Did you try to clean the windshield where the camera is? could have some dirt or staining from rain or something causing it to malfunction

 

Yes, multiple times. Good suggestion though!

 

I just use "regular" cruise control because of the jerkiness of the ACC use of braking.

 

Did you try reducing the distance setting for the adaptive cruise control.

Did you notice if it did it...

• during a curve?
• if a guard rail next to you?
• when you are in a dip of the road where the road curves upward?

If it's still under warranty, I would take it in to have the sensors recalibrated.

 

I really doubt that any dealer is going to recalibrate the sensors. Just turn off ACC. It is a fools mission anyway. It assumes you want to track the speed variations of the car in front of you. I surely don't as most of the time there is a poor driver in front of me!

 

if this is ONLY happening with ACC activated, it's somewhat less a safety issue, but if the autobraking is happening on the highway or anywhere else when you aren't using the cruise control, you should have the dealer look at it. from what i hear this problem is not common on hondas but my subaru outback it's a common complaint and recalibrating usually fixes the issue .. although the outback uses a dual camera setup so it is not totally the same thing. beyond cleaning the windshield there is not much you can do as the user.

i haven't yet had any phantom braking on the civic, but i also haven't put tons of miles on it.

don't you love that these assist systems want to not work in the situations where you, also, have trouble seeing? like at night in the rain or in bright sunlight or snow? yea me too

 

I doubt Honda's camera has infra-red or whatever technology in current camera to 'see' in the dark so that might be the reason for onerous ACC behaviour.
Radar is the way to go and probably combo of camera+radar might be optimal implementation of ACC. But since it cost money Honda will not provide it to us as then Civic will cost arm+leg+first born and nobody will buy such a 'small car'.

 

It's just the standard corporate cost-cutting.
My 2019 Honda Fit EX has camera+radar based Honda-Sensing.
I haven't driven my 2024 Civic that much, so I don't have that much experience with its Honda-Sensing yet, but Fit does behave better in some cases, like when going down hill. Fit will let the speed go slightly past the set speed and not overreact, whereas Civic has a mental fit if it can't keep the speed in that set number. Ridiculous programming.

 

I talked to my dealer and they want me to identify a section of road where the system consistently phantom brakes. What do you do when you can't find a stretch or road that will repeat the problem? In this case they can't or won't do anything.

Still looking for that piece of road.

 

- It will be a waste of your time trying to get the dealer to "fix" something that's not broken when it's just the poor way it's designed. Dealers only fix broken things, not bad designs. And if you're thinking they will report this back to Honda, stop dreaming - I've been down that road many times and it never happens. Even if they did, and Honda would somehow care, Honda will never fix it on this model - maybe on some future model 3-10 years from now. It's not just Honda - all car makers do the same thing. It ALWAYS comes down to money, time, and practicality to make changes.

However you still have more fun enlightenments awaiting you:

• Wait until a car passes you on the highway and then normally moves into your lane going faster than you (and far enough away so it's impossible to hit him) and your ACC slams on the brakes (and distance setting makes no difference). This happens constantly here - so often that I can no longer use ACC.
• Also when your ACC slams on the brakes going down a hill to insure it won't exceed the ACC set speed (rather than just let it coast as all humans would do).

 

I had the same thing with my 24 Touring and 25 Sport Touring Hybrid. The ACC would engage with the orange and black BRAKE command in the middle of the screen and slow me down when I went under a certain overpass. I suspect it was the shadow for whatever reason.

Deactivated the ACC, which I didn't care for in the first place. Problem solved.