NHTSA complaint #11503285

Owner complaint summary

Incident 1: While driving to work, accelerated to pass a car on the right going approx 45 MPH. The dash showed a RED "Drive System Fault" and the car would no longer accelerate. The steering was fine and I changed to the left lane. After approximately 5 seconds, the dash and all internal screens when blank. I was able to pull off the main road to the entrance of a housing development and coasted to a stop about 20 feet off the main road. There was no power to turn on the flashers to warning other drivers existing the main road. Total time was approximately 10 seconds from warning light to stopped, dead car and approximately 0.2 of a mile. If this had occurred on a highway or a busy street, the car would have died on the main road WITHOUT any lights to signal other drivers. I called roadside assistance. After two attempts, they were able to "reboot" the car. They said I was able to drive it to work and would have a technician call to setup an inspection. The car was inspected and they said there were no issues found. INCIDENT 2: The next time I drove the car after the inspection, I was driving to work. Shortly after turning onto main street going approx 30 MPH, the RED "Drive System Fault" displayed on the dash. Again, I was not able to accelerate, but steering was fine. After approx 2 seconds, all internal screens went blank. I immediately turned into a Shopping Center entrance. The brakes seemed to apply as the car went from slow to complete stop. Total time was approximately 5 from warning light to stopped, dead car and less than 0.1 of a mile. Although all internal screens were blank, the flashers were able to be turned on. Although the flashers also turned off after 15 minutes. The car could not be "rebooted" and had to be towed. If I had not instantly recognized what was occurring, I would not have got the car off the main road. It is likely that if this occurred on the highway, it would have caused an accident.