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2023 VOLKSWAGEN ATLAS — FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING

1 injured · 1999377 · 2024-06-13

Vehicle

Make
VOLKSWAGEN
Model
ATLAS
Year
2023
Manufacturer
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Component
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE: AUTOMATIC EMERGENCY BRAKING
Speed
30 mph

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
1
Fire
No
Crash
No
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

On [XXX] 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 be

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11594277
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown