2024 Freightliner Cascadia Problems, complaints & recalls

the center line and block other vehicles from passing me, so as not to be in danger of collision. These controllability problems are induced by the "active" smartvalve system. This is the chassis leveling system that adjusts air to the suspension air springs (air bags). The smart valve system is there to allow a driver to adjust the suspension up or down as needed to assist in hooking in improperly positioned trailer (to prevent injuries). The system also actively interferes with what would be the normal operation of a suspension "leveling" valve, and adjusts and or blocks the normal flow of air in and out of the suspension when driving. This results in poor handling and control problems. I have asked to have the valve replaced with a normal "dumb" valve on my truck, since I have found that the trucks handle normally with a standard leveling valve. I have also found that in many curvy road situations, the truck is hard to keep from running off the road, even bobtail. There is severe apparent understeer, and it seems likely to be attributed to the smartvalve leveler interfering with the suspension. I see that there is a recall on Freightliners having to do with understeer problems on curves (Recall 234245 [USA]: Understeering during a j-turn may increase the risk of a crash.). The recall says that Freightliner will replace the tires; it is likely that this will not help in the case of models with an active "smartvalve" system.

control in any vehicle to remain engaged after using the brakes. This results in unpredicted situations, like unplanned acceleration. This also applies to vehicles trying to merge in front of me, where I use the brakes to back off some and allow them in, but then the cruise (still engaged) will accelerate again toward the vehicle that was previously in my headway.

self-driving (acceleration and braking) feature of these trucks. The default in this model truck is unknown to me, but in slow-and-go or stop-and-go traffic, the truck is highly aggressive; the truck follows too close very often, and waits until the last second to slow or stop in most cases. This also happens in high volume, higher speed traffic.

over a safe speed before the truck will attempt to slow down. This often results in an overspeed situation when approaching curves. In older models of Freightliner, and maybe in current versions that are adjustable, there is a setting to change this to closer to the set speed. In this model, or large companies' ordered versions, this adjustment is not available. The idea is to save fuel by "hyper-mile" style of driving. It makes for an unpredictable speed of vehicle, frustrating other drivers, and sometimes leading to unsafe overspeed situations.

part of the front vehicle in my lane, like when exiting). This truck will brake, and continue braking unnecessarily (and unnecessarily hard braking) for a vehicle that is completely out of my lane (by several feet), before continuing and regaining speed. This shows that the sensors are capable of "seeing" and tracking the vechicles, but still does not respond to traffic merging into the truck's headway.

accelerate with the vehicle (that the truck is now tailgating), even though there is slowing or stopping traffic directly ahead of the vehicle the truck is following. The Safety Director at Tyson Foods, Robert Carl, told me in a conference call about the unsafe flaws in the truck, that these Freightliner systems are programmed to "try" to maintain about a 2.5 second following distance. Even this is patently unsafe. Driver safety guidelines (FMCSA) are: "If you are driving below 40 mph, you should leave at least one second for every 10 feet of vehicle length. For a typical tractor-trailer, this results in 4 seconds between you and the leading vehicle. For speeds over 40 mph, you should leave one additional second." It would appear that Daimler/Freightliner may have used Autonomous Driving software that was designed for cars, and has tried to "adjust" it to work in tractor-trailers. That is speculation, but based on the supposed target following distance, that may be correct. 2.5 seconds is certainly too close, and the distances of less than 1 second that I have commonly seen are not acceptable in any truck.

truck actually gave a collision warning (alarm and display turns red), but in no way attempted to slow itself. This happens with vehicles detected in the truck's headway for multiple seconds beforehand. In short, the truck will sometimes apparently allow itself to rear-end a vehicle in front of itself, even though the sensors detected it and it had plenty of time to react. When there has been a collision warning with no action by the autonomous system, it has often been when there is less than 1/2 second for the driver to intervene.

situations, but it does not, and without warning. The system will even disengage while it is operating; it will be slowing or maintaining a following distance, then disengage. The driver has no idea if the truck is still auto-driving until he is close to a rear-end accident. Also, bear in mind that speed limit signs are often only posted on the right side of the road; If there is something blocking the sign, like another vehicle, the cruise will still disengage without warning, and the driver does not know it. The only way to tell if cruise is still engaged is by looking for a small green icon in the bottom left of the dash display, which is over 20 degrees down from focal view. Also, there are times when the cruise disengages for no apparent reason. Sometimes there is a barely audible bluetooth-disconnect type sound, but often there is no audible warning. There is also no display warning of any type.

LED headlights. LED headlights do not create heat on their own and there for will not melt snow and ice off like traditional halogen lights will. I travel from Oregon to Colorado every week and this is a serious safety defect it is dangerous to pull over to clear snow and ice on the side of the road just so Freightliner could save a few dollars on headlight heaters that all LED headlight manufacturers are already included on other vehicles INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

in January 2024. The contact stated that the vehicle was jack-knifed, however, the video confirmed that the driver was driving at 48 MPH and did not depress the brake pedal. Also, the contact stated that before the January 2024 failure, the engine was rebuilt in the vehicle. The contact was concerned that the failure was due to manufacturer defects. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 92,500.