Software Problems of Volkswagen Atlas

Vehicle goes into emergency mode for 4th time. Happened twice in 2 days. A total of 4 times in 5 months. With no warning, multiple warning lights come on and the car applies emergency braking until the car is brought to a stop. There is no opportunity to choose a safe place to bring it to a stop. Driver is unable to accelerate until car is parked and restarted. The 4th time this happened, was on an interstate traveling at 75 to 80mph with vehicles around traveling at same speeds or in excess of that speed. Luckily there was an opening on the shoulder that I was able to quickly pull the car into and the car behind me didn't rear end me. This is the 4th time it's happened and could have caused bodily harm. Vw does not care. A software update was performed in February that was supposed to fix the problem. Because it didn�t, vw wanted to replace my entire ecm because they thought it was faulty. After threat of buyback did they finally start digging into the car. Techs found a faulty relay switch. They replaced it and said problem couldn't be recreated so it was fixed �as far as anyone could tell� and didn't need a new ecm.

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This has happened 3 times now. When driving, all emergency notification lights come on without warning and the car applies emergency braking. The driver is unable to accelerate and must come to a stop immediately or the car does it for them. The only way to then drive again, is to park it, turn the car off, and turn it back on. When that is done, almost all warning lights disappear and the car behaves as though nothing ever happened. The only error that the vehicle shows is an error with the start/stop system and says that the engine is on due to system failure. If you manually turn off start/stop, then all warnings are gone. Usually, when the car is turned off and driven a second time after that, no warnings (not even start/stop) appear. This has happened at 65mph on cruise control, at 10mph in a parking lot, and at 50mph. The first time it happened, a stored code for multiple passive Mini faults appeared, but dealer could not recreate problem and I was told to drive it and call if it happens again. 3 months later, it happened again with completely different variables in driving prior to it happening. When brought in to the dealer, the same code was thrown in addition to a code about low battery output. Vw warranty engineers determined it needed a software update. After software update was performed, the new code of the battery output level went away. 2 months later, the same thing happened again at a different rate of speed. No check engine light was ever on, nor is it presently on. There is no warning that this is going to happen. The driver has no choice but to stop the car immediately in its tracks and turn it off. The driver is unable to determine a safe place to pull the car over to until they have turned it off and back on and virtually all warning lights have disappeared.

I have been having problems with the car slamming on brakes for no reason, no cars in front of us we were on the highway driving at about 70 mph. The acc system works sporadically. We were told that when they did the recall repair it deprogrammed the acc which they say there is no software update. My daughter was parking the car and the car shut off on the middle of the road and told her to manually restart the car. There is a grinding noise when accelerating the dealership said this was �normal and related to the torque converter. The cruise control also works sporadically since the recall repair. The car stalling and slamming on brakes are both very serious safety concerns.

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Vw performed an emissions recall software update on this vehicle approximately 6 months ago. Since this software update was performed the adaptive cruise control does not work after using the vehicles oem remote start. The adaptive cruise control works when not using remote start however. They have so far refused to offer a fix.

The random problems we are experiencing are electrical related issues. When unlocking the car with the fob the car sometimes does not adjust the seat based on the fob, nor does it recognize the satellite radio, the radio gets stuck on the am setting, etc. Other times the car engine shuts off but everythiing else is on just like the auto engine shut off feature. Something is wrong with this car. It drives fine and the issue is random but frequent. I don't know what else to say. I am an it professional and the only thing I can think of is that my Atlas has some type of software/electrical bug. On Sunday morning the radio was not working after I started the car. I had to shut off the car and radio several times in order for it to work. This happens regularly, very random. Always when turning on the car.

I was driving my 2018 vw Atlas with 8,800 miles on it on 11/5/18. I was stopped at a traffic light and when the light turned green the car's engine did not turn back on from idling and all the lights on the dashboard started going off telling me various things. I do not think having an ecofriendly car is worth it turning off to not turn back on when it's supposed to. I had to have it towed to the dealership, who fixed the car telling me that there were software updates and that the battery was drained. The printout from working on it says that the battery charging system is good but the battery was defective internally, on a car that's a little over a year old. There was absolutely no warning, the car would not recognize my key, would not turn on, and essentially was useless in traffic and extremely unsafe. I am thankful my children were not in the car. Vw claims the problem is fixed but reading others complaints I am doubtful and afraid that it's only a matter of time before this happens, without warning, again. I cannot have this happen due to safety reasons, being a single parent of two young kids, and I had to also miss a day of work to deal with a problem that should never have happened in the first place. I am also wondering if this problem has anything to do with my car having an oil spill after an oil change that the dealership did incorrectly in August. They did not tighten the cap to the extent it should have been tightened and oil spilled all over my garage, stained it, and it's never coming out. Vw fixed that and gave a free oil change in the future? I really hope that did not mess up my new car and cause this new issue to happen. I cannot have any more issues happening with this car and the battery/computer issues need to be fixed so that they don't ever happen again.

The most concerning safety issue is the malfunctioning auto start/stop system. On four occasions, it has shut off the vehicle while in motion, pulling into a parking spot, resulting in loss of power steering. On a separate occasion, it shut-off the vehicle while stopping to pay the parking attendant but failed to restart the vehicle when I released the brake and step on the accelerator. I had to put the vehicle in park and manually restart the vehicle. I have also had multiple experiences when I have turned off the auto start/start when I started the vehicle only to have it reactivate itself and shut-off the vehicle when I stopped at an intersection. Other issues involve the "infotainment" system and climate control electronics. On multiple occasions, the radio has turned itself on after I have turned it off. As for the climate control system, it periodically deactivates the rear passenger compartment climate control and shuts off airflow to the rear passenger compartment and I have to manually reset the system through the button on the dashboard. These experiences indicate the vehicle electronic and software systems are unstable and the Volkswagen dealer has not been able to fix the issues, as they have recurred after the dealer claimed to fix the issues. I am concerned about my family's safety in this malfunctioning vehicle. The date below is the most recent event involving the auto start/stop system. The first occurrence was in mid-February 2018, approximately two weeks after purchasing the vehicle.