— Model year 2018-2021 Volkswagen Atlas and 2020 VW Atlas Cross Sport SUVs may have front passenger airbags that deactivate with occupants in the seats.
The problem is bad enough that Volkswagen is warning people to stay out of the front passenger seats of the recalled 2018-2021 Volkswagen Atlas and 2020 VW Atlas Cross Sport vehicles.
The recall of more than 161,000 VW vehicles is caused by faults in the wiring of the passenger occupant detection systems.
However, people may need to avoid the front passenger seats for an indeterminate amount of time because VW doesn't know how dealers will repair the problem.
According to VW, the Atlas SUVs are equipped with passenger occupant detection systems (also known as Body Sense) in the front passenger seats.
"On these vehicles, the system is integrated into the seat heating and controls the activation of the passenger frontal airbag. The seat heating is connected to the Body Sense control unit under the front passenger seat via a wire. If the wire has a contact fault, it may cause the passenger occupant detection system (PODS) to detect a malfunction and switch off the passenger airbag, even though the seat may be occupied." — Volkswagen
A driver should see a warning light, hear a warning sound and see an error message if the problem occurs.
VW plans on mailing interim recall letters May 26, 2023, then second recall letters will be mailed when dealers are ready to repair the vehicles.
If you have questions about not using the front passenger seat, call Volkswagen at 800-893-5298 and ask about recall number 69FB.
