Adaptive Cruise Control Problems of Audi Q3

Driving 75 mph in heavy freeway traffic with no for warning at all, my car initiated auto breaking violently tightening my seatbelt two times. The steeringwheel was was also jerking left, and right like the car wasn’t sure what to do. I had both hands on the steering wheel. And was trying to stop it. The car would not allow me to take over her control. Myself and was coming to a stop. I looked into the rearview mirror worried for my life and found amazingly that nobody was directly behind me. The car’s horn was honking. The hazards were flashing. It was all kinds of lights on the dash not sure exactly what they works. It all happens so fast one seem to have had a lightning bolt and an sos med alert of some kind. This felt like it lasted 30 seconds but in hindsight, it was probably only 3 to 5 seconds as so much was processing in my brain. My wife was freaking out as it also pulled her back into her seat very violently twice the car felt like it was totally gonna fall apart in the dead middle of the freeway it would not let me control, gas brake or steering as it was getting slower and slower almost to stop. I tried to turn it to the right to get to the shoulder of the freeway. It fought me, but I was able to get it off to the side of the road once I was on the side of the road and came to a complete stop. The horn stopped honking the lights quit flashing everything on the instrument cluster went normal and the cars radio turned back on like nothing had happened. This was the most frightening experience ever as when it occurred. I was in busy freeway traffic, extremely unsafe and terrifying luckily no accident, this could have been so much worse and it could’ve caused so much to those around me not just my family and I in the car but other lives could’ve been in jeopardy as well on the freeway. After contemplating what to do I reluctantly went to the next exit which was within a 1000ft then straight to the Audi dealership in leighton, utah. I have filed a full repo.

The vehicle repeatedly disengages critical safety features, including distance warning, traffic sign recognition, adaptive cruise assist, emergency assist, and active front assist, and displays a malfunction alert. Additionally, the vehicle has abruptly stopped without any identifiable cause while traveling on a straight roadway with no surrounding traffic. The dealer provided me with a brand new 2026 Q3 two weeks ago. The vehicle exhibited the problem described, and the dealer replaced it because they were unable to resolve the issue. However, after I received another new vehicle, the same issue also ap.

The vehicle’s adaptive cruise control (acc) system intermittently fails to detect vehicles directly ahead at lower speeds. When this occurs, the car maintains the set speed instead of slowing down, creating a potential collision risk. The issue has been present since the vehicle was new and has occurred repeatedly over a two-year period. Specifically, while driving in moderate or heavy traffic using acc or adaptive cruise assist, the system occasionally does not recognize a slower or stopped vehicle ahead. The car continues to accelerate or maintain speed until I manually apply the brakes. Once I brake and re-engage the acc, the system immediately detects the vehicle ahead and resumes normal following behavior. This pattern strongly suggests a software or sensor logic fault rather than driver error. There are no visible warnings, messages, or malfunction indicators before or during the failure. The problem has been reproducible multiple times under similar conditions. The local Audi dealership has been informed, but as of now no official fix, recall, or service bulletin has been issued for this behavior on the 2024 Audi Q3. To my knowledge, the manufacturer has not publicly acknowledged the problem. This malfunction poses a significant safety hazard, as it can result in the vehicle failing to decelerate in time to avoid a rear-end collision if the driver does not intervene quickly. Component or system involved: adaptive cruise control / adaptive cruise assist (radar-based driver assist system). Availability for inspection: the system remains installed and can be inspected upon request.

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The clock spring is not functioning in our 2015 Audi Q3. The horn is non-functioning and we were told by the Audi dealership, after waiting for that part for three months, that there is a 50-50 chance that the driver air bag will not deploy and the cruise control is not working. I was alerted to this possible problem because my airbag light is on but was initially told it was only because of the horn. When we took it to the dealership initially to fix the horn, we were told it was on back order. I was not comfortable driving without a horn but was hoping it would be in soon. I continued to call every couple of weeks and was told not in yet. It was coming from overseas. Not until we went in and spoke with the service dept and kept asking more and more questions, did we find out that the clock spring is not coming any time soon. There seems to be a problem with the new clock spring being manufactured. Evidently it is the same part that vw uses, which was recalled, remanufactured and than problems still existed with the new part. I think it is not being manufactured. This is a huge concern because I commute to work which takes 3-4 hours a day of highway and city driving. It is a disappointment that Audi did not alert us to this manufacturing problem when we first took it in. Evidently it is impossible to find a used part and not recommended because no guarantee it will work either. They have offered to buy it back for less than what I paid and it is very hard to find another comparable used car that I can afford and won't have the same problem. . . I am very disappointed in the dealership not telling me about the possibility of the airbag not working and that the horn would not be coming any time soon since the problem has not been resolved with the replacement clock spring (part #5k0-953-569-al). I think this needs to be told to the consumers.

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The autopilot feature engaged and took control of the car. I could not wrestle control back even after I turn the car off and back on. I had to fight the car for 32 miles. From fort lauderdale to boca raton, FL. This happened for the first time last night 12/31 at 12:01 am. And it happened again at around 12:20 am. There was no warning lights only a lamp turned on after it had engaged. It also started showing the two lines marking the lane where I was traveling. It made it very hard to change lanes as I had to fight the auto pilot. I was driving on hwy us 1. If this had happened on I-95 (the other preferred route) I am sure we would have had a crash, possibly with lost of life.

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