Summary of Safety Event: While traveling at highway speeds with active traffic behind me, the vehicle’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) suffered an un-commanded, severe "phantom braking" event. The vehicle aggressively engaged the emergency service brakes and decelerated rapidly with absolutely no obstacles, pedestrians, or vehicles ahead. This sudden, violent deceleration created an immediate and high-risk rear-end collision hazard.Cascading Component Failures:In tandem with the dangerous autonomous braking behavior, the vehicle's electronic architecture (E³ 1.2 platform) is exhibiting chronic software instability. The High-Performance Computing infotainment stack continuously enters an internal network routing loop, displaying "Hotspot Reconfiguring" error messages. This completely crashes the cloud connectivity, signs out the primary driver profile, and force-reboots the central MMI display screen and wireless Android Auto interfaces mid-drive.Manufacturer Actions & Hazard Status:I have contacted the manufacturer (Audi of America) and local dealership service networks regarding these systemic software and safety issues, which Audi documents under master overview Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) 2081477. The vehicle currently poses an active safety risk to myself and surrounding motorists due to unpredictable braking behavior. The manufacturer has not yet provided a date to flash the corrected firmware containers (KD2* software update) to resolve the sensor fusion
2026 Audi S5
Routine
Owners filed 1 complaints about this vehicle with federal regulators, most often about the service brakes. No safety recall has been issued.
What fails
| Component | Reports | Crashes | Fires | Injuries | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service Brakes | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
What owners reported
Newest filingsService Brakes
Filed Sep 3, 2026PA
1 of 1 complaints, reproduced as filed.
Across model years
Worst on record: 2018| Year | Complaints | Recalls | Fires | Deaths | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 — this page | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2025 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2024 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2023 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2022 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2021 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2020 | 25 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2019 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2018 | 26 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2016 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2015 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2014 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2013 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2012 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2011 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2010 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
| 2008 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Routine |
Reading this record
No unusual pattern of severe incidents in the complaint record.
Complaint counts track how many cars were sold and how long they have been on the road as much as they track quality. A common model from 2013 has had a decade to accumulate reports; a rare one from last year has not. The signal worth weighing is in the severity columns, in whether the same component keeps appearing, and in whether the manufacturer eventually opened a recall for it.
Most recent recall on file: none. Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.