2019 Volkswagen Atlas Driver Assist & ADAS Problems

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.

I was driving on the SB 55fwy in light stop and go traffic and had my ACC w/ traffic aware system engaged. My car was doing as it normally does, keeping a safe distance to the vehicle in front of me, automatically slowing, stopping and accelerating at a safe speed for the conditions. This feature I had been using on my car since I originally purchased it and paid for these safety features. When traffic was not stopped it was traveling between 15-20mph. All of the sudden my dashboard lit up with error messages, audible warnings, and check engine light, all flashing and beeping at me and before I quickly glanced at the dash to the alarming warnings, I had rear ended the car in front of me. This took me by complete shock as my car had always been overly cautious about applying emergency braking in close situations. This time it did nothing. The error message said Adaptive Cruise Control sensor had failed and along with that it had disabled all of the safety features I had become accustomed to and paid extra for, including, the emergency braking and front end collision warning. This caused almost $14k in damage to my vehicle and more so potentially could have put my entire family in danger. The sensor failure caused the accident, the damage to the other car that I was traveling behind and any potential injuries from the driver of that car. I have given this same statement to my insurance company, however no one has reached out to investigate the cause of the failure, not even the dealership service center, where I had originally had my damaged car towed to so they could check and verify with their scan tools that I had a faulty sensor. Also my vehicle had just been serviced the month prior and all software was updated at Norm Reeves Volkswagen, Irvine, CA.

The contact owns a 2019 Volkswagen Atlas. While the contact's wife was driving at an undisclosed speed, the automatic braking system independently activated. No warning light was illuminated. In addition, the contact stated that the instrument cluster displayed two vehicles crashing. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or the dealer. The contact stated that the failure had previously occurred twice. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 62,192.

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.

Overcast day. No rain, dry roads. 60 degree weather. Dash displayed forward collision warning (in red) and emergency brakes applied. Nothing in the road, no vehicles around. Thankfully I was driving slowly in the city and no vehicles behind me.

The blind spot monitor and rear traffic alert have now turned themselves off 3 times. Each time it will not turn back on by selecting in menu. All 3 incidents have required a trip to the dealer to fix. This is dangerous because when you start the car, there is no warning that they are not on.

I was driving between 35 and 40 mph on a 252/Providence Road at Wallingford Ave in Nether Providence Twp, PA 19086 last night at approximately 8:30p. It was dark, about 65 degrees and not raining. Road conditions were dry. The pavement is under repair with a temporarily patched utility trench for new water or gas lines in the drive lane. Just before the stated intersection, there are 2 large temporary steel plates on the road, which are somewhat raised (not flush). I was lightly applying the brakes to reduce speed. As my front tires made contact with plates, the collision warning flashed on the dash screen, no audible warning, and the brakes automatically and suddenly applied. The vehicle wheels locked and there was tire screeching heard. The vehicle came to a complete stop. There were no other vehicles in-front, behind, or on-coming. The vehicle stayed straight and there was no collision or damage. I am guessing the vehicle collision system sensed a shadow, 'saw' the light reflecting off the plates, or indicated a slippery surface due to the steel plate. The Anti-Lock brake system apparently didn't work as the wheels locked. The vehicle just STOPPED! I was the only occupant and for the record, in no way impaired. I'm pretty attuned to how my vehicle drives and reacts. Occasionally I'll get a false audible and visual alarm indicating a forward vehicle detection when there is nothing there. I've noticed this on dark, winding roads where I figure the glare from my headlights caused a false indication. This is the first time I experienced automatic, emergency braking.

When exiting a driveway that is sloped down towards the street, after stopping to look for traffic, and then proceeding, the collision avoidance system will automatically apply the brakes just as acceleration is needed to get ahead of oncoming traffic. This requires application of the brake then to make the vehicle move. According to the dealer that I've spoken with, the collision sensors are placed too low on the front bumper causing them to sense the road, but there is no fix other than to turn off the collision avoidance system every time the car is started, which requires navigating several menus and is not something easy accomplished.

I informed the VW service center approximately a year or more ago that it felt like the vehicle's brakes were stopping on their own. The service center claimed that they could not reproduce/detect the issue. Now there is a class action lawsuit regarding the matter yet no recall or safety issue regarding this matter attached to my VIN. There are people who likely do not know about this apparent issue and it is very dangerous to have a vehicle that will suddenly stop on its own. So far, my local service center refused to fix this issue along with two other safety issues. I am concerned that VW knows it is producing unsafe cars yet still puts them out in the market for consumers.

I have owned my Atlas for seven months. During this time my 2019 VW Atlas SEL will slam on the brakes without any need to. This has happened five times. There is not an object or person around, but the brakes engage and all the sensors start beeping. I will need to put my car in park and restart my engine to drive again. I consider myself lucky that the incidents have happened in parking lots or while entering the roadway with no other cars have around. One month ago my car was taken in to an auto body shop for a repair due to a back bumper collision. The repair seems to have made the problem worse since these braking incidents have happened since the collision/repair. The auto body shop says the manufacturer "codes" are reading as "O" so the car is clear and ready to drive, but the braking/sensor system is still not working properly. I hope VW will reevaluate the safety of this sensor/braking system.

The forward collision warning randomly went off while crossing a bridge. Nothing was around. The car abruptly stopped itself and was unresponsive to the gas pedal and steering until it was fully stopped. No problems were detected at the dealer. We are afraid to drive our children in this car due to the risk of being rear-ended on a highway with a child in a rear-facing car seat. If this ever happens in a tunnel, it would undoubtedly cause a mass casualty incident.

MULTIPLE incidents. Automatic Emergency Breaking - Vehicle suddenly stops in the middle of the road while driving, when pulling out onto roads and when reversing, when there are no oncoming vehicles, objects or humans. Two recent incidences where I was almost in a collision, the automatic emergency breaking did not activate at all. Parking sensors - the sensors come on frequently when there are no objects in front of the vehicle. They intermittently stay on. The vehicle has been inspected multiple times for these issues by the Volkswagon Dealer. Problems began very soon after purchase. The dealer has not been able to reproduce the problem so they have continuously sent me home with the malfunctioning vehicle. They did replace on sensor and have done multiple updates over the years, but the issue continues. Safety is put at risk because the car suddenly stops in the middle of the road or in intersections. This could cause a t-bone or being rear ended. This most recently happened to my new driver (daughter) and it scared her and put her in the face of oncoming traffic because the stop occurred and before she could get going again, cars were coming. If it happened on the freeway it could be deadly. Same daughter, a few minutes after the previously described incident, almost hit a fence. We stopped within about 2 to 3 inches of it and the automatic/emergency breaking system did not activate at all. These two are just the most recent incidents. These have been occurring since I purchased the vehicle.

The car sensors pick up objects that are not there which then causes the emergency brake system to engage on its own. Anytime in the vehicle there is no stop beeping from the sensors detecting objects that are not a threat. When entering an intersection is when the car seems to engage the emergency break the most. When this occurs I am stuck not moving when oncoming traffic heading towards me. I have almost been tboned in collisions several times by this error in the system. I have taken it to the Volkswagen service department several time over 2 months and they said the car does not read an error code so they can not help. They acknowledged there was a problem and they believe it is the sensors but said they can not do anything with it due to Volkswagen policies. We have presented video evidence of the issue to the dealership and they even saw it happen in their parking lot.The car is under warranty from the manufacture for 7 years and 84,000 miles. I reached out to Volkswagen directly and they said if the car doesn’t read an error code they won’t do anything. The car is unsafe to drive in at this time.

This vehicle has a major design issue nearly resulting in several accidents. The front safety impact system is very flawed design and needs to be removed and reinstalled. Multiple times I exited steep, not obnornallt steep, parking lot and the emergency brakes engage and enable my ability to accelerate when on coming traffic and Causing repeated dangerous situations for the driver and passengers. The “safety” system is a very bad design and needs to be quickly address before accidents and injuries occur.

The rear camera becomes unavailable intermittently when backing up. This has only happened occasionally and recently (in the past few months) and may be related to the infotainment system being given priority on the display and may be affected by weather (rainy).

On two occasions, I started to back up and the emergency brake system engaged, slamming the car to a stop, as if someone were behind me but there clearly was not. I had a car full of 10 year old girls and they all screamed. Two days ago, I was traveling a city street at 35-40 mph and the emergency braking system engaged and slammed the car almost to a full stop, while in busy traffic. The cruise control isn't currently working either, it throws an error when you try to set your speed. I travel approximately 40 miles round trip to work 5+ days a week at highway speeds. If the emergency brake were to engage while I'm doing 65-70 mph in rush hour traffic and lock the brakes, it will cause an accident. What if it is raining? There is no way someone traveling a few car lengths behind me will be able to stop suddenly. I will injure myself or others and I'm honestly scared to drive my Atlas right now so it is at the local VW dealer for further inspection. I told them my worries and this needs to be recalled quickly. It is a known issue, they asked me if my windows were rolling down when this happens, which is reported in the VM forums.

The contact owns a 2019 Volkswagen Atlas. The contact stated while driving 17 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently made a sudden stop. The contact stated that the Forward Collision Avoidance brake assist, the cruise control symbol, and stability control system waring lights illuminated. The contact pulled over and turned off and restarted the vehicle. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to properly accelerate while driving. The dealer was contacted and stated that the contact would receive a callback. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 59,600.

Atlas displays the same problems that others have also complained about. The vehicle will abruptly stop and engage the parking brake and set off all kinds of warning sensors. The driver's side door harness is the alleged problem and yet they have no fix. My VIN number is not associated with the recall but my Atlas displays the same problems as the recalled ones.

I have had the emergency brake suddenly deploy about a dozen times since purchasing this car. All have been at relatively low speeds, as in parking lots or when making a turn on street. There has been nothing in my path to cause the emergency brake system to deploy. I took it to the dealership and they said that the computer only registered one deployment and there was nothing that could be done.

On September 29th, my wife was driving approx 40 mph and her 2019 VW Atlas came to a screeching halt for no reason. The automatic emergency braking system engaged and caused the car to slam on the brakes and stop. Luckily there wasn't another vehicle directly behind her as this could have caused a very serious accident. We took the vehicle to local VW for service to diagnose and they could not make any repairs or determine anything at fault. There are numerous comments online from other VW Atlas drivers that are having these issues and for some year models, a faulty door wiring harness or electrical shorts in wiring could cause the issue. VW has even issued recalls for some year models but not 2019. Please investigate immediately and contact me with a resolution.