2017 Lexus Rx

After slowly making a left into a parking space at Dunkin Donuts and trying to deploy my brakes, my car lunged forward spontaneously accelerating, jumped two curbs and hit a barrier and the window of the store. The impact of the crash wrecked my front end and the radiator was damaged and was laying on the ground. With this intense impact, the airbags did not deploy on impact. My insurance agency totaled the car. After the crash the warning came on the screen that the Collision System had malfunctioned.

I WAS SITTING AT A COMPLETE STOP FOR MORE THAN 45 MINUTES BEHIND A FATALITY ACCIDENT ON THE HIGHWAY THEY HAD CLOSED WHILE OCCASIONALLY REMOVING FOOT FROM BRAKE TO INCH FORWARD A FEW FEET A BEST AND THEN STOP AGAIN NEVER TOUCHING THE ACCELERATOR WHEN I REALIZED AT ONE POINT TRAFFIC BESIDE ME WAS MOVING, I THOUGHT, IT WAS MY RX 350 WHILE PRESSING BRAKE ALL THE WAY TO THE FLOOR WITH NO RESISTANCE I ATTEMPTED TO PUT THE CAR IN NEUTRAL TO SEE IF IT WAS SLOW ME DOWN AS AN UPCOMING CRASH WAS UNAVOIDABLE. NO BRAKE ASSIST, PRECOLLISON WARNING OR ASSIST, NO EMERGENCY BRAKING, NO RESISTANCE FROM BRAKE PEDAL AND ***NO WARNING LIGHTS CAME ON AT ALL PRIOR TO IMPACT WITH THE BACK OF A STOPPED SEMI TRUCK** and during the entire incident the speedometer remained at zero or moved a tiny bit off of zero as if it was pulsing somehow and the accelerator was never touched while car felt like I was being pushed from behind, randomly accelerating on its own before impact.

The lane departure camera is mounted to the windshield and the glass between the windshield and the camera becomes fogged over time. This results in the lane departure system becoming less sensitive or inoperable - in particular in low-light or when sun was shining toward the camera (dusk/dawn). It also results in the adaptive cruise control becoming more erratic (abrupt in stops). This design puts the user of the vehicle and others around them at risk as key safety systems are compromised. This is in an area that is generally not easily accessible for an owner to clean. However, I was able to remove the camera and clean the glass (please see pictures) and normal function resumed immediately. This is not an operation a owner should attempt and there are warnings about camera re-calibration. I believe NHTSA should consider this a design defect that could be cured by a visit to a dealer (periodically) with their technicians performing a complementary cleaning of the interior camera glass to ensure the camera continues to function properly. About the car: This car has never been in an accident, non-smoker, always garaged (no sun/heat exposure) driven in the city with no dust or debris in the cabin (exceptionally clean inside and out) 33,500 miles at time of cleaning (photos attached). I believe this fog is due to off-gassing of cabin materials that occurs naturally as the vehicle ages.