Volkswagen has issued a recall on a total of 143,053 Atlas SUVs due to an issue with the front passenger-side occupant detection system that it doesn’t fully understand yet. The automaker says that the fault could cause that seat’s airbag not to go off in the event of an accident.
In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Volkswagen reports that it first became aware of the issue in August 2019. At the time, it received a single claim of the passenger occupant detection system (PODS) not working correctly.
It notes that in vehicles produced during two separate periods, the PODS system may fail. Although it doesn’t fully understand why, it is integrated into the seat heating controls.
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If a wire has a contact fault, it can cause the PODS system to malfunction and to switch off the passenger-side airbag, even if there is someone in the seat. That would lead the airbag not to deploy in the event of an accident, severely increasing the risk of an injury.
Fortunately, the airbag warning lights should work as intended, so owners whose vehicles exhibit this fault will throw up a “Passenger Airbag Off” warning light. The Atlas may also play an acoustic warning sound, as well as another warning message in the instrument cluster.
In vehicles with this issue, Volkswagen says that owners should avoid using the front passenger seat whenever possible, as a result of the elevated risk of injury in an accident.
The fault affects a single 2021 Atlas made on July 17, 2019, 15 2020 Atlas Cross Sports built between April 19 and July 24, 2019, and 143,037 2018-2020 Atlases made between August 19, 2016, and August 30, 2019.
Despite not fully understanding the issue, VW says that a new wire with a spiral shield was introduced in October 2022, which should mean that the fault will not present itself in vehicles built after that date.
It is still working on a remedy program for the vehicles that are affected by this recall. A reimbursement plan will be offered to any owners who paid out of pocket to repair an issue related to this recall.
