Which parts fail
Components named in complaints (automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise, lane keeping, backup camera).
Owner reports
Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).
Nothing has happened yet. I want it on record that the implementation of this feature is dangerous. On P.497 of the 2021 CR-V Hybrid's Owner's Manual is the following warning: "Exiting a vehicle that has been stopped while the ACC with Low Speed FOllow system is operating can result in the vehicle moving withoug operator control. A vehicle that moves without operator control can cause a crash, resulting in serious injury or death. Never exit a vehicle when the vehicle is stopped by ACC with Low Speed Follow." The way this feature is implemented, the following scenario is possible: I'm driving in heavy traffic that stops for a long time. I absent-mindedly forget that the CR-V is still in ACC mode and get out of the car to see if I can see what is causing the delay. While away from the car, traffic starts to move, and before I can get back in it, the CR-V drives away. …
We were driving at about 45-50mph on a 4 lane road (2 lanes in each direction) when the car in front of us moved to the right side of the road (bike/turn lane) to make a right turn. There was enough room for the other car to safely turn right without stopping or slowing traffic. The 2021 Honda CRV Hybrid braked suddenly as if to avoid a high speed crash. The collision avoidance feature was on (the car was delivered with the feature activated and it was never turned off.) The car forcefully slammed on the brakes, seatbelts locked up and the driver felt a pop inside the left shoulder blade and neck pain; later in the day, the pain radiated throughout the left side of the back, up to the neck / base of skull and down past the waist. The passenger seatbelt also locked and there were no injuries to the passenger. No passengers or children were in the back seat. …
My family and I were driving down the road, in a gentle left hand turn when the emergency braking system suddenly activated, and our best guess is that it was due to a car well off the road in a parking lot at the same point. A tractor trailer, loaded heavily with electrical transformers was just behind us, and if not for the driver of the truck paying attention we might not all be here today. This has happened many times in other situations, sometimes maybe a dip in the road, sometimes and exit ramp will confuse it, and sometimes I couldn't even guess. So far none have been too bad, but this one was too close. I have attempted to talk to the dealership about it, but they aren't calling me back. I've asked for them to disable the system entirely. There were no warning messages aside from the normal BRAKE message it shows when it activates. …
I was driving the vehicle on route I287 and all of a sudden the break system got activated without touching any button and the car speed was damped down and as a result the car was pulled aside to see what had happened. The break system completely collapsed with a break sign on the dashboard appearing persistently which could not be deactivated or was not able to remove from the dashboard with several attempts made in restarting the engine. Due to the involuntary break activation on highway driving, my life as well others would have been in extreme danger and jeopardized the whole situation in continuing driving further. …
On highway, engaged cruise control at 70 mph. Engine light came on, simultaneously with loss of power (pressing on gas pedal did nothing) and Apple CarPlay disconnect. We were near an exit and managed to drift off, at lower off-ramp speed engine again could respond to accelerator however was chugging very badly. Went to nearby oil change place. Mechanic there advised going straight to dealer a short distance further. Drove on to the Honda dealer, car still chugging and stopped the car until I could talk to the service person. When the car restarted it was no longer chugging. Service person diagnosed the following and said i basically needed a new engine: TECH SCANNED VEHICLE AND FOUND CODES P0300 RANDOM CYL MISFIRE, P0302 CYL 2 MISFIRE. …
As my wife and I were driving downtown at about 20 mph on a regular city street with no cars in front of us, the automatic breaking system suddenly beeped and slammed on the breaks, giving us whiplash. There was clearly some kind of failure in the collision mitigation breaking system. Previously, the orange "BREAK" light sometimes came on the dashboard if you got too close to the car in front but it was always accurate--there always was a car in front of us. But this time it was really startling because there was nothing in front of us and it almost caused an accident because the car behind us obviously wasn't expecting us to stop suddenly. We have a 2021 Honda CRV hybrid and have had no other problems with it. …
While traveling northwest at 37 mph, the automatic brake system engaged jolting the driver. The camera shows no objects in front of but there were two vehicles traveling southeast in the opposite lane prior to the brakes applying. There were shadows from trees. If there was a vehicle behind, and the driver did not react fast enough, this would have been a rearend collision. This is the third time that the automatic brake system engaged for no reason since we have owned this vehicle (Dec 2021) and each time it has been reported to the NTSB. In the past two cases, there were no vehicles or shadows from trees, since we were in the desert. The previous two times, the vehicle was inspected by the dealership with no defect noted (under warranty). There were no dashboard warning notices indicating an issue. …
On Saturday November 16th 2024 I was driving my Honda CRV hybrid year 2021 when about 7:10pm I heard a beep, beep, beep and at the same time the car suddenly breaked in the middle of an intersection; there was nothing in the forward path so I don't really know why the car stopped abruptly. After a few seconds I put my foot in the accelerator and continued to go. When I arrived home I reviewed the videos (I had installed front and rear cameras) and verified that certainly there wasn't anything in front of the car when it braked by itself other than a manhole cover. I was in the car with 2 friends, thankfully no other cars were behind me or coming in any direction otherwise this event would've been catastrophic. Now I am afraid to drive the car because this could happen again and have a different ending. Note: I have videos that show this incident
There have been several occurrences with my 2021 CRV hybrid where the car will start beeping and the word "brake" will flash on my instrument cluster for no reason at all. No cars in front of me at all. This has happened 40-50 times. However there are 4 occasions where the car actually braked suddenly and once to a complete stop and nearly caused a horrible accident. From 65mph to 0 like it thought there was something stopped right in front of me. Even though there were no cars in sight in either lane ahead of me. Luckily no one was right behind me, It could have been much worse. I want to just turn this feature off, and obviously it was a big selling point to me to buy the car so to have it actually cause safety issues instead of solve them is irritating to say the least.
The emergency braking system reacts unexpectedly and unnecessarily. I see there is an investigation for vehicles up to 2019, but my 2021 has done this at least a dozen times since new. My experience seems to indicate that it's often related to a shadow on the road. Could be an adjacent vehicle or simply a large tree or building. It can happen with an asphalt repair that is darker than the surrounding road or even a wet spot. It would also seem to be more likely to happen when driving towards the sunset or sunrise. It nearly caused me to get rear ended this weekend. It stabbed the brakes hard for a shadow on the road with vehicles behind me. Please extend the investigation to the rest of this vehicle's production.
NHTSA investigations
Inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking
On February 21, 2022, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened Preliminary Evaluation (PE22003) to assess reports of inadvertent activation of the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS), an automatic emergency braking (AEB) system, in model year 2017-2019 Honda CR-V and 2018-2019 Honda Accord vehicles.
Collision Avoidance complaints in other CR-V Hybrid years
Frequently asked questions
How common are collision avoidance problems on the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid?
NHTSA has 22 complaints about the driver assistance of the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid, 21% of the model year's 105 complaints. The component named most often is automatic emergency braking (18 mentions).
Is there a recall for 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid collision avoidance problems?
No. NHTSA lists no driver assistance recall for the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid, though it has 3 recalls for other components. If the problem is widespread, a repair may still be covered by an extended warranty or a manufacturer service bulletin — ask a dealer.
Source: U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — owner complaints through October 20, 2026, recalls and defect investigations; fuel economy from the EPA. Complaints are unverified reports and are not proof of a defect. How we rate model years.