Automatic Emergency Braking Problems of Volkswagen Atlas - part 1

I was driving on 2nd street and realized I wasn’t going to make it through the light, so I stopped. I noticed that I had stopped in the crosswalk, so I decided to back up. Before backing up, I checked everything—I looked in my left mirror, my right mirror, behind me, and also at the rearview camera. There were no cars in sight behind me. As I started backing up, I heard a beeping sound indicating there might be a car behind me. I checked my mirrors again and looked at the camera, but there was still nothing there. I continued backing up and kept hearing the beeping sound. I checked again—mirrors and camera—and still saw nothing, so I kept going. I sped up slightly. Then suddenly, within seconds, my car slammed to a hard stop. It was a very abrupt emergency stop that caused my head to jerk forward and backward. It felt like someone had hit me from behind. Right after, I looked at my dashboard and saw multiple red warning lights and messages indicating that an emergency situation had occurred. I immediately checked my rearview mirror and side mirrors again, but there were no cars behind me at all, only vehicles beside me on my right hand side that were going straight, since I was in a left-turn position. I am in hospital because of my pain. I have pain in my neck and head , I’m dizzy, the room is spinning, I’m nauseous. My nose is stuffy and I feel like I have cold, and my vision is blurry.

See all problems of the 2018 Volkswagen Atlas 🔎.

Unknown cause and effect. Driving 25-30 mph per the stated speed limit when suddenly the car braked, going from the estimated speed to 0 in the middle of the road nearly causing a rear end collision. I had to restart the car, put it back in drive and release the parking brake to avoid impeding traffic any further. There were no dash indicators or indication noises. Just a sudden and abrupt braking.

See all problems of the 2025 Volkswagen Atlas 🔎.

When you move from reverse to drive in short spurts to park the car, the vehicle's emergency brake system turns on when nothing is in the way and causes car to lock up - beep loudly and vibrate. This is very disruptive when you try to park and scary as the car is over-reacting.

See all problems of the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas 🔎.

I’ve owned the Atlas for a little over a year now and throughout the year the vehicles infotainment system and electrical system has had several recurring issues. I’ll get notifications while I’m driving of the front and rear sensors being inactive, the entire infotainment system will periodically reboot while driving, the automatic braking system unexpectedly engaged on a couple occasions - even when there was not a collision hazard, the systems bluetooth connectivity will go on and off while driving which affects my ability to use gps and creates a distraction while trying to correct, the infotainment system will crash while I’m in reverse which takes away the use of the back up camera, and just the other day the voice control activated while I was driving (without being prompted) and I couldn’t deactivate it without manually rebooting it while I was driving. I did a few google searches to find a resolution but it appears many others are having similar issues. These recurring issues have distracted my attention while driving and have created some dangerous situations that could have easily caused a crash or incident.

The brakes are grinding, pads were checked at local shop and were noted to be 11mm and should not be grinding.

Over the air software update causing the infotainment system to fail and shut down causing all the safety systems to not work. The infotainment system in this car also contains the climate control, am/fm radio, hands free communication, and all charging devices which will not work either. Vw has no solution, resetting the system does nothing ( hard or soft).

Emergency brakes activated while driving normally with no obstructions in front of me. This could've caused an accident if there were other vehicles behind me.

See all problems of the 2019 Volkswagen Atlas 🔎.

Two main issues. . . The automatic breaking will break in the most random spots. There is no car around but it reacts to certain ways the lines are painted on the road is my guess. It will do it to some cross walks as well as some round abouts. I've had to just turn it off so it doesn't kill me. Also, another issue is the battery. I just had the battery checked and it is good but when the the fuel gets below quarter taken the car will not crank. This has happened 3 times now.

See all problems of the 2020 Volkswagen Atlas 🔎.

The autonomous braking activates out of no where while driving. Violently hard and nothing around. A message appears on the dash board saying it can not sense hands on steering wheel. Also while backing up it will activate and no one is near the car or it even activates in an empty parking lot. The car jolted so hard when this happens and everyone went flying forward. No . . The dealer has had the car for 8 days and says they can not replicate the problem. He asked me for permission to drive it to land o lakes and I said no the car is very dangerous and that is a huge liability . I gave them permission to drive it around local only. No the vehicle has only been inspected by the dealer. He said since they can not replicate it he can not have a mechanic from Volkswagen assigned to it. No nothing appeared only after. Also, the brakes squeak and sound like it’s grinding on metal like a very old car. Also the front assist beeps loud when nothing is in front of the car. Also, when I go to start the car at times, it will not detect the key. I will bring the second key and it will not detect the second key also. Also the radio screen constantly disconnects everything and it will turn black and then display 0000 with a date of April 6 2025. Also while driving the app will say the door is open. The trunk is open the windows open when everything is closed. That also happens at 2 am or 3 am. It will say the trunk is open. The door is open and everything is closed.

While driving 25 mph with no traffic or people around the car came to an extreme sudden stop and without warning. The dashboard lit up red with warning lights and warning alarms sounded followed by complete shutdown of cars systems. No skidding or tire screach - just an instant forceful stop, as if engine cutoff and breaks forcefully seized simultaneously. We were able to restart car and immediately drove to dealership a couple miles away to report an extreme safety concern. Because there was no traffic or people around we feel it has something to do with a sensor and the automatic breaking system. The car was dropped at local dealership (lowcountry Volkswagen - mount pleasant SC) for inspection. This was a dramatic event and safety for driver and others was put at risk due to such a forceful stop. We have serious concerns driving vehicle. What would. Happen of system failed driving at higher speeds or if traffic was around? vehicle has been at dealership for 1 day and problem has not been duplicated. Vehicle has not been inspected by manufacturer, police, or insurance but can be made available. Dashboard lit up with red warning lights at time of incident. There were no warning lights or messages prior to incident.

While going through an automated car wash, I experienced a critical malfunction at the end of the belt. When it came time to shift my vehicle from neutral into drive, the car would not respond. Every time I attempted to shift into drive, the emergency brake would automatically engage, preventing the vehicle from moving forward. As a result, I was stuck at the end of the car wash belt. The car behind me, unable to stop due to the forward momentum of the belt, was pushed into my vehicle. Their vehicle sustained damage from hitting my trailer hitch, although my car did not appear to be physically damaged. This incident created a clear safety hazard, not only putting me at risk but also directly causing a rear-end collision. I believe the failure was related to either the automatic emergency braking (aeb) system or the shifting mechanism. However, I am not a mechanic, and this is my best assessment. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. This malfunction created an immediate safety risk by leaving my car immobilized in a narrow, automated space, with another vehicle in motion behind me. The inability to shift into drive and the automatic engagement of the emergency brake contributed to the collision. The issue has not yet been reproduced or confirmed, but the Volkswagen dealership has been contacted and is scheduled to perform diagnostics next week. The other vehicle involved in the collision was inspected by longmont auto body & glass, who provided a repair estimate of $1,495. 39. My own vehicle has not yet been physically inspected by the manufacturer. Warning signs or symptoms prior to failure: during the car wash, proximity alarms were sounding, indicating that I was close to or might hit an object (likely the wash brushes), but I received no specific dashboard warning messages related to the shifting or emergency brake system before the failure occurred.

For steering: there is a grinding noise that happens each time I turn my wheel when turning into a parking spot or making a non wide turn. It happens every single time that I do it. For automatic emergency braking: it turns on while I am in the middle of driving constantly.

See all problems of the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas 🔎.

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.

On January 20th 2025, we were driving on an open street with moving traffic. The automatic braking system kicked in for no apparent reason and the car slammed on the brakes on its own resulting in us almost being rear ended. Our safety and the safety of others was put at risk due to the car braking with no warning and for no reason, causing the person behind us to almost hit us. In the past, the car has randomly loudly beeped at me and given me the forward collision warning for no reason, but it has never auto braked like that for no reason. It was scary and makes me concerned about the safety of the vehicle for my family.

When the outdoor temperature gets low, below 20 degrees fahrenheit, the vehicle thinks the driver-side front door is open, when it is closed. Because of this, the vehicle does not want to allow itself to be driven and will put on the electric parking brake. Even if released, the parking brake will automatically re-engage any time the vehicle speed drops below a couple of miles-per-hour. In addition, other errors persist with the electrical system, including error messages regarding the hill descent control, parking assist, passenger side airbag detection, internal lighting, etc. Based upon research, it seems this issue is identical to a recall issued for the same make & model, but for the years 2019-2022.

Driving on a single lane road with no other cars on road (in front or behind) and car suddenly brakes to a complete stop and the crash warning sound become audible inside the car. This happened 1 other time about 1 month prior but car did not come to a complete stop that time. That incident there were other vehicles on the road but were at a fair distance away from the car and those vehicles were not braking or slowing down.

We were driving down the interstate with cruise control on. There were no other cars around us thank goodness but the car slammed on the brakes with no warning. If someone had been behind us we would have been rear ended and possibly hurt.

Error with drive system was caused by engine overheating. Maneuver braking function triggered and faulty throttle body issue discovered.

While approaching an intersection at about 20 mph, vehicle suddenly applied the front collision braking and almost caused an accident from the vehicle behind me. There were no vehicles in front of me or any other obstacles. Other 2019 models have been recalled with he same issue for a harness wiring or software update. This is dangerous and risks my family's life.

On [xxx] my 2021 Volkswagen Atlas cut off on [xxx] at the red light and I was almost rear ended multiple times until a kind gentleman moved my car out of the intersection. It has been parked in my driveway since because the battery won't hold a charge. I had the battery tested but the machine read that something is draining the battery even without keys being in the car ignition switch. The windows goes up and down by themselves without the power being engaged. The car is surging and all of these things are included on a recall list for Volkswagen which I will include in this complaint but Volkswagen specifically kurt o from vw social media said that won't do anything to help. I truly believe they are picking and choosing whose VIN number to repair and the rest are left to their own vices. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Our vehicle's gps system will not calibrate and the navigation system is completely off when driving. The affected safety and driving systems have caused our car to stop suddenly at freeway speeds on the freeway, as well, while driving in town, our safety deterrent systems will alert constantly due to the wrong location is being sent to the car. Volkswagen company notified dealerships yesterday to prepare for an onslaught of consumer complaints about this issue. There is no expected timeline to deal with this directly as it is not a hardware issue but rather a cellular gps issue with verizon wireless. Volkswagen has no intent on dealing with the safety issues with this car and accepts that your car may stop suddenly on the freeway because the car thinks you are in a school zone. My family's safely comes first and we can no longer drive our car.

While operating the vehicle at about 50 to 60 mph the automatic emergency breaking system activated without warning and with no vehicles in front, and violently slammed on the breaks causing the vehicle to go into emergency stop in the middle of the highway. This then caused numerous vehicles following to take measures to avoid crashing into the rear of our vehicle. Numerous lights and warning lights started flashing on and off and parts of the screens went black and turned off and on. The car then kept the breaks locked down and we had to limp the car along the shoulder of the road to the dealership to have them look at it. This incident jeopardized the safety of my family and other drivers and passengers around them. The dealership has not been able to replicate this issue so far. Prior to this incident the technology portion of the vehicle stopped responding, and we were unable to link devices to the vehicle.

See all problems of the 2022 Volkswagen Atlas 🔎.

My vehicle while driving on the highway at 65-70mph had the automatic emergency brake system engage. We came to a complete stop and if the highway was not empty could have resulted in a traumatic incident for my family and I. I called Volkswagen and they do not have a fix for this issue. This is our only vehicle and we are not comfortable driving it. It could happen again and could be worse than the first time.

On 5/22/24 I was driving approximately 30 mph on a sunny, 83f day. There were no other vehicles around me, no pedestrians, no bicycles, no animals, etc. I was traveling south on a straight section of the road when my car came to an abrupt and complete stop. The car's automatic braking system was engaged without any prior warning. The car went from 30mph to 0 mph instantly. There was a loud beep, the red abs indicator light came on, the wipers started operating involuntarily. The force of the momentum cause items to fly forward in the car. The seatbelt locked up. The force of the stop also caused whiplash and the belt tightening caused pain to my ribs and back. I was stunned and scared. Thankfully, no cars were around me and I was going 30mph instead of 70mph when I travel the highway most of the time. If someone was behind me or I had been traveling faster, the incident could have had grave consequences. I was next to a dentist office so I pulled into their parking lot slowly. I turned the car off and looked at the exterior. There was no indication that I had struck anything and there was nothing in the road that would have set the system off. Not even a leaf or bug. I had received a letter 2 days prior about a class action lawsuit against vw describing this same issue going back to 2017. I looked up what to do in the situation and everything online suggested deactivating that feature on the car. I turned the car on and deactivated it. I drove 15 mph to my office 0. 4 mi away because I was scared it would happen again. I called my dealership and scheduled a diagnostic appointment. They couldn't get it in until 6/12/24. They have had it overnight and have pulled data from it and sent it to vw in germany apparently. Since I deactivate the feature before each trip, the problem has not happened again for me. There are many stories of this happening online but vw hasn't issued a recall at all and says it isn't an issue.

See all problems of the 2023 Volkswagen Atlas 🔎.

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.

The abs or aes malfunctioned while driving. The brakes were automatically applied, without warning, with a medium amount of traffic and vehicles behind me. This poses a significant safety issue to myself and others when the brakes get applied without warning. A vehicle behind me had to swerve to avoid rear-ending me and others had to go around me on an onramp to the highway. I am taking my vehicle to Volkswagen of waco today to have this issue looked at. I am also looking into a dashcam to see if I can get the issue on camera in case the dealership isn't able to duplicate the issue. This issue has occurred other times, this has not been an isolated incident. I do get a faulty brake booster light while the vehicle is braking so there is no warning before it happens, just me flying into my steering wheel.

Breaking is very harsh when the car is cold. Makes rough sounds and feels like having grinding rocks between breaking pads and disc. Sounds could also be described like being under water. Very unsafe to break. Breaks very rough and sudden. No pump action on the breaks when is performing like this. Dealership acknowledged the problem saying is a recurring situation but they say there are no safety issues with it and refuse to fix it or change the unit in 3 different occasions. They cleaned the breaks offering a temporary repair but this did not fixed anything.

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.

After heavy rain, the forward looking radar will start stop working with no warning, cause aeb and forward warning not functioning, greatly increase risk of collision. The problem is consistent with heavy rain, but dealer refuse to do any repair because it didn't happen normally. The problem appeared on 03/31/2024, 06/30/2024, 08/18/2024 every time there is a heavy rain, with picture as proof.

The forward collision warning activated out of the blue and the automatic emergency braking was applied for no reason. Was driving to go pick up daughter from school on March 11, 2024 at approximately 11:50 am. Driving on neighborhood road with speed limit of 40 mph. Driving at 40 mph with no other vehicles anywhere near me in front, behind, or in opposing lane. All of a sudden the front collision warning light on dash popped up and the emergency brakes applied for no reason! this caused the vehicle to seize up and come to a screeching halt. Luckily there were no vehicles behind me that could have rear-ended me, and there were no other vehicles coming from opposing direction that I would might have slid into. There was no reason why this should have happened. There were no vehicles anywhere in the vicinity. No leaves falling, no debris in the roadway, nothing. No inclement weather, it was sunny and dry but cold approximatley 40 f. Inspected front of vehicle afterwards and there was nothing obstructing the sensors or cameras on front end.

Driving on a straight road in the rain approximately 45-50 mph with no other cars in front. Automatic braking system went on 3 times within 200 yards. Very scary- could have been rear-ended or hydroplaned.

The Atlas has shit off mid drive twice so far. Once with the auto shut off button turned off and once not turned off. It cause the vehicle to suddenly brake and nearly get my family rear ended. Many times it detects objects not there and tries braking in the middle of intersections, while making turns nearly causing us to be tboned. It is not worth my families life so it is currently sitting at the dealership no lights are on the dashboard at this time.

I have experienced an alert/alarm for a "faulty break booster", "break system failure", as well as other break related alarms go off while driving. Multiple times I have been going over 40 mph and the vehicle has instantly breaked and came to a stop on it's own. I have taken my vehicle to the dealer and was advised there is no issue. This issue seems to happen randomly as I have been unable to recognize any similarities between conditions and frequency.

Component malfunction: emergency braking system (ebs) engaged without warning systems alerting inside the car cockpit at a speed of 50 mph on a high speed 4’ lane street. The car would not move forward and disengage the ebs until the ignition was turned off and appeared to reset the car. The driver was able to drive to the next driveway and inspect the car and review the site on the street where the car suddenly engaged the ebs. There was no visible evidence of debris or obstacles in the path of travel. Safety: the sudden stop physically jolted the driver, causing muscle soreness for several days. There were no cars in the area at the time, if there had been, the car would have created a major accident due sudden stop in traffic and potential physical damage to the driver. The sudden stop did impact the drivers shoulders and back muscles for several days of soreness. Dealership confirmation / inspection: the issue was reported to the dealership and the next day was driven to the dealership (at the request of the dealership service team). The dealership is currently inspecting the vehicle. No other inspections occurred outside the owners visual inspection of the wheel wheels and brakes immediately after the ebs incident prior warning lights / related incidents: there was warning lamps that lasted for about a mile of driving approximately a week before this incident and the car sensors have suddenly gone off in the past without any cars in the vicinity. The car has also been having wire harness issues in the drivers door that result in unresponsive or opposite operation of the window switch on the drivers side door.

Automatic braking happened when crossing an intersection. I pressed the gas to go and went a couple of feet before the automatic braking kicked in. I had to put the car in park and restart the car. Luckily I was at the front of the traffic line so I was not going at a high speed because if I had been on the freeway, etc. This would have been so dangerous . This car has 15k miles and things like this should not be happening. I have 5 kids and this would cause detrimental damage at high speeds. I started having brake issues (grinding noises, brake slippage etc. ) only a couple months after getting the vehicle and have been to dealer several times to resolve the issues but no fix has lasted more than a couple months. I have an appointment to go in again next week to check automatic braking as well as the grinding noises again as they also happening again. Apparently faulty brakes are a known issue that vw will not fix. It was one thing to have to go into the dealership every quarter to get them replaced, but now this added issue of the automatic brake turning off makes me feel very unsafe to drive it. Vw needs to do something to resolve the brake issues on the Atlas.