2021 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport Driver Assist & ADAS Problems

The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the brake warning light illuminated, and the vehicle unintendedly came to a stop. The contact stated that the failure had occurred twice. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 45,819.

My Atlas Crossport without warning or any vehicle in front of me engaged emergency braking and the forward collision warning lights and alarms came on. I was traveling roughly 40mph and the vehicle suddenly slowed to just below 10mph before I was able to continue driving. Had a vehicle been behind me, most certainly it would have caused a collision. The problem has been reported to my local VW dealership who acknowledged complaints but communicated there is no fix yet. This incident has only happened once. I was advised each time I drive to manually disengage the front assist feature.

My brand new 2021 cross sport (12,600 miles) suddenly started displaying multiple (5) error messages while I was driving. One of the errors was “driver door contact switch”. The check engine light came on and WHILE driving my car spontaneously began activating emergency braking maneuvers even though there was no potential for a collision. This happened numerous times and I was nearly rear ended with my son in the car. The car-net app indicated I need to take the car in for service but did NOT indicate the red “stop driving” icon. I took the car in as soon as possible (the dealership was non-urgent despite my description of the problem. They initially offered me an appt 4 days into the future. Upon my instance about the safety concern they begrudgingly agreed to look at it the next day. They diagnosed a wire harness failure. The manager of the repair dept indicated this is a problem these cars have been having a described that his own VW had the same problem and shared an anecdote about his own dangerous encounter with spontaneous emergency braking resulting. I contacted VW directly. They also did not seem concerned about this known problem. They turned my case over to the regional manager and that person also did not make this a priority or validate the extremely dangerous nature of the problem. It is shocking to me that this is a known problem (that I discovered only after googling the specific diagnosis) and VW sent no safety warnings to consumers AND their app suggested that my car was basically safe to drive my omitting the “stop driving immediately” icon/alert in response to the error messages.

The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport. The contact stated while driving at 8 MPH, the automatic emergency braking system engaged and the vehicle stopped abruptly. The emergency parking brake warning light illuminated. An audible message "Ignition Is Turned On" was engaged. The contact stated that he disengaged the emergency parking brake and continued to drive; however, the failure reoccurred while driving at low speed as he was approaching a traffic light. Additionally, the contact stated that the vehicle windows rolled down independently and would not roll up unless he turned off and restarted the vehicle. The contact stated that he was unable to lock the doors of the vehicle using the key fob or the driver's side power door lock switch. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the driver's side door wiring harness needed to be replaced; however, the part to repair the vehicle was not available. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 8,000.