2026 Hyundai Ioniq 5

I am reporting a suspected safety defect involving inconsistent deceleration behavior in my 2026 Hyundai IONIQ 5. I regularly use Hyundai’s i-PEDAL one-pedal-driving mode. In this mode, releasing the accelerator produces strong regenerative deceleration and can bring the vehicle to a stop. However, the vehicle does not retain this selected driving behavior after it is turned off and restarted. It reverts to a mode requiring substantially more use of the brake pedal. The behavior also changes in connection with shifting into reverse. In a Costco parking lot in [XXX], I stopped near the customer pickup area while using i-PEDAL. I briefly turned off the vehicle while a passenger loaded groceries. When I restarted and began moving, I expected the strong accelerator-release deceleration the vehicle had provided immediately before shutdown. Instead, the vehicle continued moving because i-PEDAL had been reset. A crosswalk ahead contained pedestrians, and I had to apply the brake pedal to avoid striking them. No collision or injury occurred, but this was a serious near-miss. The concern is not simply that the vehicle offers different regenerative-braking settings. The safety concern is that a driver-selected setting that materially affects accelerator-release deceleration changes automatically after a brief shutdown or simply backing up. A driver who has adapted to i-PEDAL may reasonably expect the vehicle to decelerate as it did moments earlier. The regeneration level should be set and remain as the driver prefers, not reset on each start or backup of the vehicle. I request that NHTSA evaluate whether this inconsistent default behavior creates an unreasonable risk of unintended vehicle movement or pedestrian collisions and whether the vehicle should retain the selected mode or provide a prominent warning requiring driver acknowledgment whenever the deceleration behavior changes. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)