There are 15 owner-reported driver assist & adas complaints for the 2018 Volkswagen Atlasin NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
My wife was driving to the store on surface streets at about 9am on a clear morning. At a stop light, waiting for the green. After light turned green she accelerated at a normal rate. Midway through the intersection (at about 10 mph) the vehicles emergency braking system engaged for no reason slamming her to an immediate stop. There were no obstructions in front or to either side of the vehicle. There was another car behind her that almost rear-ended her. My wife's safety was at risk because she could have been involved in a collision which may have resulted in injuries to my wife and or others and she was sitting, shaken in the middle of an intersection thinking that someone had hit her from behind. The vehicle has not been taken to the dealership yet. My wife states that the vehicle displayed many indicator warning lights on the instrument panel after it stopped including the Advance Warning lights, but instead of just showing a collision warning with the car, 3-double bars and lanes in red, it showed (in red) a car with 4-double bars all around the vehicle, no lanes and the vehicle shut off. The car started again when she took her foot off of the brake.
The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact engaged the cruise control function, and the brakes would inadvertently engage. The contact was not able to verify the warning light that was illuminated during the failure. The vehicle was taken to the dealer but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 61,000.
While driving about 30mph the automatic forward collision braking gave a malfunction light and screen. The car had NOTHING in front of it to cause the breaking to happen and forced my car to intermittently hard break as I tried to bring it to a car safely. If I had had a car behind me I surely would have been rear ended. I with all three child under 4 years old. I brought my car to a parking lot. Turned it off then on and turned off the forward collision brakes from the car menu.
There are issues with the emergency break system while driving. It is usually okay for the car to stop when reversing. Yesterday while driving with my children, I crossed some train track at a speed of about 30-35 miles per hour as the green light was on. As soon as I reached 75% in the tracks, all of a sudden the emergency brakes turned on, the car stopped in traffic and was about to be hit. As scary and dangerous as this was, thankfully the car in the back was able to stop in time. Despite never experiencing this before, I found out many VWG owners have had similar experiences. In order to avoid causing serious accident, I will have the dealer inspect the car and turn it off immediately. I ask for your help so there is something done about it as soon as possible. This cars needs to get recalled have the dealer fix this issue. Serious accidents and deaths can occur. Thank God my kids are fine. My neck is a little sour but I am okay.
Automatic Emergency Breaking initiated on its own, slamming the car breaks as I was turning left out of a parking lot onto a busy 4 lane street. This stopped the car as we were crossing the first lane of traffic. We were stuck in the lane perpendicular to oncoming traffic as we were turning left. Thank goodness there were no cars close by when I started to turn. This could have ended horrifically. We were sitting ducks and could’ve been t-boned. I had my kids in the car. This was so dangerous. And there were NO obstacles in front of my car. The automatic emergency braking system malfunctioned. It has done this a handful of times previously, but never put us in a dangerous situation like it did today. It has initiated in the past at slow speeds while pulling into parking spaces when no obstacles were present.
Adaptive cruise control malfunctioning. Sometimes it Does not turn-on , and shows an error message
The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that while reversing, the backup camera became inoperable. During the failure, the message "Park Pilot Inoperable" was displayed. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The local dealer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 80,000.
Automatic Emergency Braking when driving across a light rail track. The location: an intersection at north San Jose, CA area. Google map location and street view attached The issue: 1) only at this location + for more than 3 times, when approaching or over the light trail track, my car dashboard displayed frontal collision imminent warning and the emergency brake was automatically triggered. One time it almost caused the car behind mine to rear me. 2) during all the incidents, there were no light rail train nearby. It didn't matter if there were cars in front of or beside mine. Traffic light were green. All day time; clear weather. 3) reported the issue to Volkswagon service station, technician checked but found no defect. 4) my car was purchased 2018. it didn't have this issue until starting from 2021 The workaround: it appears, while approaching the track, don't hit the gas pedal, then it will be fine. It could be there are some train signal system interfered with my car's collision warning system.
First time-Driving on road at 45 mph when my car started flashing red for a forward collision and my cars automatic emergency brake stopped me immediately with nothing in front of me on a clear road. The stop was so forceful we thought we were hit from behind with no one around us. The force causing both my teenage son and I to have strained necks with the force of us stopping immediately. I was forced so far forward my head hit the windshield. Second time-driving in a parking lot at 10 mph when my cars emergency red flashed in dashboard then immediately stopping my car with no car or speed bumps ahead of me. The car behind me nearly hitting me. We got out of car to ensure they had not hit us because again with the force of the immediate stop, all in the car were forced forward in a jerking position. Took into manufacture and they said nothing was showing up and they have no idea what I’m talking about
The ACC and lane assist will not work. There is no obstruction of view from any sensor or camera. This is a known problem with VW and they haven’t done anything about this. This is a 2018 model. There is no reason for this to be happening.
While I was driving the automatic braking system engaged on 3 separate occasions last night, thankfully there was no one behind me or it would have caused an accident. A warning light did appear on the dash that read faulty brake system. I am going to contact a dealer to have it looked at.
The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the Auto Stop warning message was displayed and a loud audible beep coming from the vehicle to alert that there were vehicles ahead even though there were no vehicles ahead. Several unknown warning messages were displayed, and the vehicle then inadvertently steered to the right into oncoming traffic. The contact was able to regain control of the steering wheel however, the EPC warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to drive to her residence; however, the vehicle was not able to restart. The vehicle was towed to the dealer and was not yet diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 59,500.
Random and sudden braking of the Volkswagen Atlas, with the forward anti-collision signal lit on, whereas there was absolutely no cars ahead of the Atlas. It happened twice already, first on an highway driving at 60 miles/hr and a second time in a city at about 30 miles/hr. Fortunately, there was no crash. Our Volkswagen Atlas is still under warranty and we took it to Volkswagen of Kirkland, WA, who kept the car for two weeks for evaluation and investigation. After analysis, considering it happened only twice, Volkswagen Engineering USA (corporate) directed Volkswagen of Kirkland to return the car to us with no actions, asking us to report any future instances. They provided us with 3 complaint forms --> they might be expecting 5 events or crashes before taking it seriously. Prior to the two events of sudden braking, we have had multiple instances where the anti-collision signal and sound went on for no reason, but without braking.
MY 2018 ATLAS LANE ASSIST PULLS THE VEHICLE INTO ANOTHER LANE WITHOUT WARNING OR INTENTION FORCING ME TO KEEP A FIRM GRIP ON THE VEHICLE AT ALL TIMES. THIS USUALLY HAPPEN ON A BUSY HIGHWAY BUT IT ALSO HAPPENS ON SECONDARY ROADS AS WELL. IT IS SCARY FOR ME AS WELL AS ANY OTHER PASSENGERS IN THE VEHICLE. I HAVE COMPLAINED TO VWOFA AA WELL AS THE LOCAL DEALER WHERE I PURCHASED THE VEHICLE. THEY CANNOT FIND ANYTHING WRONG. IT IS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS RANDOMLY. THEY DID A SHORT TEST DRIVE AND FOUND NOTHING BUT IT KEEPS HAPPENING. FOR THAT REASON I RARELY USE THE VEHICLE. IT IS A SAFETY HAZARD.
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2018 VOLKSWAGEN ATLAS. WHILE DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS AND APPROACHING A MINOR INCLINE, THE BRAKE SENSOR BEEPED AND THE AUTOMATIC BRAKE LIGHT ILLUMINATED. THE FAILURE RECURRED SEVERAL TIMES. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO MCKENNA VOLKSWAGEN CERRITOS (18303 STUDEBAKER RD, CERRITOS, CA 90703, 855-995-7761) WHERE THE TECHNICIAN, AFTER CONSULTING WITH THE MANUFACTURER IN GERMANY, ADVISED THE CONTACT TO FEEL FREE TO TURN OFF THE FEATURE. THE MANUFACTURER WAS MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE AND STATED THAT THE VEHICLE WAS OPERATING AS DESIGNED. THE FAILURE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS APPROXIMATELY 100. *TT
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 25, 2026