149 complaints reported

2017 Honda CR-V FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE

Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.

Reports
149
Crashes
2
Fires
0
Injuries
5

Complaint Timeline

Chronological view of owner reports

Nov 2025

Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) Is automatically warning and has engaged when no object is ahead. Seems to be picking up overhead/over roadway traffic signals and signage.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Nov 2025
Nov 2025

The CMBS system malfunctions and phantom brakes when there isn’t anything obstructing the road. It has done it 5 or 6 times, and the dealership can’t do anything to fix it.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2023
Oct 2025

Driving down an in town road going approximately 35 mph with no cars within 5 car lengths front side and back when I hear three beeps and my car brakes hard on its own and then continues. It was scary and I pulled off the road to a parking lot to turn the car off and on. While today I didn’t have anyone tailgating me, this could have easily been a bad accident in town traffic. I plan to contact my dealer tomorrow to report and have safetysystem checked and adjusted. I see that others have experiences like this and online was advised to report this.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Oct 2025
Aug 2025 Injury

My vehicle braked hard on its own as I approached a metal pot hole cover in the street. It also flashes a BRAKE warning when I cross over shadows, such as from an overpass.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2022
Aug 2025

In 2 separate incidents, the vehicle has applied the brakes on its own, with no obstacle in sight ahead of it. One time the braking brought the vehicle to a complete stop, the other time it started hard braking, then the braking stopped. Both times were in daylight with no animals or any other object ahead of the vehicle. One of the incidents nearly caused a collision with a vehicle following from the rear that would not have been expecting the sudden stop.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2025
Jun 2025

Within the past 2 months, while driving the car I have experienced 2 instances with the CMBS system unexpectedly applying the brakes, even though there was no obstacles it's path.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Mar 2025
Jun 2025

while driving on a clear day, i went under a bridge on a downhill slope and the car flashed the brake warning and applied the breaks automatically almost causing the car behind me to hit me. Dealer has not been able to reproduce the issue. this has happened a few times. once on the highway and another time slowly going through a construction site where there was a dip in the road. the last issue happened on 9/27/2025. the first issue was in March of 2024

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2025
Jun 2025

While I’m driving the car suddenly breakes.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jun 2025
Apr 2025

The AEB system is falsely being triggered, causing a sudden stop or drastic slow down of my CRV when there's nothing present to trigger the system. My car would drastically slow down, nearly causing a rear end collision from another vehicle. I've experience the problem on multiple occasions, in different locations, while going different speeds. The car has not experienced any other electronic or mechanical issue. The warning message did show on the dash as the car came to a halt.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Apr 2025
Feb 2025

Occasionally, for no reason, automatically brakes and issues the brake warning notification despite no traffic in front of the vehicle. When a vehicle brakes for no reason in traffic, the risk is that you will be hit from behind.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2025
Jan 2025

We bought this vehicle new in 2017 and now have about 78K miles on it. Since we have owned it there have been SEVERAL (at least 7) occasions where we are driving along on the highway at 35-70MPH (depending on the speed limit) and the emergency forward collision braking system suddenly applies the brakes for no reason. This has happened during daylight and nightime on the open road with no vehicles or objects anywhere in front of us or close to the side of us and, on a few occasions, nearly causing vehicles behind us to crash into us because the brakes come on unexpectedly and we are unable to do anything about it. Early on, we reported this a couple times to our Honda dealer and we were told, "that can happen if there is blowing rain or snow or even a bird flying buy, it is normal so don't worry about it." Well, it IS something to worry about because it randomly happens again and again, and we recently almost had a huge accident on Interstate 79 because of it! What is most bothersome about this DEFECT in design or implementation is that the driver has no way of knowing in advance it is going to happen because it is a random occurrence with no rhyme or reason behind it, and there is nothing the driver can do to prevent it or minimize its effects! PLEASE, investigate this and force it to be fixed because lives could easily be lost from this phantom braking if none have been lost yet!

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2025
Oct 2024

I was driving my dogs to their grooming appt and they were sitting in the front passenger seat around 10am. I was driving a little under the speed limit of 40. There were no cars in front of me but there was behind and to the left of me driving. I was not approaching a stop sign or stop light, just driving down the boulevard, when out of the blue the emergency automatic breaking system applied the brakes very hard. I had my seat belt on, but my dogs flew to the floor of the front passenger seat. I was so concerned about my dogs I didn’t even look to see if someone almost rear ended me, but there was NOT a collision luckily. I pulled into a parking lot and checked on my dogs. Obviously our safety was at risk because the brakes applied themselves right out on the busy road with no warning at all and for no reason. There was nobody in front of me and no obstructions when the brakes applied themselves. I have not reported this problem to the dealer but I plan to after this incident. It has actually happened a few other times, but I was by myself the other times. Noone has inspected the vehicle and component for this problem, namely because it has not been the cause of an accident or crash so far luckily. There were no warning lamps, messages or symptoms prior to the car activating the emergency braking system, although once the brake was applied the flashing “brake” sign came on the screen. There was no warning for any previous occurence either, as I mentioned this has happened a few times before.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Oct 2024
Oct 2024

Several times the braking system has engaged thinking there was something in the path of the car when there was not. My daughter & I were almost rear ended. It has happened on numerous occasions. Has not been taken in for service for this issue. There was no warning prior to each occurance

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2024
Oct 2024 Injury

Traveling on open road, Collision Mitigation Braking System errantly engaged putting vehicle in a hard, emergency stop condition. Nothing in front of us but empty road. Both driver and passenger were thrown forward. Driver sustained neck whiplash injury. The problem will be reported to dealer on Monday. This is a very know issue with this vehicle. The internet is full of complaints and you have already received hundreds of complaints. Add mine to the list. Please address this.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Dec 2024
Sep 2024

I was driving about 25mph past a school and the car automatically braked for no reason. Nothing was in the road, no cars near me. I’ve driven that road hundreds of times in the past 4 years without incident.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2024
Sep 2024

The collision mitigation braking system malfunctioned. The car would be available for inspection upon request. After the light turned green I entered the intersection, going approx 20mph, when suddenly the car braked on its own without a car/object in front of my vehicle. I could hear the beeping from the collision mitigation system at the same time. Since I did not know the car was about to stop, I was unable to prevent my dog from falling forward and striking the dashboard. Although myself, my dog and the people behind me were at risk, no injuries were sustained. The person behind me was able to stop luckily. I will be scheduling yet another diagnostic with Honda, though I just did that a few months ago when all the warning lights came on. After the injectors were replaced at that time, they were able to turn off the warning lights. I do not believe they will be able to recreate the problem.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jul 2024
Aug 2024

On 6 separate occasions (2 in 2018, 4 in July 2024) my automatic braking system has kicked in when there is no apparent obstruction, vehicle, etc. in front of me. I have not taken the car to the dealer or filed any inspection as no accident occurred and I saw an article online about this happening to the same model and year car and thought I should add my examples to the list.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jul 2024
Jul 2024

On July 19, 2024, I was driving around 30-35 miles an hour. There were no cars close to me either in front or the back or side. My car started to abruptly slow down in a jerking fashion and then the car beeped. It scared me. It didn't stop completely and then the car started moving normally. If a car was behind me, I could have been hit in the rear. The message "brake" did not come on which is supposed to be the first stage in the forward collision safety. This never happened before and now I feel like I have to turn off the safety feature. My 2017 CR-V has 23,000 mi.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jul 2024
Jul 2024

On June 30, 2024 and again July 13, 2024, the BRAKE dash light and sound alarm engaged on clear sunny days (~ 11 am (6/30) and 1pm (7/13). The brake did not engage and so I was able to maintain control of the car, but in both cases I was on a major highway at 50-60 mph. I have previously reported an incident about a year ago (NHSTA issue number: 11530134 reported 7/3/2023). Weather conditions were the same (sunny and dry) and about the same time of the day (midday), however I was on a regular city road traveling about 25-30 mph and the BRAKES light, sound and the physical brakes brought the car to such a hard stop that I moved forward fast enough to engage the seatbelt restraint mechanism.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jul 2024
May 2024

Emergency braking system activated twice in a period of about 5 minutes without any objects/ cars in pathway. Speed approx 40 mph in bright daylight it has never done that before and I deactivated it until I can have mechanic check it out.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: May 2024
May 2024

While driving today, 03/05/2024 my 2017 Honda CR-B suddenly began to break while driving. There were no obstacles in front of the vehicle and no nearby cars. My car continued to randomly break while I was driving continuously and the issue has continued throughout the day. My safety and the safety of others is at risk because the random braking can cause an accident. There were no warning or messages prior to this. The vehicle can be inspected at any time. This issue has not been confirmed with a dealer, but I am reporting it as it has happened and it is concerning.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: May 2024
Apr 2024

While driving at about 35 miles per hour, with no traffic or obstructions ahead of me, the automatic braking system rapidly decreased my vehicle speed to about 5 miles per hour, then disengaged and the vehicle operated normally.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Oct 2024
Apr 2024

I was driving my Honda CRV on a 4 lane highway (2 lanes in each direction) on a clear and sunny day ([XXX]) at approximately 45-50 mph. I had no traffic ahead of me, but cars behind me, when my vehicle slammed on its brakes and dropped my speed to approximately 5 mph. I did hear the beep and saw the "brake" warning statement on my dash display. It released the brakes after the decrease in speed (to approximately 5 mph) and I continued to drive home without any further problems. I'm very fortunate that I didn't get rear ended. I phoned my Honda service adviser and made her aware of the problem (West Herr Honda of Lockport, NY). My vehicle is in excellent condition and has never been in any accidents. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Apr 2024
Apr 2024

3 times this has happened now the latest incident today 4-19-2024. I’m driving along and then all of a sudden the car goes into hard braking mode and the emergency braking light comes on the dashboard. Twice I have almost been rear ended because of this problem. No cars are in front of me at the time. I feel the automatic braking system was not designed correctly. I hope no one gets into an accident because of this defect. This is the last Honda I will ever own.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Apr 2024
Apr 2024

While driving in a 4 lane road up a slight grade my CRV abruptly stopped using automatic emergency braking in front of a metal plate laying in the road the was covering up some construction. I started driving again and the car again stopped abruptly several feet later at another metal plate.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA CR-V, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2020

Trend Over Time

Complaints by year

Quick Summary

The 2017 Honda CR-V has 149 FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE complaints on file. 2 crashes have been reported. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.