2023 Volkswagen ID.4

As I was driving my vehicle around 5 miles per hour on a small street looking for parking, the car had some electrical malfunction that caused it to move forward and hit a parked vehicle, then reversed into another vehicle. The safety of my fiancee, myself and my dog were put at risk as we were jolted back and forth as this happened. The car has been inspected by my insurance company and the mechanic who had to do the repairs. No warning lamps or messages were present prior to the failure.

On two occasions the entire instrument panel went dark. Speed and other information were not available. It is my perception that lane keeping assistance, blind spot monitoring, automatic braking for collision avoidance and other safety systems were not available during those incidents. I have inquired of dealership maintenance personnel, and they do not know how many systems are affected. When these incidents occur, it is disconcerting for me as a driver and could cause an accident. If the safety systems are not functioning, then the probability of high-speed collision is increased. Examples of that would include front-rear collision at highway speed and lane changing or merging on expressways. A recall for these problems was issued in May, 2024 with an update in July but the manufacturer says they don't know how to fix it. I have asked them for either a prompt repair or for them to buy-back the car. They have denied my request. I believe that so much time has passed that they should be required to repurchase the car.

I was arriving for an appointment and preparing to parallel park on the street. I was parking on a street in front of the office building, which is located on a corner. I observed the second and third vehicles parked from the corner were preparing to depart. I moved my vehicle slightly to the shoulder and activated my blinker to wait for the vehicles to leave. I idled next to the car parked at the corner to allow room for the departing vehicles to exit and for myself to pull in. Both vehicles pulled out of their parking spaces and into the street. I then proceeded to accelerate to pull into a parking spot. As two spots had opened, it was large enough for me to pull in forward without needing to parallel park by backing in. As I started to pull in, the vehicle’s automatic emergency braking system malfunctioned and erroneously engaged the brakes with violent force. An alarm sounded in the vehicle, a red warning flashed on the screen, and I was launched violently forward in my seat. The force with which the vehicle stopped made it seem as though I had hit something hard, like a wall. I quickly put the vehicle in park -- only halfway pulled into the parking spot -- and exited the vehicle to survey the situation. After circling the vehicle, it was clear that nothing had been hit and there were no obstructions in the road whatsoever. I returned to the driver’s seat and resumed parking. After pulling into the space, I put the vehicle into reverse to straighten out. Again, the vehicle’s braking system engaged without reason, though this time less violently and without the sound alarm and red warning. After parking, I exited the vehicle and took photographs of the area to document that there were no obstructions or anything else in the environment that would cause the system to believe there was an obstruction. Due to the malfunction, I sustained injuries consistent with whiplash -- pain, tightness, and inflammation along the left side of my neck and left shoulder.

I left my office at about [XXX] on [XXX] Thursday for home, traffic was moderate, approaching the long weekend. I reached home at 5:29 pm, opened the garage and started parking the vehicle inside the car. All of a sudden, the car just took off and randomly accelerated and the next thing I found was that the vehicle landed and stopped right inside the house on the small island by the garage entrance, which is about 9” higher than garage floor, into the house with the front metal door and right side of the wall and bathroom door all shattered in front! On my left, I saw my wife in (by kitchen stove) in total panic and my [XXX] mother- in- law shouting to my wife. “What happened?!”, and my [XXX] grandson crying and closing his ears from the loud sound! Instinctively, as I realized I would not be able to exit the vehicle from where it was lodged, I reversed the vehicle back into garage where I could come out. As I switched into reverse gear (which this vehicle requires you to press the brake to be able to switch from drive to reverse), the vehicle again just accelerated with force. This time, damaging the garbage can in the garage, left garage door vertical track, drywall and outside brick wall, as the brakes were not engaging. If I had not steered my car right or left, I would have landed in the living room of the house across the street. Therefore, I steered to the right to remain on the street (in hindsight, this may not have been the best choice – in case there was another vehicle or resident walking on the street). As my vehicle was in reverse, going towards the street perpendicular to mine, it knocked down the street sign pole onto my property, ran over the curb, grass, and landscaping stones on my lawn. Finally, the vehicle stopped two feet away from my living room window and 3-4 feet above street level, under a tree on my front lawn, crashing against a big landscaping rock. When the vehicle stopped, it took me at least 30 seconds to rea INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FO

As I was driving, the infotainment screen went black and Apple CarPlay stopped playing. As this happened, the driver’s information screen still worked but changed to grey scale colors. After about 4 minutes of the infotainment screen being black, the driver’s info screen also went black. This continued for about one more minute when both screens rebooted on their own.

Collision warnings/automatic breaking has failed on vehicle multiple times. Presumably due to the software/hardware not being able to process. This has led to several incidents of near collision when in travel assist (self driving) and in general operation where it has actively backed into objects. Dealer did not have comments on incidents. Also raised infotainment resetting during driving from current campaign which is 6+ months old and they did not have an ETA on a resolution. Recommend pushing a forced buy back campaign as VW is unable to fix these dangerous issues.

On 9/17/2024 roughly at 10:00PM, while in the drive-thru picking up food, my Volkswagen ID.4 suddenly self-accelerated out of nowhere as I was slowly driving towards the window to pay for food. I was completely shocked—I’ve never experienced anything like this. I tried to react quickly, but the car surged forward and slammed into a large cement light post. The impact was hard, and the car is now severely damaged. What really shook me was that none of the safety features I’ve come to rely on worked—there was no automatic braking, late front collision warning, and despite the heavy impact, none of the airbags deployed. I ended up feeling all bruised and now have some severe mid-back pain. The thought that I could have easily been hurt more seriously, or worse, could have harmed someone else if this had happened in a crowded area, is traumatizing. This has made me completely lose trust in the vehicle’s safety systems. If the car can do this in such a low-risk situation, I can’t imagine what might happen in a more dangerous scenario. I brought up other safety concerns to Volkswagen that were completely dismissed.

I am writing to complain that VW has not offered any assistance or solution to the electronic software failure noted in NHTSA Recall # 24V344. I have been experiencing software and electrical failures that affect the center and dashboard displays. I have no speedometer or rearview camera display, no warning systems, no cruise control, etc. Also, the car periodically locks itself and won't allow me to enter the car with the key fob, and I have to leave the window open to open the car manually. The lack of a dashboard display of speed is dangerous. I brought the car to VW dealer who reset the software and that fixed the problem for one month and then the problems returned. VW claims it is a software problem but has not offered any software updates or repairs since it was first published as a recall in May 2024. My car is too dangerous to drive when this software failure occurs--which sometimes happens while driving nd immediately affects the drivability and safe operation of the car. When it happens, nearly all the warning lights and messages start blinking and cycling while driving. We need help with putting pressure on VW to offer a solution and repair of this serious operational issue.

Vehicle has an error stating: “Warning and Information not Available. Drive with greater care!” Key safety features including speedometer and back-up camera are not available. Issue is not due to delayed boot-up. Speedometer and cameras did not return during a long drive. Error remained after vehicle was shut off and restarted. See photos of error message and note lack of speedometer and cameras.

There is a recall on this vehicle and is very dangerous to drive. The screens go dark and we are unable to see how fast we are going. When this happens we also do not know if any of the safety features work. I have been told by the local VW dealer that as of right now there is no fix to this recall. I feel that VW should have better options for the consumer to be taken out of this vehicle. This is very dangerous and could really cause a lot of harm.