2024 Toyota Grand Highlander

The contact owns a 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle suddenly lost motive power. However, upon releasing, and then reapplying pressure to the accelerator pedal, the vehicle returned to normal functionality. Afterward, a message was displayed indicating that both the accelerator and brake pedals were being depressed simultaneously. The contact also stated that later, after dropping his son off for school, the seat belt warning light illuminated indicating that a passenger was not wearing a seat belt though all passenger seats were unoccupied; during this time, the radio failed to function, prompting him to restart the vehicle. After restarting the vehicle, the vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 4,000.

Specifically the model: 2024 Grand Highlander Hybrid Max. immediately new off the dealer lot when driving between 0-40mph, there is a transmission issue. In real life situation of stop and go, and needing to accelerate after making a right turn out of a driveway or stop sign on to flowing traffic, often times it feels as if the gear is shifting too high or skipping causing the car to lose power/ rpm and the vehicle chugs, before skipping back to the correct gearing and accelarating. I'm not sure how to describe it but I feel it is a safety risk especially if there are cars coming behind you. I have taken this into Hamer Toyota 2 times, but they can't seem to recreate the issue. However, my wife goes through this almost every day during her commute to and from work. Imagine driving a manual transmission and accelerating on 1st or 2nd gear, and all of a sudden the gear shifts to 4th or 5th gear, causing loss of power or rpm and due to natural instinct of depressing the accelerator further for power and the gear now shifting back and clutching grabbing at 1st or 2nd gear with the accelerator depressed further down than the beginning. This causes a jerking motion of our body in the car, because the car loses power, the all of sudden jerks back into power. I have attached URLs to people complaining about this besides myself. I'm seeing that toyota released a TBS to update software, but it seems its not readily available every time I call, or they need to recreate this before anything is done. I think this is a big safety concern and eventually cause accidents by getting rear ended. I'm sure other drivers think we can't drive because of not being able to speed up then rocketing forward. help! [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

I have had 2 intermittent issues since I bought this vehicle brand new. 1) Hard, Jerky shifting from 1-2 or 2-3 gear 2) Huge safety issue regarding loss of power and inability to accelerate from a stop even though the car is on and in drive. This has happened to me multiple times and is very intermittent so it is hard to replicate. This has happened when I am attempted to accelerate from a complete stop and the car begins to move but then does not accelerate at all. Almost as if the powertrain shut off even though it was moving under its own power a fraction of a second ago. This has happened to me multiple times with my entire family in the car as we attempted to enter intersections leaving the car powerless with oncoming traffic. Thankfully we were not hit by another car but could have been.

Several times per week, when I go to accelerate after being at a complete stop, my vehicle hesitates and does not pick up power. It very slowly accelerates and feels as if it’s going to stall, then suddenly revs up and accelerates, but revs up higher than it should before finally getting to the appropriate speed/rpm. This is very unsafe as I cannot pull out into traffic, even if I should have time, because I don’t know if it is going to accelerate or not. One of these days I am going to get T-boned! I took it to the dealership and they did a software update that was supposed to fix the issue, but it did not. The issue still happens several times per week. There are no warning lights on the dash. The dealership did not run a diagnostic because they told me I would have to pay for it if no codes came up. I’m not willing to do that, as I feel since the vehicle is under warranty and having issues, the diagnostic should not be my responsibility to pay for. I cannot say a specific date when it occurred (below) because it occurs often.

On high-temperature days, when the A/C is running at full capacity, the vehicle occasionally fails to accelerate from a stop. This issue persists even after applying the recommended ECM update. The lack of reliable acceleration poses a significant safety risk, particularly when turning across oncoming traffic or entering a busy street. This situation can leave the vehicle stalled in the path of approaching vehicles, increasing the likelihood of an accident.

- Vehicle intermittently will not respond or will barely respond when accelerator is depressed from a complete stop or near (rolling) stop. I have noticed this issue mainly when A/C is on high and during hot temperatures. I reside in the Phoenix, AZ area where high temperatures have been ranging around 110-115. - This poses a safety risk when attempting to pull out onto a busy road, either turning left or right. If the gas pedal fails to respond, this could lead to a serious crash. - This issue has arisen following a recent software update that Toyota performed (under service bulletin TSB-0017-24). This update was done to correct a different issue (shifting hesitation between gears when accelerating from 0-40mph), however it seems to have negatively affected the response of the vehicle when starting up from a stop. I have not yet taken my vehicle back to Toyota with this issue, but MANY owners of the HybridMAX are experiencing this same issue as the weather temperatures have peaked. - No warning lights appear when this occurs. The problem arose shortly after I had a software update done at the dealer on June 14, 2024.

while the engine has not warmed up, when its hot and air conditioning is on high, vehicle does not respond to the gas pedal while trying to accelerate from a stop. vehicle hesitates on acceleration. i feel this is a safety problem, because i need the car to merge quickly onto the road from a stop. this hesitation could cause a bad accident. i feel like the hesitation, is the car trying to find the gear.

The vehicle randomly won’t go when starting out from a complete stop. You can push the gas pedal to the floor and it will barely move. Almost got hit in an intersection trying to make a left turn. Toyota is aware of the problem and has a TSB and did an ECM update but the problem persists. It’s scary when it happens. Can’t trust the vehicle.