Volkswagen of America is recalling more than 143,000 Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs due to an issue that could keep the front passenger air bags from triggering in a crash.
The recalled SUVs were identified as some 2018-2021 Atlas SUVs and 2020 Atlas Cross Sports. The affected vehicles are equipped with a passenger occupant detection system that controls when an air bag is released during a crash. However, a fault in the wiring could cause the system to malfunction and switch off the passenger air bag, even when a person is sitting in the seat.
Volkswagen is working on a fix for the issue and will notify owners once one is devised, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“A deactivated air bag will not deploy in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of injury to the front seat passenger,” the NHTSA said. “Until the free recall repair is developed and completed, owners should not allow anyone to sit in the front passenger seat.”
Volkswagen launched an investigation in 2019 after getting some reports of issues with the passenger occupant detection systems in certain Atlas vehicles. In February 2021, company officials described the issue as “highly sporadic,” although they later determined that problems were concentrated in SUVs made within two specific production periods.
“A technical root cause for the increase in the two production periods could not be identified,” Christopher Sandvig, director of group customer protection for the Volkswagen Group of America, said in a chronology shared by regulators. “Out of (an) abundance of caution, the (Volkswagen Product Safety Committee) decided to recall vehicles from the two production periods with significantly higher failure rates.”
Vehicle owners can visit the NHTSA’s website or call its safety hotline at 888-327-4236 and enter their vehicle’s 17-character VIN number to determine if the vehicle is under recall.
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