When Your Cruise Control Has a Mind of Its Own
Florida highways move fast. I-95, I-75, and the Turnpike can shift from open road to a sudden standstill in seconds. Adaptive cruise control, often called ACC, is supposed to help. It reads traffic ahead and adjusts your speed automatically. When it works, it reduces driver fatigue on long stretches. When it fails, the results can be frightening.
Many Florida drivers are reporting ACC systems that brake for no reason, fail to slow down when traffic stops ahead, disengage without warning, or accelerate unexpectedly. If your new vehicle does any of these things, you may have more than a frustrating problem. You may have a Lemon Law defect.
What Is Adaptive Cruise Control, and Why Does It Fail?
Adaptive cruise control uses radar, cameras, and software to detect vehicles ahead. The system then controls your throttle and braking to keep a set following distance. Because it relies on sensors and code, it can misread its environment.
Common causes of ACC failure include:
- Sensor misalignment after a minor collision or even a car wash
- Software bugs that cause the system to "phantom brake" or ignore real obstacles
- Radar interference from road debris, weather, or other vehicles
- Faulty hardware that was installed improperly at the factory
- Calibration errors after a windshield replacement
Some of these problems appear once and never come back. Others repeat every few days. A defect that keeps coming back, and that affects how safely you can drive, is exactly what Florida's Lemon Law is designed to address.
Florida's Lemon Law and ADAS Safety Defects
Florida's Lemon Law, Chapter 681 of the Florida Statutes, covers new and demonstrator vehicles that were sold or leased in Florida. Used vehicles are not covered under this law. The law gives consumers rights during the first 24 months from the date of original delivery.
To qualify, a problem must be a "nonconformity." That means a defect or condition that substantially impairs the use, value, or safety of the vehicle. An adaptive cruise control system that randomly brakes on a busy interstate, or that fails to slow when traffic stops ahead, fits squarely within that definition. Safety is one of the three standards, and ACC is a core safety system.
You can read more about how ADAS defects are evaluated generally in our post on ADAS safety system defects and the Lemon Law. For a closely related issue, our article on phantom braking on Florida highways covers what happens when a vehicle brakes for objects that are not there.
How Many Repair Attempts Does It Take?
The statute sets out two main paths to a Lemon Law claim.
The three-attempt rule: If the manufacturer or its authorized dealer has tried to fix the same nonconformity three times and the problem continues, many consumers qualify to take the next step. That step is sending a written notice, called a Motor Vehicle Defect Notification, directly to the manufacturer. This gives the manufacturer one final opportunity to repair the vehicle. If the problem still is not fixed after that final attempt, the consumer may pursue a remedy.
The 30-day rule: If your vehicle has been out of service for repair for 30 or more cumulative days during the Lemon Law rights period, that is a separate qualifying path. After the vehicle has been out of service that long, the consumer provides written notice and gives the manufacturer an opportunity to inspect and repair. If the issue remains unresolved, a claim can move forward. You can learn more about this in our post on days out of service under Florida's Lemon Law.
What Remedies Are Available?
If a vehicle qualifies under the statute, the law allows for two possible remedies:
- A refund of the purchase price, including collateral charges and finance charges, minus a statutory offset calculated based on the consumer's use of the vehicle before the first repair attempt for the defect.
- A replacement vehicle of the same or comparable model.
The manufacturer chooses which remedy to offer, but the consumer has input in certain situations. The statute does not allow a consumer to simply keep the vehicle and receive cash unless a separate settlement arrangement is reached outside the arbitration process.