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.

- Marblehead, MA, USA

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." 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.

- South Pasadena, FL, USA

Noise coming from transmission at take off; passenger driver side and driver side door weathering seal coming off; noise coming from steering when turning sounds like upper suspension mount faulty.

- West Hartford, CT, USA

Frequently while driving the 'lane assist' feature misinterprets freeway on ramps and old temporary construction lines and veers tha car away. This dramatic sudden turning can swerve the vehicle into another lane, off the road or into another vehicle. It happens nearly every day during normal driving.

- Atascadero, CA, USA

Vehicle stops suddenly and shuts off. Sloped driveways. Vehicle in motion approaching end of any driveway with certain angles will suddenly slam on the brakes and shut down, leaving stranded until restart. Possible to be rear ended or hit from any direction where traffic may be coming from. Sensors beep quickly right before this happens. The vehicle has plenty of ground clearance.

- Derby, CT, USA

My SUV is in the shop for stopping when it should not stop. When pulling out of driveways. The vehicle will apply the automatic braking system leaving me and the suvout in the middle of traffic.

- Vidor, TX, USA

I"M contacting you with an issue that needs immediate attention. There is a serious defect with the VW Atlas we leased 2 months ago. The automatic braking system deploys at unexpected and inappropriate times producing a life threatening situation. The automatic braking system has activated, dangerously and inappropriately, several times, usually when pulling out of a driveway and attempting to enter a lane. Although there is no obstruction or risk of collision, the car senses the insignificant change in slope from driveway to road and slams on the brakes causing the driver to lose all control. The car is then stalled in the middle of oncoming traffic. Recently, my wife and two children pulled out of the driveway of our local supermarket and made a left turn. The automatic breaking system was activated and she was left stalled in the middle of oncoming traffic. Another driver barely avoided colliding into our rear side door where our 3 year old son?S car seat is located. We have taken this issue to our local dealership, and they checked the system, and told us ?it is performing as the manufacture intended it to?. this is a serious design issue and its only a matter of time before it results in a major accident and I can only pray that my young children arena"T maimed or killed. The VW service people have shown us a complicated way to turn off the automatic braking system in the car, however this needs to be done every time you start the car. I feel its inevitable that a busy mother doing chores with two toddlers will forget to turn off the system at some point. This matter needs to be resolved before disability or loss of life occurs. There needs to be a way to fix the system or permanently disable it. We asked VW to permanently disable the system but they declined. We look forward to your prompt reply thank you. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).'

- Merion Station, PA, USA

One of the safety features of the 2018 VW Atlas is the automatic breaking system in the instance that a crash may occur. With this the front sensors of the vehicle warn prior to by either beeping or in some cases slamming on the automatic breaks. I have found that when I am on a hill of a certain grade, that the sensor system recognizes the bottom of the hill as an obstacle and many times when trying to accelerate off the hill turning onto the next road the automatic breaking system goes into effect stopping me dead into cross traffic and in some instances giving no warning to someone behind me that I may break urgently when I should be accelerating through an intersection/from a hill. I have almost been hit 3X with these issues and now find that I have a lot of stress when trying to drive off hills that this will continue to happen. I have tried turning off the front vehicle warning (which needs to be done every single time you restart the car) and this doesn't make any difference. To this same note, when I am in stop and go traffic, my front sensors continually go off which is a complete distraction when driving.

- Snohomish, WA, USA

On four separate occasions, my 2018 VW Atlas sel premium has activated the brake maneuvering system without warning. There is an aggressive braking combined with a loss of control of acceleration. Typically, this occurs when exiting a driveway or parking lot. On two of the occasions, I was merging into heavy oncoming traffic and the system left me stranded in a dangerous location perpendicular to oncoming traffic. This is a huge safety concern for me and especially if my wife and children are in the car. The car is currently at the dealer service center and there is currently one other Atlas in the shop for the same complaint. Multiple sources on the internet from other owners have announced similar occurrences. Many have reported that the service center simply tells them to deactivate the system. Well, that is not a fix... it is a temporary work around. Many have stated that VW engineers have reported back that the system works as intended and no fix is required. This is unacceptable. If the system is working as intended and is activating during potentially dangerous situations when there is no actual need for collision avoidance braking maneuvers, the system may need to be redesigned. I have not verified personally as to if VW denies any fault but I will certainly do so if the service department tells me that it is operating normally and I should just disable the feature. I paid extra for that feature, along with other safety features available because I want them for added safety should I, or my family, need them. The feature itself shouldn't put me in a dangerous situation.

- Pace, FL, USA

The steering wheel of my 2018 Atlas front wheel drive shakes when stepping on the gas from stop when the road is wet. I took it to the dealer 3 times and I was told that this is how the esp works. I even talked to VW customer service and I received a letter that my vehicle is performing as designed. I've driven front wheel drives before and never experienced this type of issue. I am concerned that there might be a hidden issue that is hiding right now and may cause an accident in the future. I've searched the Atlas forums and no one is experiencing this issue.

- Daly City, CA, USA

Vehicle has a maneuver braking system that is faulty. The system is supposed to detect if there is a vehicle or object that you are about to hit and auto brake. When I pull out of my driveway at home or work the system auto brakes and activates the maneuver braking when there is no vehicle or object present. This seems to occur on driveways that have a slight decline. This is a safety issue because when the maneuver braking is activated the car stalls in the middle of the road for no reason.

- Montrose, CO, USA

2018 VW Atlas manual, rear temperature control panel has a design oversight which should be considered a safety concern. The vehicle targeted the american family car market which should have assumed rear passengers were too young to reach the manual rear temperature controls from the 2nd row seating and provided a means for the 1st row passengers to control whether the rear vents blow hot or cold. This function was intentionally removed from the front panel manual controls. The upgraded tech package for the Atlas provides front and rear zone automatic temperature controls as well as the ability of 1st row occupants to override the rear settings. The manual controls only allow 1st row occupants to enable or disable the rear controls whereas minivans / family SUVS experienced include rear off, rear control, and rear sync to front. The issue here is that if a child strapped in a car seat in the rear says they are cold, the 1st row passengers are going to do something about it. This involves reaching blindly behind the center console to feel around for the appropriate buttons and may even result in the driver having to remove their eyes from the road to peer over the console to see what the settings are. The only change a front row occupant can make to the rear temperature setting from the front panel is to disable it which is an unacceptable solution in most cases. In other words this design flaw encourages a driver to take their eyes off the road or be distracted beyond what holding a cell phone for a voice call does. If most states consider it illegal to drive/ talk non-hands free, this design feature should be corrected with a Volkswagen firmware change. After 9 months of attempting to do exactly that, VW has responded flatly that they will do absolutely nothing to correct the design. Dealers aren't even aware of the behavior in order to warn customers.

- Corvallis, OR, USA

Engine turns off while running. Display says to turn on engine manually. The problem is that if you are in a highway you have to stop an push the brake and then the start button. It happened in acity street. This is the fifth time it goes to the dealer to solve this problem.

- Toa Baja, PR, USA

VW called to inform me a the safety recall. The first person I spoke with at the dealership said my car was not affected. The second person at the dealership stated my car was affected. When I run my number in the website search it does not show a recall. This is dangerous. If I was not suppose to drive my car due to this recall fix your search site. It is misleading.

- St. Louis, MO, USA

Forward collision system fault random forward collision system stopped working for approx. 45 days, fault error on display but did not show up VW vehicle status report "Volkswagen car net security & service (vehicle diagnostic and maintenance) happened in baja sur Mexico and VW usa would not cover under warranty service in Mexico. Started working again unexpectedly without being repaired.

- Brentwood, Ca, CA, USA

I read under a complaint site that you could press the start stop button while in motion not in park and shut off the vehicle at speed. I tried this and it does shut off the vehicle. The location of the button is right next to the gear shift and is easily accessible to children and any number of accidental reasons to press it the vehicle becomes very hard to steer and brakes become very different while not running. I fear for my family. I tried this in a parking lot while going very very slow to ensure my ability to stop safely if needed. At speed I don't know if I could have. The Atlas has 83 miles on it so it's a factory safety issue.

- Lake City, PA, USA

First the engine light came on couple days called spoke master mechanic stated shouldn't be problem as long as it's not blinking, bring in for check up. Engine light turn off. Car wouldn't start. Car was taken to dealer mechanic for about week. 3weeks later after getting car back. Engine turned off while in drive motion on my disable husband that has one leg. Thank god my two other adult children's were there. I'm afraid to take a chance traveling with this car. I fear for my family's life and safety as well as mine. My Atlas has been towed back to the dealership repairs and has been there for 3 weeks.

- Apple Valley, CA, USA

The heating system is not functioning properly when the remote starter is used, and there is no immediate solution to address the problem. The heating system disperses cold air instead of heating the cabin and defrosting the windows/windshields. This has been an issue since getting the car in November 2017. V told me this is a known national issue and no immediate solution. I'm concerned that all VW customers who purchased a in Atlas with a remote starter, are not getting the service the paid or are paying for. Nice addition prospective buyers or new leasers are not being informed. I know you have major issues to work with at the national level; however, since the scope of this issue is national you may want to be aware.

- Weymouth, MA, USA