a vehicle crash on 7-1-25. I had just pulled out of the gas station and was coming up to a stop sign so I was only going about 8mph I put my foot on the brake and nothing happened. I had my foot all the way down on the brake pedal because I saw a car coming and they were traveling at about 40mph. No automatic braking nothing worked. I had no control. I just prayed that I hope this doesn’t hurt. None of my airbags deployed. My car is now totaled and of course I got the ticket because I did not have control of my vehicle. I strongly believe this has to do with the brakes and how it switches from electric to gas in my hybrid vehicle. Toyota has recalled prior years 2020 to 2022 hybrids for this exact issue. This is a huge safety issue and thankfully I am alive to make this complaint. My husband went to my Toyota dealership where I get all my service and the service manager said yes he has noticed this as a problem that he himself pulled in a Toyota Highlander Hybrid into the garage and had the same thing happen. We have been reading online about others complaining of this same issue.
NHTSA complaint #11674853 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
BACK OVER PREVENTION: REARVIEW SYSTEM BRAKING
There are two problems with our 2023 Toyota Highlander. 1) We only have 25k miles on our vehicle and the brake rotors became warped, to the point of causing severe chatter while downhill braking. Toyota stated that the warranty does not cover brakes. My argument was that the brake rotors should not be failing at 25k miles! They then stated that they would inspect the rotors and resurface them, if necessary. They did find that they needed to resurface the rotors. My contention is that this will be a recurring issue, especially since there is even less metal on the rotors now. I believe the original rotors are faulty to have failed prematurely. 2) We had a receiver hitch installed by a third party, which caused the kick sensor for the back hatch to be inoperable. This is expected and no big deal to us. However, when we put the bike rack in the receiver hitch, the backup warning sensors engage the brakes and cause the vehicle to not back up. The only way to back up with the bike rack on is to disable the backup sensors! Now we have lost that backup safety feature! The backup sensors see the bike rack and engage the brakes. Additionally, this issue also caused all other sensors to malfunction by stating that the sensors were dirty and needed cleaning, with the backup sensor engaged. Toyota inspected the vehicle multiple times and finally reached the conclusion that there is no fix for the sensors to allow our bike rack to be installed. Toyota sells this vehicle with the option of having a hitch and bike rack installed, yet their safety sensors don’t allow this to happen. Now, we are unable to use the bike rack, unless we disable the sensors. The safety features we paid for are now useless!
NHTSA complaint #11595873 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
LANE DEPARTURE: BLIND SPOT DETECTION
The warning lights go on for no apparent reason. Dash instrumen just disappear for no apparent reason and then reappear randomly. Such as compass disappearing and reappearing throughout the drive at long stretches at a time. The forward and rear collision warning system just come on when nothing is close to vehicle. The blind spot monitoring system doesn’t always show up on right side of vehicle. Doesn’t matter speed or road conditions. It randomly happens throughout our regular commute and not. The warning buzzer goes off but doesn’t say what is the problem. Went off for over half an hour even when car was stopped and car turned off. Dealership not able to figure out why. Said to bring it in while doing it. By time I get there it’s done. I live 1/2 hour away. They drive it and say blind spot working like supposed to. I showed them videos of how it’s not working and they tell me it’s fine. Yet even a semi truck didn’t show up in blind spot or a UPS truck. They say unless it throws a code every thing is fine. Yet I’ve had clear roads, no rain no traffic nothing and had my collision warning lights and sounds go off and not stop for up to 5-10 minutes.
NHTSA complaint #11590220 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
BACK OVER PREVENTION: WARNINGS
The warning lights go on for no apparent reason. Dash instrumen just disappear for no apparent reason and then reappear randomly. Such as compass disappearing and reappearing throughout the drive at long stretches at a time. The forward and rear collision warning system just come on when nothing is close to vehicle. The blind spot monitoring system doesn’t always show up on right side of vehicle. Doesn’t matter speed or road conditions. It randomly happens throughout our regular commute and not. The warning buzzer goes off but doesn’t say what is the problem. Went off for over half an hour even when car was stopped and car turned off. Dealership not able to figure out why. Said to bring it in while doing it. By time I get there it’s done. I live 1/2 hour away. They drive it and say blind spot working like supposed to. I showed them videos of how it’s not working and they tell me it’s fine. Yet even a semi truck didn’t show up in blind spot or a UPS truck. They say unless it throws a code every thing is fine. Yet I’ve had clear roads, no rain no traffic nothing and had my collision warning lights and sounds go off and not stop for up to 5-10 minutes.
NHTSA complaint #11590220 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST
I was in an accident on [XXX] on [XXX] in Elizabeth, Indiana in front of the casino. They changed a two lane road into a one lane road by using mobile traffic lights. As I tried to brake, the car sped up and the car auto corrected in the lane on the left when I tried to avoid the impact by going right. When I crashed into the other vehicle, my air bags did not deploy. I hurt my back, neck, and chest(from the seatbelt/impact). I had no choice or option to avoid impact. On my left was oncoming traffic. To my right was the River. In the front of me, was the other car. I wore my seatbelt until the 911 operator told me to get out of the car to check on the other driver who said he was fine. The vehicle is a total loss. My Insurance Company, USAA, is in the process of giving me a settlement. I released the car to them. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
NHTSA complaint #11587043 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
LANE DEPARTURE: BLIND SPOT DETECTION
The right side blind spot warning does not always show a vehicle is in blind spot. The forward collision will alert will start and keep beeping for up to 3 minutes when nothing is in the area. I pulled into driveway and the vehicle started to beep a warning but no warning message showed up on dash. It continued for 30 minutes even after I turned off car. Then started it and drove it a mile and parked it again. I get on the overhead view a generalized warring. But doesn’t say what it is then goes away. This has happened a couple of times when driving. All doors shut, all seat belts locked if someone is in seat, it starts after driving for some time. No apparent reason it starts and stops but is a hazard if trying to drive and figure out why it’s beeping like something is wrong. I also have paint chipping off back bumper on the top for no apparent reason. The back liftgate doesn’t always close even when nothing is in the way. It doesn’t always open when you push the button the first time. The crossbars for luggage installed by Toyota does not keep end cap on on drivers side front and I had to pay to get new ones. The problem is the rail does not hold the cap tight.
NHTSA complaint #11576428 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: WARNINGS
The right side blind spot warning does not always show a vehicle is in blind spot. The forward collision will alert will start and keep beeping for up to 3 minutes when nothing is in the area. I pulled into driveway and the vehicle started to beep a warning but no warning message showed up on dash. It continued for 30 minutes even after I turned off car. Then started it and drove it a mile and parked it again. I get on the overhead view a generalized warring. But doesn’t say what it is then goes away. This has happened a couple of times when driving. All doors shut, all seat belts locked if someone is in seat, it starts after driving for some time. No apparent reason it starts and stops but is a hazard if trying to drive and figure out why it’s beeping like something is wrong. I also have paint chipping off back bumper on the top for no apparent reason. The back liftgate doesn’t always close even when nothing is in the way. It doesn’t always open when you push the button the first time. The crossbars for luggage installed by Toyota does not keep end cap on on drivers side front and I had to pay to get new ones. The problem is the rail does not hold the cap tight.
NHTSA complaint #11576428 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
LANE DEPARTURE: ASSIST
Engine intermittently has no power on take off and causes an unsafe condition to turning into traffic where car will just not go until after flooring it and a 3-5 second delay!! Engine also looses power and bucks or misses while accelerating through gears. This has caused multiple near miss incidents when turning into or across traffic. Also have issues with the steering assist that it yanks the wheel intermittantly. This cause me to loose control on the wet interstate in a turn when it yanked the wheel to the right while banking left at 65mph. I panicked and pulled the wheel back which cause a skid. The system has been turned off since. Toyota is not doing anything to repair anything and keep giving me the car back saying its fine.
NHTSA complaint #11553206 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
LANE DEPARTURE
******* DELETE VOQ ******* THIS COMPLAINT IS BEING MARKED FOR DELETION BECAUSE IT IS REQUESTED BY THE CONSUMER THAT THEY WISH TO HAVE IT REMOVED*DJR ******* DELETE VOQ *******
NHTSA complaint #11511838 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.