"We were afraid someone behind us would crash": an investigation launched into the mystery of "phantom braking"

The hundreds of testimonies that have been piling up since the beginning of July raise the specter of a new scandal in the automotive world. Libération takes stock of the "phantom braking" incidents that are increasing among owners of recently manufactured vehicles.

First, the scenario, recounted on August 4 by Joanna to France Inter . At the end of April, this resident of Décines (Rhône) is driving her Peugeot 208 on the A40 in Haute-Savoie. There is no danger on the horizon when the motorist passes near the town of Ceignes, in Ain. When suddenly, launched at a speed of around 120 km/h, her 208 begins to brake by itself, in the middle of the lane.

" It stopped, without any action on my part and even though there were no obstacles in front of me. The car behind hit me, and my vehicle spun around," she describes. Her Peugeot, although equipped with driver assistance systems, also has a brake assist system. Since 2022, all new vehicles sold in Europe must be sold with this automatic emergency braking system, which can assist in case of an obstacle on the road.

Contacted by ICI , the Ministry of Transport assured on Wednesday, August 13, that "an exchange took place on August 7 between [this motorist] and the vehicle and engine market surveillance service (SSMVM), a service attached to the Ministry of Transport."

Despite the violence of the impact, Joanna escaped with bruises and a sprained neck. Questioned by the police, she was denied an expert appraisal of her vehicle, which was deemed to be scrapped.

After this skid, the young woman wanted to know if other people had been victims of such a malfunction. A Facebook group, "Collectif freins fantômes automobiles," was created. Joanna thus collected more than 250 testimonies in less than a month. Several brands were affected (Volkswagen, Audi, Renault, Tesla, etc.), and the breakdowns reported by drivers spanned the last four years, ranging from "minor incidents" to "fatal accidents."

In December 2023, on the A7 motorway in Drôme, a driver named Aurélie described to ICI the tragedy she and her assistant experienced. " The car braked suddenly while I was accelerating . In a few seconds, we went from 130 km/h to a standstill. We were hit from behind. My passenger died, and I fell into a coma." Her Skoda car was inspected three times and found no faults. Tried last May, Aurélie was sentenced in early July to a suspended prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

Contacted by Libération , Magali, 56, has owned a new Skoda since the end of June. Three times, her car has given her this experience. While she was leaving for vacation in mid-July towards Normandy and her Skoda was speeding along the highway, the car suddenly braked. " The seatbelts pressed us to our seats, the lights came on, they were flashing and going 'beep-beep' in the passenger compartment. We were afraid that someone behind us was going to crash," Magali recalls. The driver then tries to find an explanation. "There were a few people in front of us, maybe the car got scared," Magali wonders. It happened again a few days later, still on the highway, at high speed. "Honestly, this time, I was completely alone on the road, no one in front. The car suddenly slowed down very quickly ," she recalls.

And the device in question doesn't only activate on fast roads. The last time her car started braking suddenly for no reason, Magali was driving alone on a small country road. "We have new cars that are supposed to be equipped with safety systems, but ultimately it's more dangerous than without assistance," notes the motorist, who fears a similar case to that of the defective Takata airbags . And he wonders: "How will you be taken care of in the event of an accident or worse, a death?" These defective airbags that explode have already caused 18 deaths and 25 injuries. The scandal affects around thirty drivers.

Faced with the various reports of phantom braking, manufacturers are deflecting the issue and assuring Le Parisien that they have not detected any system anomalies during the analysis of damaged vehicles. According to some garages, this type of incident can sometimes be explained by a "camera fault," an "electronic problem," or even an " ABS failure."

The Ministry of Transport assured this week that several cases had been directly reported to it and that its services would " question the manufacturers and carry out tests" to determine whether there was an " anomaly " or not.