[JudahTribe7]

Purchased my Ascent 22 DAYS ago. Yesterday I was traveling 45 mph (nothing in front or near me) and thankfully I wasn't on the highway or I would've been killed. At 45 mph my Ascent with NO warning, lights, bells or whistles started to severely jerk back and forth so hard that the tires were screeching with each jerk. Cars are whizzing by.

The Ascent was losing power too and I'm in the middle of the street with no where to pull over. Instinctively I lightly tap the brake and the car slides across the road. The brakes lock and the steering wheel locked. Was able to coast to a gas station and call a tow that took it back to the dealership. This morning I filed a complaint with Subaru Corp. They're calling it a "lemon complaint"!

 

[thesun]

Purchased my Ascent 22 DAYS ago. Yesterday I was traveling 45 mph (nothing in front or near me) and thankfully I wasn't on the highway or I would've been killed. At 45 mph my Ascent with NO warning, lights, bells or whistles started to severely jerk back and forth so hard that the tires were screeching with each jerk. Cars are whizzing by.

The Ascent was losing power too and I'm in the middle of the street with no where to pull over. Instinctively I lightly tap the brake and the car slides across the road. The brakes lock and the steering wheel locked. Was able to coast to a gas station and call a tow that took it back to the dealership. This morning I filed a complaint with Subaru Corp. They're calling it a "lemon complaint"!

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh wut

 

[John Harrington]

Purchased my Ascent 22 DAYS ago. Yesterday I was traveling 45 mph (nothing in front or near me) and thankfully I wasn't on the highway or I would've been killed. At 45 mph my Ascent with NO warning, lights, bells or whistles started to severely jerk back and forth so hard that the tires were screeching with each jerk. Cars are whizzing by.

The Ascent was losing power too and I'm in the middle of the street with no where to pull over. Instinctively I lightly tap the brake and the car slides across the road. The brakes lock and the steering wheel locked. Was able to coast to a gas station and call a tow that took it back to the dealership. This morning I filed a complaint with Subaru Corp. They're calling it a "lemon complaint"!

What dealership we talking about here? I'd like to call and verify this one. How did you not hit another car and how in the heck did you "coast" into a gas station with locked brakes and steering? So, what's the dealer doing for you? SOA?

 

[JudahTribe7]

John - It's Carr Subaru near Portland, Oregon. Sales people there are great but Service Department is already making excuses. Subaru Corp tell me that at the end of the day... they will decide what will be done for me not Carr. I've requested it be sent back to the manufacturer. Since the car never actually turned all the way off.. I still had a little power hence how I coasted to the gas station up ahead. After it slid across the road (locked up) it was like the brakes and steering were revived. Nothing short of a miracle that I was the only one in my lane and the other cars whizzed by so fast in the other lane as I was breaking down. Srvc Mngr told me that the black box and all of the computer chips have been removed and sent to the Engineers at HQ.

 

[John Harrington]

John - It's Carr Subaru near Portland, Oregon. Sales people there are great but Service Department is already making excuses. Subaru Corp tell me that at the end of the day... they will decide what will be done for me not Carr. I've requested it be sent back to the manufacturer. Since the car never actually turned all the way off.. I still had a little power hence how I coasted to the gas station up ahead. After it slid across the road (locked up) it was like the brakes and steering were revived. Nothing short of a miracle that I was the only one in my lane and the other cars whizzed by so fast in the other lane as I was breaking down. Srvc Mngr told me that the black box and all of the computer chips have been removed and sent to the Engineers at HQ.

Hmmm, interesting. That's some sh-t. Well, it's good that SOA is handling it to be honest, they have a lot more resources at their beck and call and I have no doubt they'll take care of you. I'm sure they'll go through the electronics (everyone should realize that these things track every single thing you do and record every place you go - all cars do now) and see what caused this issue. Thank goodness you're ok and no harm came to anyone. Hopefully this isn't any kind of bug that's out there.

 

[Dandy]

Purchased my Ascent 22 DAYS ago. Yesterday I was traveling 45 mph (nothing in front or near me) and thankfully I wasn't on the highway or I would've been killed. At 45 mph my Ascent with NO warning, lights, bells or whistles started to severely jerk back and forth so hard that the tires were screeching with each jerk. Cars are whizzing by.

The Ascent was losing power too and I'm in the middle of the street with no where to pull over. Instinctively I lightly tap the brake and the car slides across the road. The brakes lock and the steering wheel locked. Was able to coast to a gas station and call a tow that took it back to the dealership. This morning I filed a complaint with Subaru Corp. They're calling it a "lemon complaint"!

After all of that, I am just happy to read that you and everyone around you are safe. As frustrated as you are, you also seem to realize how lucky you are to be alive, safe and uninjured , remember that feeling.

To me, this sounds like it would be some sort of eyesight malfunction seeing as it was taking over the steering and braking. As nice as the tech and safety features are, these are concerns that I have. If the technology fails, God only knows what happen. That said, I personally know 2 people that will always drive an eyesight equipped Subaru as they both feel it has saved them from injury or death.

Again, glad you are safe and able to return to you family. Hopefully you have java brown seats so the stains are not noticeable. :grin: I think I would have crapped my pants.

 

[DixieGent]

Scary. Very scary. I’m just wondering if you have mobile WiFi and if it’s possible a hacker gained access to your system? I’ve seen news reports of hackers that can remote control car functions.

 

[John Harrington]

Scary. Very scary. I’m just wondering if you have mobile WiFi and if it’s possible a hacker gained access to your system? I’ve seen news reports of hackers that can remote control car functions.

While the ability to hack is real, the only ones who have been successful are experts who have a ton of time and inside access to these systems to do it. I highly doubt that's what caused this. That said, if you park outside, make sure to keep your fobs in a Faraday cage.

 

[tneur]

Glad to hear that you survived what I'm sure was a heart stopping event. I don't worry too much about little issues being identified liked doors that don't open but this kind of issue gets my full attention. There was someone else on the forum who had a somewhat similar issue with car stopping in traffic. See below. I think the title was something about 1/8 tank of gas so its a bit of a misnomer.

Originally Posted by m&k View Post
I don’t appreciate the previous message. Would it crack you up if your family almost got creamed on the road when your new car decided to stop running? THERE WAS NO LOW FUEL WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED. And as mentioned before, it restarted and drove to a gas station with no issue, thus there was fuel in the tank.

Per the service dept, The car has been confirmed to have thrown an error code in the computer indicating it actually STALLED out but with no other reason indicated. A factory service engineer has been dispatched to come look at it. It’s a real issue, thank you. You all should be wary and concerned.

 

[DixieGent]

While the ability to hack is real, the only ones who have been successful are experts who have a ton of time and inside access to these systems to do it. I highly doubt that's what caused this. That said, if you park outside, make sure to keep your fobs in a Faraday cage.

You may be right, but this article from 3 years ago implies all you need is an IP address.

https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

Imagine what they can do today...

:sad:

 

[pilot1226]

I'm subscribing to this. It sounds like an Eyesight malfunction? Please post your results here, good or bad.

 

[zegilbert]

Whoa - subscribing as well. Very interested to hear root cause and very glad all are ok.

 

[traildogck]

It's an overall Nannie's gone off reservation. There are all kinds of steering and braking control linked to the safety and traction systems on the car. Imagine the lane assist and VDC braking happening on the same front wheel, for no reason. It's no hack, its bugs in the system, growing pains, and new model development and release. Some units are not ready for prime time.

It was probably very scary. Get a new car if the 1st fix (extensive IMPO, and likely to lead to other issues) doesn't work.

 

[lassetjus]

Look up the lemon law in your state. It will allow you to get a full refund on the car depending on the law in your state.

 

[Brian Haugen]

As Dandy said, this sounds like an EyeSight issue. You better believe Subaru is going to be all over this checking to make sure any issues with EyeSight are found and fixed. It would be a marketing nightmare if this was a widespread issue, so they'll want to get ahead of any issues as fast as possible; especially since the EyeSight system is going to be in all of their vehicles.

 

[buton]

Wow... very scary to read this. I am glad that you are OK. dont let your guard down, you deserve a new car, if not, go to the news or something....


please update us on how subaru handles this..

thanks

 

[Jonoton]

Worrisome to read something like this!

Similar experience (new gadgetry causing a near-hit incident)

This weekend I was driving my wife's Ascent, coming back from the airport and traveling through some construction areas. One area (DFW) of construction involved lanes being rearranged, such that there were new lane markings dividing the three West bound lanes, but the old lanes were still perceptible to the eye and the rumble strips on the outside of the lanes were still there. The Ascent lane assist saw fit to steer me to the right, following the old lanes! I crossed the new dividing line with my right wheels before I reacted and corrected, and thankfully there were no other cars directly to my right. Had a cop been behind me, it would have probably earned me a traffic stop on suspicion of drunk driving.

 

[pashi266]

Subscribed!!
Looks like this is the first ever incident of Eyesight malfunction in the history??

 

[Snowgirl]

Worrisome to read something like this!

Similar experience (new gadgetry causing a near-hit incident)

This weekend I was driving my wife's Ascent, coming back from the airport and traveling through some construction areas. One area (DFW) of construction involved lanes being rearranged, such that there were new lane markings dividing the three West bound lanes, but the old lanes were still perceptible to the eye and the rumble strips on the outside of the lanes were still there. The Ascent lane assist saw fit to steer me to the right, following the old lanes! I crossed the new dividing line with my right wheels before I reacted and corrected, and thankfully there were no other cars directly to my right. Had a cop been behind me, it would have probably earned me a traffic stop on suspicion of drunk driving.

This happened to me during the test drive and I FREAKED out! The salesman was like oh yeah you might want to turn lane keep assist off in road construction... fine time to tell me! Haha! To be honest when we purchased our 16 legacy I got the limited and without eyesight! I personally could care less if the ascent had it, and to be honest while in theory seems great, I like to be in control of my driving so will probably not ever have these features on! This post just confirmed my worst fears!

 

[leky411]

You may be right, but this article from 3 years ago implies all you need is an IP address.

https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/

Imagine what they can do today...

:sad:

It is a bit more complicated than needing just an IP address. There are lots of internals at play on top of just having an IP address. ISP provided IP's rotate, they charge extra for a static address. Then your internals live on their own IP space. It took them months to figure out how to do it on a single car.

Unfortunately this is an issue with IOT (Internet of things) devices such as those smart fridges. Manufacturers stop support with updates. Out of date devices have all sorts of holes in them. Subaru has taken a forward step. You can update your car without going to the dealer. I believe the system isn't fully functional over Wifi but it does work through the Aha app.

Keeping devices up to date is the only way to stay ahead.

Also this line " disabled my brakes, honked the horn, jerked the seat belt, and commandeered the steering wheel." What portion of the seat belt has a motor to let you jerk the seat belt?