Chevrolet Equinox EV Problems — All Years, Common Issues & Reliability

Vehicle slammed on brakes on highway with no obstruction in front. Emergency system reacts to shadows

The Equinox EV has rear Automatic Emergency Braking. On multiple occasions while backing up the vehicle's AEB has activated by slamming on the parking brake. A check of the rear camera and sensor system shows the vehicle detected nothing. A visual check also shows nothing behind the vehicle that's outside the sensor system's.

The inability to permanently turn on the warning only option for front and rear emergency braking after the latest OTA update. Phantom braking conditions still exist for this model and occur at unexpected times causing potential rear end collisions with following vehicles.

Driving in the freeway at 70 miles per hour with adaptive cruise control on car went crazy with emergency lights and braking the vehicle In middle of freeway No accident Also lane Asíst is not working

On numerous occasions, the multiple automatic collision braking systems have engaged in what I would describe as phantom breaking. For me personally, the automatic breaking has on multiple occasions caused a serious crash, both while backing out of parking, at intersections and most recently on Interstate 880. The AEB system engaged and slammed the breaks while changing a lane in traffic and the car came to a complete standstill. Two cars almost crashed into me. I feel less safe with AEB engaged than I feel without it and I this incident was the final straw. I will be disabling AEB. The system is severely flawed and will be the cause for serious accidents.

On February 23, 2026, while driving my 2026 Chevrolet Equinox EV home from Folsom Chevrolet following a prior repair visit, the “Service Park Assist System” warning illuminated, first intermittently, then after a few miles, continuously for the remainder of the 11-mile drive home. During the same drive, while reversing with no objects present behind or around the vehicle, the automatic emergency braking system activated and applied the brakes with significant force without cause. The vehicle was returned to Folsom Chevrolet (Repair Order #559378, opened February 23, 2026). Diagnostic code U1126 was found — indicating the left rear short range radar sensor had lost communication on CAN Bus 8. The sensor module was on national backorder, keeping the vehicle out of service for approximately two weeks. The module was replaced and programmed on March 7, 2026. Safety concern: Unexpected activation of automatic emergency braking with no objects present creates a serious collision risk from following traffic. This failure occurred on public roads during normal driving. Additionally, the U1126 CAN bus communication fault is the same vehicle communication architecture implicated in the battery/electrical failure documented in Repair Orders #558923 and #559167, suggesting these failures share a common root cause in the vehicle’s electrical communication network rather than representing isolated component failures.

We have occasional issues with the car coming to a very abrupt stop for no apparent reason. Typically this will happen when going through an intersection or pulling into our garage. Auto braking has been disabled in the system settings for quite some time, and in fact, each time we get in the car we see a warning that forward anti-collision braking is off. This has happened twice withing the past 4 days and we have concerns that if it continues to be a more frequent issue it will cause an accident. I recently spoke with another GM owner who told me they are experiencing the same issue so I thought I should log a complaint to hopefully help instigate a recall/fix.

I was driving in heavy traffic. It was a traffic jam. The driver in front of me was stop and go. I was keeping a good distance as we were moving along. Suddenly the engine braked so violently I was thrown off my seat and the seatbelt had to catch me. Inadvertently my hand must have hit the the shifting toggle. The car was then in reverse. I was unaware and shocked, so I went to get out of the brake and then started to reverse for it to then brake on me again in reverse, only slower this time. I contact gm, they put me to a dealer, that treated this like it was routine maintenance and had no urgency. They offered me a rental program, but I had to process a lot of paperwork, I asked for another someone just to take care of it, and they just sent me phone numbers. They never advised me not to drive the car.

The contact owns a 2025 Chevrolet Equinox. The contact stated that the battery failed to continue charging while driving or while parked. Additionally, the door opened independently, the Automatic Emergency Braking system (AEB) failed, and while the brake pedal was depressed, there was a delay before the vehicle stopped. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was not available.

Front automatic emergency braking has activated abruptly three times in routine following traffic while I was already braking behind a slowing vehicle. It caused a very hard stop and nearly led to a rear-end collision from the vehicle behind me. Please inspect the forward camera/sensors, calibration, AEB settings, and check for any related fault codes or software issues.” This happened on 3/18 while I was getting ready to go onto the freeway and the cars in front of me slowed down I applied the brakes to slow down and the ABS brakes abruptly and strongly I was almost rear ended. There was another passenger that felt the same thing and commented on what happened.

Vehicle will randomly apply brakes detecting something with the automatic brake system that is not there. I was driving at 30 mph with nothing in front of me and the vehicle applied full brakes and beeped. Also at a light I went to take off as the first car and it immediately applied brakes when trying to accelerate on green. My 5 y/o in the back had her head slammed forward and was crying because of the force from accelerating/decelerating. It’s happened 5 or 6 times since January purchase

I was driving and slowed down to enter a small roundabout. upon trying to enter the roundabout the cars emergency braking slammed on the brakes to a sudden hard stop. No other cars were in the roundabout, but i believe it may have seen the curb. in any case, i was extremely lucky that nobody was behind me, or coming around the roundabout, as it took a bit to get the car to let me go again.