Verified government source

NHTSA complaint #11482923

This page summarizes an official U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration owner complaint. Use the verification links below to confirm the record directly with NHTSA.

Vehicle

2021 SUBARU OUTBACK

Manufacturer

Subaru of America, Inc.

Components

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER

Dates

Incident: 02/01/2021
Filed: 09/05/2022

Owner complaint summary

The infotainment system is so buggy and slow it's dangerously distracting. It crashes all the time and takes a few minutes to reboot which is not good when you're using navigation. The volume randomly will go to 100% and the only way to fix it is to restart the car. I've had it happen maybe 10 times. It's very startling and it's painful to the ears. The most dangerous problem with the infotainment system, however, is how inconsistently slow it is. When you tap to open the HVAC menu, for example, it can take 1-45 seconds to open. That means you have to keep your eyes off the road waiting for a response. If you don't, the menu disappears right away. Then when you're waiting for a response, the driver monitor starts beeping loudly and flashes "Stay Alert". Even Subaru's own safety systems think the response time is unacceptable. I called Subaru about the issue but their primary purpose just seems to be deflecting complaints and and gaslighting. We've been expecting fixes for years and it never comes. Either Subaru doesn't know how to fix it or they don't want to. The system falls under the 3/36 warranty which means that by the time the find a fix, most of the cars won't be covered.

This is an owner complaint filed with NHTSA (ODI #11482923). It is not automatically an official recall, investigation outcome, or manufacturer admission unless the complaint text itself describes one.

Official record ID (ODI): 11482923. This page is the human-readable source link used across afterwarranty. The raw JSON link proxies NHTSA's public API for machine verification; prefer this page when reading the complaint.