2021 Volkswagen ID.4: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Sep 25, 2026 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · CA

For approximately the past month, the steering-wheel controls for the vehicle’s Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) have intermittently become completely unresponsive while driving. When the vehicle is first started, the buttons work normally and can be used to activate ACC, adjust the set speed, and change the following distance. However, after several minutes of driving, the steering-wheel ACC controls suddenly stop responding. When this occurs, the driver is unable to reduce the ACC set speed or increase the following distance using the steering-wheel controls. This creates a potentially dangerous situation because the vehicle may continue traveling at a speed or following distance that is no longer appropriate for changing traffic or road conditions, while the driver has lost immediate access to the controls intended to safely adjust ACC. The problem is intermittent but has occurred repeatedly over the past month. Because the failure occurs while the vehicle is in motion and disables the driver's ability to make critical ACC adjustments, I believe this represents a significant safety concern that warrants investigation. Here's a link to a video of this occuring: [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Apr 27, 2026 · Body, Driver assistance · PA · crash

My 2021 ID.4 has experienced two separate incidents of sudden, unintended forward acceleration while parking. In both cases, I was maneuvering at very low speeds (less than 5 mph) and transitioning from a stopped position, or from reverse into drive, with the intention to move forward only a few inches. But instead of creeping forward as normal, the vehicle suddenly jerked forward approximately one foot. In the first of two incidents (approx. October 2025), it crashed into the car in front of me. In a second incident (3/14/2026), it crashed into an EV charging station. This is a safety concern and may be related to steering wheel capacitive touch controls, possible unintended activation of adaptive cruise control (ACC) or “resume” function, or erroneous or overly sensitive input from the steering wheel control module. No warning signs or messages appeared prior to the failure. Luckily, no one, including my young children, stood directly in front of the vehicle during either of the incidents; otherwise, they may have incurred serious bodily injury or worse. I was also luckily unharmed in both incidents. I am immediately taking the car to the dealership for a full inspection.

Filed Nov 15, 2025 · Acceleration, Electrical · NY

The main console display (e.g. Speedometer, Cruise Control, Dashboard) is displaying an error message: "Warnings and Information not available. Drive with Greater Care". I have tried to reset the system without success.

Filed Jan 24, 2025 · Driver assistance, Steering · CA · crash

While stopped at a red light waiting to turn left, with foot on the brake, my car suddenly accelerated and lunged forward , plowing into the car in front of me with great force. I had to jam down the brake almost to the floor to get the car to stop. My foot was on the brake. There is no way I hit the accelerator. Even if I had, the AEB system is supposed to prevent me crashing at close range. I understand that this is a known issue related to the adaptive cruise control. The force of my car was so great that 3 cars in front of me sustained damage.

Filed Oct 13, 2024 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · MA

Over the past month, the car has provided warnings when driving: 1. Front assist has limited availability, 2. ACC unavailable, and 3. Emergency assist is currently not available. Note: the ACC was not engaged when these messages appeared. On October 1 I was driving on a highway at about 65 MPH with adaptive cruise control engaged. The weather was clear. Suddenly the ACC disengaged and the car began to slow. I re-accelerated the car by pushing the accelerator and continued my trip without ACC. No accident occurred but I was surprised when the car began to slow without warning on a major highway at high speed. When it was safe to do so, I pulled over into the breakdown lane to read the messages. The two messages displayed were Front assist has limited availability and Emergency assist currently not available. The picture on the front of the dashboard also indicated that ACC was not available. Over the next few days while driving locally (without ACC engaged), these three messages would periodically appear on the dashboard. I brought the car into a local VW dealer (Wellesley Volkswagen) to have it looked at by the service department. They indicated on the invoice from the visit that they "performed road test. RAND GFF and performed soft configuration of the 5F, front sensor and cluster. Reset all codes with success." The invoice also listed "Concern: 919A vehicle software open. Correction Not available at this time - customer will get notice via mail". I was told by the VW Wellesley representative when I picked up the car that these error messages will likely re-appear until I get the 919A software update, which is not available. These error messages did re-appear yesterday, October 12, while driving locally without ACC engaged. As a side note, I received a recall 919A in the mail from Volkswagen in July 2024 (more than 3 months ago) telling me that a recall repair is not available.

Filed Sep 11, 2024 · Acceleration, Driver assistance · MD · crash · 1 injury

I had backed in to a parking space in a parking lot. To exit, I shifted the car into Drive, gently touched the accelerator (which should have accelerated the car to 2 MPH) and turned the steering wheel about 90° clockwise with my left hand to straighten the wheels. In doing so, the base of my left thumb inadvertently pushed the Set button on the cruise control, causing it to set to 15 MPH, its minimum setting, and the car to rapidly accelerate. I jammed on the breaks but wasn’t able to stop in time to avoid colliding into the side of a passing car. Because my right knee was locked in my effort to stop my car, the force of the impact was transferred to my hip and, though nothing was broken, I ended up spending two days in the observation unit of my hospital followed by eight days in residential rehabilitation. At the time, I had no idea what had caused the car to suddenly accelerate, seemingly without any input and certainly without my intent. It wasn’t until several months later that a similar acceleration event occurred, fortunately not resulting in an accident, and I was able to determine the cause. This problem is not the result of defective parts but of design. I believe the cruise Set button should not be located so close to the steering wheel rim and should not be raised as it is, but the safety issue could also be resolved in software by not allowing the cruise control to engage at very low speeds.

Filed Sep 10, 2024 · Driver assistance, Electrical · PA

VW still has not remedied the rebooting screens issue from their May recall. If the main driver information screen shuts off, cruise control and lane keep also shut off, which means the vehicle slows down and will not continue following the lane, resulting in the vehicle possibly being put in a dangerous situation.

Filed Jun 24, 2024 · Driver assistance · TX · crash

I was driving on a highway using the cars adaptive cruise control, when the car suddenly without warning slammed on the brakes. This caused me to be rear ended by a car behind me. The automatic emergency braking system had triggered without any hazard in front of me. Although there had not been a warning light of a malfunction, the car had previously activated phantom emergency braking. Previously the car on several occasions the cars AEB system activated but only briefly applied the brakes before quickly disengaging and the AEB warning went away. However, this time the brakes fully activated causing the car to stop abruptly from 50-60mph to a stop. I have not yet reported the issue to the dealer and no one has yet inspected the vehicle. Although no one was hurt, this issue could have caused very serious injuries and did cause significant damage to my vehicle and the other vehicle.

Filed Oct 16, 2023 · CA · crash · 1 injury

I was slowly driving down a lane in a parking lot. The parking spaces were perpendicular to a wall. I start to turn the steering wheel and slowly tap my brakes since the car was already going at a slow speed. All of a sudden, the car lunges forward and crashes into the wall beyond the parking slot. The airbags blow up and, after impact, my mom who is in the passenger seat complaints about severe chest pain. Soon the ambulance is there to take my mom to the hospital (she is eventually diagnosed with two broken ribs and a fractured cervical bone). I stay at the scene to talk to the police about what happened (the police gathered information from bystanders and took many pictures). I am in shock about the incident and trying to figure out what happened. I research the topic on the Internet and find out that there are others who have complained about sudden and unexpected acceleration in this car model. In fact, there is a class action lawsuit which explains that the overly sensitive cruise control (haptic, touch sensitive control on the steering wheel) can be accidently triggered and cause the sudden acceleration. Thank you for looking into this safety problem.

Filed Sep 12, 2023 · Brakes, Driver assistance · CA

While traveling at highway speeds I suddenly got multiple warnings of the parking brake becoming inoperative, Auto Hold Error, and Travel Assist and Cruise Control no longer available. When trying to park the vehicle's parking brake would not engage and a loud warning sound and red warning message with "Do not park vehicle on an incline" came up on the dash. The vehicle was not able to be parked on any surface without it potentially rolling away. When trying to take the car into the dealership on Monday, 9/11/2023 the vehicle would not move out of "Park" and had be dragged out of the garage it was parked in.

Filed Aug 30, 2023 · Acceleration, Steering · CA

The steering wheel controls on our 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 are haptic. That means that if you brush them with your fingers or hand with light pressure, they can activate. When leaving a neighborhood street, I turned the steering wheel approximately 180 degrees to pull out from a parking spot next to the curb. Upon releasing my grip a bit on the steering wheel (to let it rotate back to 'straight') my right thumb grazed the cruise control activation button (which is normally on the left side of the steering wheel). Since I had been using cruise control earlier in the drive, the cruise control resumed and the car accelerated without my providing any pedal input. Luckily I realized what had happened and pushed the brake pedal to cancel cruise control. The cruise control was set to 15 mph. I am thankful it was not set to something higher, like 65 mph. I don't know how fast the car would have accelerated in that case.

Filed Mar 18, 2023 · Acceleration, Brakes · CA

My vehicle was in Travel Assist mode (i.e. Adaptive Cruise Control) traveling at around 65 MPH. A vehicle has cut into my lane and I felt that the car wouldn't slow quick enough to avoid a collision. I have applied breaks effectively taking the vehicle into my control and taking the vehicle off Travel Assist mode. When driver takes over by applying the breaks in this scenario, irrespective of how hard the breaks are applied, vehicle suddenly moves faster than expected for first few seconds. I had to apply the break harder than I would have applied if I was driving the car in manual mode to get the car to slow down.The expectation was that the vehicle slows down while applying the breaks. This would have caused a collision if I was not quick to react. There were no warning lights or messages on the dashboard prior to or during this incident. This could be a software issue which probably is conflicting between the breaks travel assist is applying and the breaking that the driver is applying. This has happened multiple time to me and on date mentioned on this my wife had same experience confirming that this is in deed an issue that needs some investigating into before it cause any accident(s).