I did also get the same issue, however it was not updating my java version or karate version.
I had a dependency spring-cloud-starter-netflix-eureka-client that caused my problem.
Either removing this dependency, or having this dependency lower than karate's dependencies worked. I suspect other spring-cloud dependencies might have a similar effect.
This DID NOT WORK
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-netflix-eureka-client</artifactId>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.intuit.karate</groupId>
<artifactId>karate-junit5</artifactId>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
Swapping them DID work
<dependency>
<groupId>com.intuit.karate</groupId>
<artifactId>karate-junit5</artifactId>
<scope>test</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-netflix-eureka-client</artifactId>
</dependency>