There are 4 owner-reported driver assist & adas complaints for the 2021 Kia K5in NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
The reverse braking feature registers cross traffic or movement that is not near the back of the vehicle. This cause the braking system to engage. I was doing a U turn on 4 lane main street with a center divider. I didnt fully clear the turn leaving me to reverse to complete to turn. When i put the car in reverse, the sensors picked up movement across the street, engaging the brakes and leaving me stuck in the middle of the road with oncoming traffic coming straight at me. It would not disengage when I tried accelerating and I had to quickly throw my car into drive and pull into a driveway, that was luckily there, just to avoid being T-boned by oncoming traffic. This is not the first occurance as it happens often in parking lots locking my brakes due to any movement from behind. There is a manual feature in the dashboard to turn it off but it automatically resets every time the car is turned off, requiring you to have to manually disengage the feature everytime and you cannot disengage while the brakes are locked.i took it to the dealers but they said since it is a "feature" it is not considered a safety issue since there is an option to disengage even though it has to be reset during every use. They could not help or remedy the issue and instructed me to file a complaint with Kia manufactures since they are only the Kia dealer.
The contact owns a 2021 Kia K5. The contact stated that while her daughter was driving at 5-10 MPH and making a turn on a road with no lanes, the steering wheel inadvertently started shuddering and became rigid, causing the contact's daughter to lose control of the vehicle. The vehicle crashed into a construction dumpster. An unknown warning message illuminated. The air bags did not deploy. The contact's daughter did not sustain any injuries. A police report was not filed. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. Then, the vehicle was towed to the dealer who towed the vehicle to a collision center. The dealer informed the contact that the vehicle could not be repaired under NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V447000 (LANE DEPARTURE, STEERING) as the VIN was not included in the recall. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case was opened. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 11,700.
Since October these features have been on and off working when they want to. I don't know what is happening with the safety features but it needs to be fixed or a update is needed for all the safety features.
I was driving 35 mph with nobody in front of or behind me and the car slammed on automatic braking for no reason, stopping me in the middle of the road.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 26, 2026