8 complaints reported

2021 Honda Odyssey FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE

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

Reports
8
Crashes
1
Fires
0
Injuries
0

Complaint Timeline

Chronological view of owner reports

Sep 2025

My van is braking when there are no cars or dangers in front of it. Sometimes there's a metal plate on the ground or speed bump when it brakes. Other times there's nothing in front. The car slams on the brakes and I cannot override it with the gas pedal. This puts my kids and I in danger of being rear-ended. This most commonly happens around 7:30am or 4pm when I'm taking kids to school or dropping off. I'm often in the carpool like or headed to the school when the car slams on the brakes. It's very frightening. The dealer cannot find an issue and cannot replicate the problem.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2021 HONDA ODYSSEY, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2025
Sep 2025

The children message that the radar is obstructed, I did the clean where is the radar is but the issue still.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2021 HONDA ODYSSEY, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2025
Jan 2025

I was driving in light snowfall when several alerts notifying me that the radar sensor was not working. This is common in snow fall. Later I cleared off the radar unit cover (The Honda logo on the front of the car). The alerts remained. I took it to the dealer and they dubiously told me it was "damaged by snow". This is impossible. It was light snow. There was no collision or impact. This device should be durable. It has no moving parts. But Honda wants me to believe that it simply stopped working from driving in a light snow. They want $1300 to replace. How do I know the next one won't conk out after the first snowfall? These units should have a lifetime warranty with only exceptions for collisions or impact damage. If the unit is damaged by snowfall, it's clearly too fragile and should not be on the market. It's a HUGE safety concern that the vehicle's advertised safety systems can be toppled like a house of cards from one light snowfall.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2021 HONDA ODYSSEY, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2025
Jun 2023 Crash

I was driving through an intersection. My automatic brakes activated for no reason, my car rapidly slowed down in the middle of an intersection, a bus hit my car from behind.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2021 HONDA ODYSSEY, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jun 2023
May 2023

While driving on a straight, wide open road at approximately 45mph with no vehicle in any close proximity in front, the forward Collision Mitigation Braking System alarmed and activated and strongly braked, slowing the car quickly down to about 20mph before releasing. Fortunately, there was no one behind me to react to the unexpected slowing down of my car. There was no apparent reason why this should have activated. The CMBS has activated previously in other non-threatening situations but there was usually a condition where you could justify why it made a mistake, such as being in the left lane of a two lane road which curves to the left and a car in the right lane slows to turn right, my car thinks it is in front of me when it is not. Still, these situations result in a danger of getting hit from behind.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2021 HONDA ODYSSEY, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2023
Nov 2022

Exiting a construction zone (I-70 westbound near Mt. Comfort, Indiana) at approximately 60 to 65 mph, our 2021 Honda Odyssey, without warning, momentarily applied unwarranted automatic emergency braking. The brakes were actuated for (an estimated) one second and resulted in an abrupt (approximately) 10mph reduction in speed. A large SUV traveling directly us was forced to take immediate action by making a sudden lane change in order to avoid a serious collision. The involuntary braking action on the part of the vehicle placed the passengers of both vehicles in grave danger. The only warning indication provided by the vehicle was an orange-box “BRAKE” warning displayed on the dashboard and the accompanying warning beeps, both simultaneous to the actual brake actuation. No indications or warnings appeared prior to or after the actual braking. No obstacle or object on the roadway was visible to either the driver or front seat passenger. All traffic lanes were clear for a minimum of 100 yards ahead of the vehicle. Weather was clear and dry. The pavement was dry and clear of any debris. The construction zone where the incident occurred carries both east and westbound traffic on the normally westbound (north) side of the expressway. The left side of the traffic lanes are lined with continuous, concrete “Jersey” barriers. The incident took place at the western end of the zone, at the point where the westbound lanes expand from two to three lanes. This is approximately where the left-side parallel-to-traffic barriers end and a small, separated section of angled-to-traffic barriers is revealed, along with some other barrier sections in the median area between the roadways. This incident (November 26, 2022) was the second time this malfunction has occurred in same vehicle in approximately the same area on I-70. On August 11, 2022, an essentially identical event took place under similar conditions. The vehicle has not been inspected by Honda or any other authorities.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2021 HONDA ODYSSEY, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Nov 2022
May 2022

On numerous occasions the forward collision warning has caused hard braking when there is nothing close in front of me. I fear that a close following vehicle will hit me when this occurs. This has not caused an accident yet, but the following vehicle driver must think that I'm a terrible driver for unnecessarily hitting my brakes.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2021 HONDA ODYSSEY, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: May 2022
Feb 2022

While driving with no vehicles or obstacles stopped in front of me, my car automatically braked hard.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2021 HONDA ODYSSEY, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2022

Trend Over Time

Complaints by year

Quick Summary

The 2021 Honda Odyssey has 8 FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE complaints on file. 1 crashes have been reported. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.