While sudden unintended acceleration is often scandalous stuff, most of the time it’s simply user error. From getting a floor mat or loose object caught in the accelerator pedal to hitting the gas instead of the brake and turning a local Little Caesars into a drive-thru, human screw-ups are often the biggest factor in these incidents, but they aren’t always to blame. Several reports of the Dodge Charger Daytona EV accelerating on its own are floating around, and they don’t seem to be caused by confused drivers.
The Dodge Charger Daytona hasn’t exactly had the easiest start in life. For nearly 20 years, Dodge made a name on automotive red meat in the form of rear-wheel-drive V8 muscle cars dripping with power and presence. Then, the brand announced it was phasing out the V8 Charger and Challenger for an electric car. Selling a battery-powered vehicle to the sort of crowd enamoured with the old Charger is a risky strategy, so whatever Dodge made, it had to be good.
At first, the Charger Daytona seemed somewhat promising on that front. We’re talking 670 horsepower in Scat Pack trim, zero-to-60 mph in the mid threes, three-door or five-door liftback body styles, and a new STLA Large architecture. Then the warts started appearing. The trims it launched with can’t do a burnout, the hi-po Scat Pack model only achieved 185 miles of range in Motor Trend‘s 70-MPH range test, and the car was discounted pretty much as soon as it hit dealer lots. It quickly started to look like a compromised package, but it didn’t have any allegations of serious safety issues. Not until now, at least.
In May, Edmunds reported that it was driving its Charger Daytona long-term test car when a bevy of error lights flashed on the dashboard, and the car entered a sort of limp mode. Not normal behavior, but also not the worst sort of failure to have on the road. However, when the driver put his foot back on the skinny pedal, things got spooky:
I got the Charger up to the speed of traffic OK, but then I noticed something was very wrong when I slightly lifted off the accelerator. First, the Charger wasn’t using any regenerative braking to slow itself down like it should. (In an EV, you typically lift off the accelerator and the car decelerates without using the regular friction brakes.) It wasn’t coasting, either. It was, in fact, accelerating.
I watched the speedometer and could tell the Charger was gaining speed at approximately 1 mph per second, even though I did not have a foot on the pedal.
My son was with me, so I had him take a video of what was happening. Soon, I was approaching a stop sign. I had to push on the brake pedal harder than usual to get the car to stop, but fortunately, it did stop. (Presumably, the extra effort was required to counteract the constant acceleration.) As soon as I lifted off the brake pedal, the car started accelerating again. It was a bit like the creeping forward effect you get with a regular car with an automatic transmission, but then it just kept going instead of being limited to a 2-3 mph top speed.
How far did it keep going? Well, Edmunds reports its Charger Daytona exceeded 45 MPH on its own before aborting the no-feet unintended acceleration run, and here’s video of the initial incident.
That’s not an especially fast rate of acceleration, but it’s definitely far quicker than it should be. I could see the car creeping forward at less than five MPH being normal, but footage of that Charger Daytona accelerating on its own at a fairly normal in-town pace is cause for concern. Has anyone other than Edmunds reported this same issue?
Why, yes. There’s exactly one NHTSA complaint for the 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona, and it’s for this exact issue. It was filed back in April and it details a similar pattern of limp mode then unintended acceleration as the one Edmunds experienced.
While driving, the car suddenly went into “Turtle Mode” in which the car slowed down by itself and numerous warnings on the dash board suddenly appear including “Service Electrical System”. Since I am in the middle of driving on a fairly busy street I attempt to get the car moving again and step on the accelerator pedal. The car does increase in speed but now will not stop speeding up even when I let off the gas pedal. The speed of the vehicle keeps getting faster ON IT’S OWN. I have to step on the brake and keep braking to get the car to slow down again. Then it starts to “Turtle” again and slows to a crawl. It step on the gas again and again the car starts to accelerate on it’s own even when I let off the gas pedal. I regained control using the brake alone to get the car to a safe place where I could park and turn the car off.
Two near-identical reports of the same failure are quite the coincidence, and it doesn’t stop there. As the late, great Billy Mays famously said, “But wait, there’s more.” A quick perusal of the Daytona Owners forum returns more reports of sudden intended acceleration, one of which allegedly led to a crash.
As the first post in the thread “Accelerator problems” details, user “joe and joyce charger” reports a collision involving sudden unintended acceleration. Here’s the text:
Has any one had a problem with the accelerator engaging by it self.
I had my foot on the brake and the car took off by itself going about between 50 or 70 miles per hour. Shot us through hedges and into on coming traffic causing a three car wreck. We were t-boned, side air bags exploded and appears that the car is totaled.This is the second time our car has accelerated on its own.
While firm pressure on the brake pedal or potentially even a shift to neutral should’ve cut power to the motors, in the event of an actual sudden unintended acceleration incident, not every driver will be able to apply full brake pressure in the heat of the moment.
User “NickelScat”, who reports experiencing the same issue in their Charger Daytona, concurs that sudden unintended acceleration can be a real safety issue based on the driver’s reaction to it. Curiously, this user also claims to have some data that may paint a picture of what’s going on.
My daytona is in the service center right now because of this issue. It has a 12v issue goes into limp mode and then there is some other issue and it reads the tpm at 20% or so. It accelerates on it own with no pedal input. All you can do is hold the brakes. It happened to me 3 times in 24 hours. I called the dealer and said it must be towed. I have had multiple people say the same thing is happening to them.
Is it out of control? No. Is it a death trap? No. Will I ever let my wife who’s response of freaking out the car is driving it self and that will make it dangerous… yeah she will never drive it with this issue. Neither will my kids. That is just called being smart and playing it safe. If didge can’t fix it will I lemon law it? Yes absolutely.
The thread goes on with more posts alleging sudden unintended acceleration, including one from user “Moparnocar” that sums up the experience quickly. “My car has done this twice and almost caused an accident the first time. It’s definitely a real issue.”
Now, six or seven reports of sudden unintended acceleration that seem to be caused by electronic issues wouldn’t be a huge number of complaints on a Camry, but Dodge only sold 1,947 electric Chargers in the first quarter of 2025, so by volume, it doesn’t seem like an incredibly rare problem. Also, these are just a few reports we know about because they’re public. It’s entirely possible that more owners have experienced this glitch and haven’t gone public with their stories.
Needless to say, we’ve reached out to Stellantis about this issue and will update you when we hear back. Until then, it certainly seems like Dodge Charger Daytona EVs can, under the right circumstances, accelerate on their own when they really shouldn’t, and that could be a real safety hazard. Knowing that public reports of this problem exist, it’s likely an internal investigation is underway, and we’ll be keeping an eye on this story as it develops.
Update: Stellantis has commented on the situation stating that if pedal communication is lost, the car accelerating on its own is an intentional feature.
In the rare event of an accelerator pedal fault, Stellantis has implemented a ‘drive-by-brake’ safety feature, which allows the driver to control speed through the brake pedal. In this instance, the feature worked as intended, and the driver was able to safely maneuver the vehicle off the road. This feature has been in Stellantis internal combustion engine vehicles for many years and has been carried over to battery electric vehicles.
Top graphic image: Stellantis
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I was wondering if the 20% throttle signal was an intentional design choice when I read the article before the update. It would allow the vehicle to be moved to safety. This isn’t a terrible failure mode. I agree that maybe the driver should be alerted, it’s not like there’s a lack of screens.
I know that there’s a limp mode in GM PCMs that will allow the engine to idle but ignores pedal input when it thinks something is awry. I’ve triggered it a few times myself when running a rowdier cam that gulps excessive air on shifts, leading to a plausibility error in the MAF that make the car think the throttle was stuck open. I idled to a stop in the Laguna Seca runoff area a few times. I could reset it by power cycling the PCM with my kill switch, which also had the side effect of erasing the codes. The fun part was that the lower air density at my home in Colorado wasn’t enough to trigger it, so the failure only happened at sea level. That made it really fun to try to figure out.
Well, this is Dodge, usually there’s some sort of voltage correction multiplier if the 12V battery is low. In ICE it’s normally used to enrich fuel during cranking to hopefully get the car to start sooner – but in this case maybe it’s just to compensate for some other electric wizardry.
Don’t all cars have a drive by brake feature which allows you to control the speed of your vehicle with the brake pedal?
What a very strange failsafe mode. As others have mentioned, it should be speed limited and there should be a message center warning (“Accelerator Error: Vehicle Speed Limited to 15 MPH”) or whatnot. Just enough to get your car safely off the road. I wonder what other OEMs have implemented in the event of this failure, which WILL happen, assuming they all share between a few pedal assembly suppliers.
Regarding the update – I’m kind of surprised the “drive by brake” emergency feature doesn’t have a speed limiter of 30 mph or so? I wonder if they put this in the owners manual…seems like an important detail idk
Owner here: It is NOT in the owner’s manual. I just checked a few minutes ago.
I think they just created “drive-by-brake” as a phrase today. I think it’s an excellent approach to limp mode… but it would need to be in the manual, and have a dashboard notification that clearly lets the driver know what is happening. ETA – maybe ‘excellent’ is over the top. I’d prefer that to dying in the left lane of the freeway
Obviously Stellantis has rehired Carlos Tavares as a PR spokesman, seen here making the above referenced statement.
I haven’t seen this in mine, nor apparently have any of the other people who have bought one from my dealer, or they haven’t called the service department about it (last I heard, there were a total of twelve of us in the greater Nashville metro area).
I *have* had it go into Turtle Mode on startup, twice, weeks apart. Both times the age-old solution of “try turning it off and back on again” fixed it (note: the car isn’t really off unless you get out and walk away, because the infotainment doesn’t shut down as long as the key is inside the car). I’m told this is also a 12V battery connection issue, and nothing can be done about it unless it DOESN’T fix itself on reboot.
Maybe it would have had auto-acceleration if I took it out of Park while in Turtle Mode? Don’t know, didn’t try. Probably won’t try if/when it happens again.
I’m still very happy with the silly thing.
Wut. That response seems completely insane, and if it’s really been a “feature” for years in a range of stellantis products I think it needs a lot more coverage.
I feel like if pedal control is lost, that means there is a chance there could be a problem with the other pedal, leading to much crashing.
So how the fuck is Pedal Communication lost? That Stellantis response leads me to believe that proper error handling was not implemented in the code. Such a failure mode should only be resorted to when there is a physical fault in the pedal hardware, not because some other part of the system threw a code. It sure sounds like half-baked control software.
Maybe the manager who signed off on a single AOA sensor for the 737-MAX is working at Dodge.
Is that drive-by-brake feature in the user manual? I’ve never heard of such a thing, but I’ve never owned a Dodge. I feel like Edmunds probably reads the manuals for their long-term tests (and if not, shame on them).
What I wonder is, does Dodge really have so many accelerator issues, even in their ICE cars, they were compelled to create this solution? *That* seems a little odd to me…
These are gonna be such a great deal off lease
Only if they throw in the tow truck for free.
If I haven’t fallen out of love with mine when it comes off lease, I’m hoping Stellantis will give me a better deal than my current lease buyout. I mean, they have to know they won’t get anywhere near 40 grand from me or anyone else after 3 years, right?
Stellantis- “It’s supposed to do that!”
SMH
It’s just Self-driving, Stellantis style
Is anybody actually surprised that a Chrysler product has a quality/safety issue? Anyone? Anyone at all?
I have yet to see even one of these in the wild. I know the Boston area is not huge on domestics, unless they are trucks and large SUVs, but strange to have not seen one since I am on the road in many towns weekly for 10-14 hours of driving.
Could this be any more on point for Stellantis.
So are there any other secret drive modes that stellantis uses, say, if the steering fails you can control the steering rack with the window switches? Or if the parking brake fails, the power seat buttons can be used instead? If the vehicle won’t shift into drive, just toggle the door locks? Everything by wire could open up some interesting ways to control the vehicle.
Reality Avoidance Mode (RAM)… If the brakes fail the hood deploys so you won’t see the tree you’re about to crash into.
That could be useful for so many things in life these days
I’m fairly certain a lot of people are already equipped with this feature at this point.
I think Douglas Adams had something to say about this. I’ll check my Hitchhiker’s…
At this point we have all experienced Stellantis for longer than six hours and should seek medical attention.
Okay, I can sorta see this as a “safety feature” if the car is unable to receive inputs from the accelerator pedal and the brakes are able to override it. This despite never having heard of it before in the “many years” Stellantis claims to have been using it in their ICE cars. But, but, wouldn’t it be a good idea to display the fault and how the drive-by-brake mode works on the infotainment screen or the instrument cluster so as not to scare the shit out of your customers?
My guess would be it’s clearly written somewhere in the owner’s manual. But of course no one reads the fucking manual, do they?
You can’t get to the manual when the screen shows “touchscreen glovebox release fault”…
I just checked: nope, never mentioned at all. Unless the description of it doesn’t use the words “accel” or “brake,” and is also nowhere near the “In Case of Emergency” or “Warning Lights and Messages” sections.
Or even take it a step further, and display a message of “The accelerator pedal on your car shit the bed and is no longer functional, do you want to enter drive by brake mode?” with a button to accept that feature, so the driver actively decides to use the mode
Right? What kind of insanity is it for the car to default into an open throttle mode without any kind of warning?
I’ve never experienced anything like this except when my cruise control failed to disengage on an old Thunderbird beater that I drove when I was a kid. To make this default error procedure seems like a good way to cause accidents.
Old Porsches with Weber carbs do that. There is a red lever between the seats in front of the heater lever that adjusts the minimum throttle opening. Mostly because Webers don’t have a choke.
But old Porsches have a plethora of kill the inattentive driver modes. Having a knob between the seats that can get you going 70 mph with your foot off the gas that is exactly the same as the heater lever except for color does not even bear mentioning.
“You are about to have an accident”
Isn’t self charging a good thing?
Charging is ok, it’s Raming that’s bad.
‘Working as intended’ isn’t the answer I expected, that’s nuts.
“In the rare event of an accelerator pedal fault, Stellantis has implemented a ‘drive-by-brake’ safety feature, which allows the driver to control speed through the brake pedal. In this instance, the feature worked as intended, and the driver was able to safely maneuver the vehicle off the road. This feature has been in Stellantis internal combustion engine vehicles for many years and has been carried over to battery electric vehicles.”
I think the driver’s intentions are the only ones that count.
I think that going on the record that they deliberately made the car behave that way probably has lawyers all quivering with anticipation.
I’ve previously worked in a similar space for a different OEM, and all I can say about this is WTF Stellantis.
They may as well just change their NYSE abbreviation to “WTFS” at this point.
I WANNA GO FAST!!
Wow, so when the accelerator pedal no longer works they just say “always on” instead of maybe limiting it to the idle speed of a normal car at about 2-3 mph? 2-3 mph is plenty to limp off the active roadway, going to 50-60 mph on its own is a terrible idea, no?
This is what I was thinking. I can totally appreciate arguments of it being a safety feature, but it needs a limit to it. While I would say like 15 mph instead of 3, I still totally agree there should be a programmed in max speed. And a notice on a screen of what is occurring.
This is what you get with OEMs and their push to software defined vehicles…
Except the Charger is not even close to being a software defined vehicle?
This is what you get when OEMs fire all of their existing software people and outsource the codework to overseas contractors and interns.
Failsafe? Never heard of ’em
Only Stellantis would claim that a vehicle unexpectedly accelerating on it’s own was a feature.
My guess is that the vehicle has a software issue with the creep mode that’s basically set incorrectly with some sort of multiplier that’s not creeping it forward but rather applying acceleration on a constant curve. Interesting failure for sure.