[AZAtlas]

I purchased my 2018 VW Atlas SEL in November 2017. I traded in my 2017 Chevy Equinox Premium. Overall, I am impressed with the Atlas. However, there is a HUGE safety issue with with models equipped with the Automatic Post-Collision Braking System. When vehicle travel down an incline like a driveway, the emergency breaking feature will unexpectedly engaged, causing the vehicle to come to a complete and sudden stop. When this occurs, I have no control over the continued movement of the vehicle. I am required to change gears and/or restart the vehicle in order to move the vehicle again. This poses a extreme safety issue as the vehicle will shut down when you are attempting to pull out of a private drive and on to a active roadway, increasing the risk of a side on vehicle collision. Issue was reported to VW service department. Service manager was able to duplicate the issue. Service manager also tested another VW Atlas on the sale lot with the same feature. Service manager reported that the same issue occurred with the other Atlas as well. Service department was unable to correct the issue, reporting the vehicle is "operating as designed." Issue was reported to Volkswagen. After a three week period, Volkswagen reported that they were declining to take further action on the issue, stating the vehicle was 'operating as designed." This issue poses a major safety issue no only to the driver and occupants of the vehicle, but to other motorists on the road. Volkswagen has been given notice of the issue and refuses to acknowledge of take action.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue. There have been 5 complaints posted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) from other drivers experience the same exact issue. This is a clear defect in the design of the Automatic Post-Collision Braking System. Volkswagen needs to take immediate action.

 

[TKP]

When vehicle travel down an incline like a driveway, the emergency breaking feature will unexpectedly engaged, causing the vehicle to come to a complete and sudden stop. When this occurs, I have no control over the continued movement of the vehicle. I am required to change gears and/or restart the vehicle in order to move the vehicle again.

Does it occur every single time or is it an intermittent behavior. Have you made a note if it happens when you take your foot off the gas and you are letting the vehicle roll on the incline. Does it occur in Sports mode as well?
It sounds as though the vehicle seems to conclude that the driver is incapacitated (due to a collision) even though there is no collision.

 

[AZAtlas]

It depends on how steep of an incline the vehicle travels down. There are certain driveways that is occurs all the time without fail, such as my driveway and certain parking lots I use downtown. My foot is on the grass every single time. I stop to make sure there is no oncoming traffic. I then remove my for front he break and accelerate on the grass. Once the vehicle starts to move down the incline onto the main road, the collision alert system lights up the instrument panel and the automatic emergency break function activates. The dealership service department was able to duplicate the same issue using my car as well as other Atlas's on the car lot. This is a obvious defect in the design of the system. The service manager said he believes the collision sensors are aimed too low to the ground. My Atlas is not AWD so I cannot speak to whether is does this in Sports mode.

 

[KarstGeo]

This is not the post-collision braking system, it's the Maneuver Braking system and it's function (and how to get it going again after it's applied) is spelled out in the manual under the Park Pilot system. I too have this issue occasionally and have learned to creep out of my driveway. You can also turn this off in the infotainment menu under Car. Thread over on vortex regarding this and I have pics of the section of the manual as well as how to turn off Maneuver Braking. I also think you just can't accelerate in this case and have to creep it with your foot on the brake pedal - again, just turn it off in the menu.

 

[Sbourger]

I have the exact same issue. When I pull out of my parking lot at work or my driveway at home I start getting a fast beeping and then maneuver braking is activated and car comes to an abrupt halt. There is never any vehicle or object around. My car is in the dealership now and I was given a loaner atlas that is doing the same thing! I have also filed a complaint with the NHTSA.

 

[VNeBLOB42]

@AZAtlas as mentioned try to turn this feature off and see if it activates the breaking feature. I know it will be a pain to do this every time and turn it back on once you clear your driveway. Also, there are 3 settings of adjustment, not sure if this is the same feature that is causing the auto brake, but having a more conservative setting may fix your issue.

 

[KarstGeo]

@AZAtlas as mentioned try to turn this feature off and see if it activates the breaking feature. I know it will be a pain to do this every time and turn it back on once you clear your driveway. Also, there are 3 settings of adjustment, not sure if this is the same feature that is causing the auto brake, but having a more conservative setting may fix your issue.

The 3 settings (early/medium/late) are for the front assist which IS NOT the same as the maneuver braking and basically adjust the sensitivity of how the vehicle will apply brakes if it thinks you are going to hit the car in front of you when you are moving (>10mph or so...below that speed threshold it thinks you are parking and the maneuver braking that is part of the park pilot system can engage).

 

[KarstGeo]

I have the exact same issue. When I pull out of my parking lot at work or my driveway at home I start getting a fast beeping and then maneuver braking is activated and car comes to an abrupt halt. There is never any vehicle or object around. My car is in the dealership now and I was given a loaner atlas that is doing the same thing! I have also filed a complaint with the NHTSA.

This is by-design (whether you like that design or not) so bringing it up to the dealer is a good thing (I will upon my first service visit) but having it out of service for weeks on end b/c of this isn't worth it - they can't fix what isn't broken. Just toggle off the maneuver braking in the menu, file your NHTSA complain, write VW a letter, and keep driving your vehicle. We all drove cars for years without these features so having it off isn't a huge deal...all the other systems still will work (blind spot monitor, rear cross-traffic alert, front assist, pedestrian monitoring, lane assist, etc.). Maybe VW will be able to calibrate the sensors somehow to reduce this issue but that will take some time if they do anything at all.

 

[Loren O'Connor Dempsey]

I have the identical problem, with the same response by the dealer and VW of America. I was almost in a t-bone like accident a few weeks ago, and they will not do anything to fix the problem. "Operating as expected" I made a complaint to NHSTA and waiting on another call back from vw of America.

If you have autonomous braking- you should turn if off until this problem is fixed, and make a complaint please.

 

[bksunshyne]

Ptsd

I have a 2019 Atlas and I am experiencing the same thing! It is giving me anxiety. When it automatically breaks like that it feels like a car accident. For this reason alone, I would get rid of truck.

 

[Michelle McGovern]

I am happy I found this forum and others who are experiencing the same issue. The first time this happened, it scared the crap out of me. I was exiting the driveway of my daughters tutor onto a 2 lane busy road. I went to pull out of the driveway and my car started beeping, followed by a loud noise and my car stalling in the middle of the road. I had to put my car back in gear and turn it back on. I had 2 lanes of traffic coming at me at 45 miles an hour. I brought this up to the dealer when I brought it in for service. They said they couldn't find anything wrong (ran diagnostics) and treated me as if I was making it up. They also told me it was probably due to having low gas in my tank. I thought maybe this was the case, so I went back to the tutor the next week with a full tank of gas and it happened again. This time I waited til I had enough distance from traffic. After that, I refused to enter the driveway to the tutor and parked in the lot next door. Up until this week, the only place this happened was at the exit to this particular driveway. On Tuesday, I took my daughter for ice cream and when we were exiting their driveway, same thing happened. This particular driveway is not as steep as the other and did not anticipate this happening. I should have waited for more clearance before pulling out as the car had to stop to avoid hitting me. I made sure to check my gas level and I had 161 miles (1/2 tank of gas). I really do not see how this is normal operation of a vehicle. I plan on following the advise of previous post and try to disable it. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed by this. I will file my complaint with NHTSA and with VW. I did see a site with a class action and will investigate further. For reference, I have an SEL premium edition. I am not sure if any additional safety features come in this model.

 

[KarstGeo]

I am happy I found this forum and others who are experiencing the same issue. The first time this happened, it scared the crap out of me. I was exiting the driveway of my daughters tutor onto a 2 lane busy road. I went to pull out of the driveway and my car started beeping, followed by a loud noise and my car stalling in the middle of the road. I had to put my car back in gear and turn it back on. I had 2 lanes of traffic coming at me at 45 miles an hour. I brought this up to the dealer when I brought it in for service. They said they couldn't find anything wrong (ran diagnostics) and treated me as if I was making it up. They also told me it was probably due to having low gas in my tank. I thought maybe this was the case, so I went back to the tutor the next week with a full tank of gas and it happened again. This time I waited til I had enough distance from traffic. After that, I refused to enter the driveway to the tutor and parked in the lot next door. Up until this week, the only place this happened was at the exit to this particular driveway. On Tuesday, I took my daughter for ice cream and when we were exiting their driveway, same thing happened. This particular driveway is not as steep as the other and did not anticipate this happening. I should have waited for more clearance before pulling out as the car had to stop to avoid hitting me. I made sure to check my gas level and I had 161 miles (1/2 tank of gas). I really do not see how this is normal operation of a vehicle. I plan on following the advise of previous post and try to disable it. Someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed by this. I will file my complaint with NHTSA and with VW. I did see a site with a class action and will investigate further. For reference, I have an SEL premium edition. I am not sure if any additional safety features come in this model.

I addressed this issue further back in this post - it's the "maneuver braking" and unfortunately, that's just going to happen if you try aren't going VERY slow in these situations. I just turned mine off in the "parking/maneuvering" menu. Took 3 times for it to hold/stay off. I had it happen to/from my driveway and I just got sick of having to creep in/out.

 

[daohaus]

I need to rtfm but I've had the center display pop up this red car icon with the radiating senior icon on 2 occasions with the associated warning beeps. One was crossing a 2 lane bridge and one on the freeway in traffic. What the heck is that?

 

[KarstGeo]

I need to rtfm but I've had the center display pop up this red car icon with the radiating senior icon on 2 occasions with the associated warning beeps. One was crossing a 2 lane bridge and one on the freeway in traffic. What the heck is that?

Firstly - the manual handles this so I suggest you check it out; has a picture of all the dash symbols and what they mean.

This just means the front collision system sensed a possible collision, that's it.

 

[daohaus]

Firstly - the manual handles this so I suggest you check it out; has a picture of all the dash symbols and what they mean.

This just means the front collision system sensed a possible collision, that's it.

Yah i dug around the interwebs and found the pdf manual for the atlas and located it.

 

[Chessski]

I have been having the same issues even in my own driveway! I feel we should be able to turn it on and off, but it will activate even in the off position! I was pulling out of the AAA insurance parking lot onto a busy 4 lane street and when I started to pull out it slammed on the brakes. I reversed it and tried to pull out again and the car did it again same thing! I had to put it in reverse again and try to pull out a third time!!! I was lucky the guy behind me gave me room to back up and he didn't rear end my car when I was pulling out and the car braked again. I think Lemon Law needs to be activated before one of us is in a critical car accident . We need a class action I believe

 

[KarstGeo]

I have been having the same issues even in my own driveway! I feel we should be able to turn it on and off, but it will activate even in the off position! I was pulling out of the AAA insurance parking lot onto a busy 4 lane street and when I started to pull out it slammed on the brakes. I reversed it and tried to pull out again and the car did it again same thing! I had to put it in reverse again and try to pull out a third time!!! I was lucky the guy behind me gave me room to back up and he didn't rear end my car when I was pulling out and the car braked again. I think Lemon Law needs to be activated before one of us is in a critical car accident . We need a class action I believe

Folks are confusing the various systems the Atlas has that can stop the vehicle. The front collision warning (that when you don't take action say at highway speeds will slow/stop the vehicle) is not the issue you are having. You are dealing with the "maneuver braking" system which is slow speed system that will stop you if you are below a certain speed and it thinks you are about to hit something stationary (car, parking bollard, etc.). You can turn it off in the parking/maneuvering menu. I turned mine off a few mos. after purchase b/c I got tired of having to creep in/out of my somewhat-steep driveway. If the parking sensors have a solid tone and you try to continue going above a certain speed the brakes will engage. This one has been discussed a lot - google "vw maneuver braking". I suggest taking the time to learn the system/turn it off.