33 of the
557 complaints about the 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 are about the
throttle and cruise control — 6% of everything
reported for this model year.
Half of the failures with a mileage on record happened before
50,095 miles.
F
33
Complaints
13
Crashes
0
Fires
5
Injuries
Exactly what failed
Vehicle Speed Control
33100.0%
Acceleration & Cruise Control across every Volkswagen ID.4 year
The infotainment screen and heads up display screen are constantly going black and rebooting, causing a loss of the speedometer for up to a minute at a time. Occasionally, the entire vehicle loses power and the accelerator does not work for a few seconds. The shop says it is the 5F control module, which was described by the dealership as handling one half of the high voltage current, as well as controlling the infotainment screen. If this module is responsible for half of the high voltage current, I don't understand why they claim it is not covered by the 8 year/80,000 warranty on the high voltage battery and related components.
NHTSA complaint #11757755 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Derby, NYCrash
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
In the process of parking, vehicle was stopped in the parking spot and vehicle suddenly accelerated to a high speed and crashed into a brick column. Air bags did go off. The warning sound and diagram that indicates you may have gotten too close to the curb in front did not go off. Police were called and inspected the vehicle before it was towed.
NHTSA complaint #11753759 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Lakeville, MNCrash2 injured
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
While reversing out of a parking space, my 2021 Volkswagen ID.4 automatically braked and stopped abruptly. Immediately afterward, the vehicle accelerated forward unexpectedly. I pressed the brake pedal, but the vehicle did not respond and crashed into a retaining wall. A forensic analysis of the vehicle’s event data showed the accelerator was at 100% and the vehicle was traveling approximately 22 mph at impact. The airbags deployed, the vehicle was totaled, and both occupants sustained injuries. I believe the vehicle experienced a serious malfunction involving the braking and acceleration systems.
NHTSA complaint #11739175 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
at 50,095 milesEvergreen, COCrash4 injured
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The contact owns a 2021 Volkswagen ID4. The contact stated that while the wife was parking and into a parking space, the brake pedal was released and the vehicle suddenly accelerated forward and crashed into a concrete barrier. During the incident front and side curtain air bags did deployed. Driver sustained an injured sternum and bruses and lacerations to both hands. The front passenger suffered a bruised sternum. both rear passenger sustained mild neck injuries. No medical treatment was provided. No police reported was taken. During the incident the building railing was also damaged. The vehicle was towed to the local repair shop but not repaired. The cause of the failure was not determine. The manufacturer and local dealer were not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 50,095.
NHTSA complaint #11737065 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Los Angeles, CA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Infotainment freezes and backup camera not working. This immediately started to happen after recent ota update. I never had these issues before this software update. Uploading pictures which shows gear selector is being put in reverse multiple times but camera not displayed. Even infotainment doesn’t respond to any touch.
NHTSA complaint #11730929 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Los Angeles, CA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Car startup just fine and drive without issues but sometimes center console freezes or randomly restarts and when that happen even speedometer stays at zero even car moving about 30-40mph. It stays in frozen state for about 2-3min or unless I force restart it by holding power button for about 10-20seconds. I have seen backup camera sometimes failed to display images which supposed to resolved in last few updates but I only experienced it after updated to software version 3.5. Uploading images as slide because I can’t upload video file.
NHTSA complaint #11727391 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Cupertino, CACrash
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
I was slowing down to park the car when it lurched forward in high speed and smashed into the wall. The front collision warning never went off, and the emergency braking never came on. My foot was on the accelerator and lifting off to park at low speed like I do all the time, so it wasn't like I was trying to slam on the brakes and pressed on the accelerator by mistake. The car was serviced at the dealership less than a week ago, but VW pushed out an OTA update 2 days ago. I don't know if the OTA update has anything to do with this scary behavior, but I have not experienced anything like this before.
NHTSA complaint #11719996 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
San Bernardino, CA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The vehicle has been in to the dealer multiple times for electrical system failures. The car is not safe to drive and has stalled multiple times while driving. The system has errors that light up stating there is an electrical system failure. The car has stopped driving in the middle of a trip, I have been stuck with my family multiple times while on short trips and long trips. The vehicle has been repaired multiple times for the same issue and it just came back again after several months being repaired. Each time the repairs occur, I end up renting a car and the time it sits at the dealer or repair shop has varied from 45 days to several days. This car needs to go. The issue first occurred a little over a year ago and has happened 3-7 times since and at random times. The issue has been reproduced by the dealer and reported to VW HQ.
NHTSA complaint #11717983 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Rye, NY
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The center display and the instrument panel on our ID4 reset unexpectedly while driving, even though recall with Campaing ID 24V344000 was performed on our vehicle. This caused both displays to turn off, first the instrument panel followed by the center display - we pulled over as we did not have any information of any kind of the status of the car. After a couple of minutes, it came back up again - restarted. We reported to our local VW dealer, who told us that there is no open recall.
NHTSA complaint #11711117 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Arlington, MA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The vehicle randomly gives warnings that road signs are unavailable. This is very distracting while driving. The vehicle software has no option to disable this.
NHTSA complaint #11701682 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Peconic, NY
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
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.
NHTSA complaint #11699585 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Tucson, AZCrash
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
I was pulling into street parking spot behind a parked car at a slow speed and braking to stop. I put my foot on the brake to bring the car to a complete stop but instead of slowing down the car accelerated straight into the vehicle in front of me. The rear end of the car in front of me was substantially damaged.
NHTSA complaint #11680157 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Phoenix, AZCrash
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The vehicle accelerated without control and crashed into the wall between my garage and the adjacent laundry room. That day someone could have easily been seriously hurt or killed. The problem was investigated but could not been reproduced. The vehicle was inspected by a team of investigators from the Manufacturer, VW. No warning signs or abnormal situations prior the the incident. The vehicle was in our possession and driven for 3 years, about 55k miles, no issues ever. The driver at the time is an experienced driver and familiar with the vehicle operation for three years.
NHTSA complaint #11668778 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Wellesley, MA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
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.
NHTSA complaint #11619534 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Melbourne, FL
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The two noted open recalls on my 2021 ID.4 have no fix. There has already been one battery cell replaced and another has gone bad. The vehicles lease ends in two weeks and the dealer, understandably, cannot take it as a trade for another vehicle, sell it to us, or resell it as it will sit on the lot until it is picked up by Volkswagen and totaled out due to it being unsellable. However, Volkswagen has no remedy for the vehicle issues, we are now losing out on any sort of trade in value, and are expected to pay the mileage over the lease agreement for a car that will be scrapped once returned. The dealer can only do so much, but Volkswagen not stepping in to acknowledge the vehicle at this point is a lemon and they do not know how to fix it or others, but expecting us to pay "depreciation" and other fees for a totaled vehicle, totaled due to their issues, is unacceptable. It's one thing for defects, another to not be able to fix them and them dump the cost to the consumer. This vehicle has been a financial burden and for the last few months has been a safety concern, and the final result is we as the consumer have to pay the price for it. Fix your design flaws, take responsibility, or don't sell consumers defective products with no support/solutions and dump costs on them. The fact one open recall means the vehicle could lose all electronics (an electric car) and have no insight into vehicle controls while driving, but we have to pay for the defect upon return is ridiculous. Lemon law will be coming into play here as no solution to the issue or remedy for the costs incurred. Being that this could have caused an accident or otherwise harmed my family or others and again the cost is dumped on us is ridiculous. If the engineers in Germany cannot fix the vehicle and have no solution, take it off the roads and find us a solution, at your cost not ours.
NHTSA complaint #11617135 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Rockville, MDCrash1 injured
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
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.
NHTSA complaint #11614049 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Chattanooga, TN
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Infotainment screen and instrument cluster turned off mid driving. This lead to complete failure of speed indicator. There is no speedometer available while driving. While be has an open recall it has failed to provide a solution in a timely manner.
NHTSA complaint #11604867 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Cotuit, MA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Got in my car today and have NO DASHBOARD INFORMATION, no speedometer, no battery information, no back up camera, no access to any software related information.
NHTSA complaint #11603643 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Oxnard, CACrash
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
On [XXX] approximately [XXX], I was in the drive-up line for Starbucks. The drive-up line was very slow so we waited for about 1/2 hour and I ended turning off my engine. I had plenty of room at least between 2-3 feet between myself and the car in the front. Then the line moved so, I put the car in Drive and covered the brake. I tapped the Gas/electric pedal and the car accelerated from 0 to 30 and lunged forward and I hit the car in front of me and they were pushed into the car in front of them. No one was seriously hurt, but police were called and ambulance arrived and found no injury - so there wasn't a police report. I was completely shocked that this happened so fast and I wasn't able to stop my car. So, when I hit the people in front of me. Their car was a Ford Mini-van older model. I dented their bumper, but see attached photos of damage to my car. I went on a VD owner website to see if other volkswagen owners had any acceleration problems and I was surprised to find so many people affected by acceleration issues. I decided to call Volkswagen headquarters and a case was opened. Volkswagen set up a data review with a Volkswagen technician. I dropped off the car at the dealership in Ventura. I was not provided with a report from the Data retrieval. I just received a letter from the case manager, Sarah that they did not find anything unusual. After reviewing the letter, they had the wrong date of my accident. The accident occurred on [XXX], and Sarah said the accident was on April 8, 2024. Of course, they did not find anything??? I will enclose their letter and when I asked about the report or speaking with the technician, I was told that they do not give copies, nor provide information. On the website for Volkswagen ID4 owners, there are many claims of acceleration problems, This vehicle is an self-driving electric car. There is a recall for a software issue, that has not been established yet if it is related to acceleration. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C
NHTSA complaint #11598425 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Clermont, FLCrash
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The first time I was stopped at an intersection. Luckily there was no one in front of me as the car, without warning, accelerated at full throttle. Although my foot was on the brake, and I was braking as hard as I could, the car continued to lunge forward. It finally stopped and I backed up to my original position in the intersection. The second time it happened I was pulling into a parking spot in a busy shopping center. Without warning, the car accelerated out of control, and, although I was braking as hard as I could the car continued to accelerate forward. It jumped the curb, crossed the sidewalk, and hit a large commercial postal mailbox knocking it off of its base in the concrete. There was significant damage to the vehicle but luckily in both cases no one was injured. Had anyone been on the sidewalk in that shopping center they would have been killed. It is a miracle no one was injured or killed.
NHTSA complaint #11595607 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Denver, CO
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The screen showing the speed and the backup can stop working at any point leading to a crash and compliance issues. It's been several months and VW still has not come up with a solution for this recall and these cars are still on the streets, hence they are a major threat to consumer safety.
NHTSA complaint #11594774 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
San Jose, CACrash1 injured
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
I drove an ID-4 down south and preparing for right turn. Suddenly, the car was accelerating to a very high speed with the accelerator not being pressed (spontaneous acceleration). I tried hard to press the brake, but no effectiveness. Instead of turning a 90-degree angle to the west direction, the car only turned 45 degrees toward southwest, hitting the safety island and jump over the island, then crossing the eastbound road, climbing up the curb and the left side of the car hit the street tree. The car then snaked along the sidewalk and grass toward west before it stopped. The car then is pulled to the body shop (Caliber in San Jose). 1) Accelerator and brake are both failed. The car spontaneously accelerates itself and cannot be stopped even pressing the brake paddle 2) In the collision, my left shoulder and neck got hurts. 3) Not yet. The car is in the body shop. 4) The car is in the body shop. Police has seen the car. 5) No. It happened suddenly.
NHTSA complaint #11589700 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Sunnyvale, CA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
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.
NHTSA complaint #11541568 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Henderson, NVCrash4 injured
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Yesterday, April 26th, 2023 the above vehicle was involved in a serious accident, possibly related to the safety recall for the high voltage cell module. My wife was driving the vehicle on her way to work, as she did for the past 2 years. Sometimes she gets coffee for herself and a coworker, so that day she turned into a parking lot of the last MacDonalds before her job. She pulled up to the drive thru lane as she did many times before. She was not distracted by the phone, and her radio was turned off. There was nobody else in her vehicle, and her thought was on the coffee order. As she was pulling up to the 2 vehicles in front of her, something horrible happened in the next 3 or 4 seconds. Her vehicle accelerated suddenly, hit the car in front of her, bounced off to the right, and kept accelerating for the next 50 feet before hitting a semi truck with such a force that the front end of her vehicle is completely obliterated and the semi truck frame was broken. Thankfully, nobody got hurt seriously, and there was no fire. The first question from the Police officer was whether she hit the accelerator pedal by mistake. She responded that she did not hit the accelerator pedal, and does not understand what happened. She was shocked by the sudden fury of her vehicle, and stated that she was unable to stop it. I believe what she is saying, because there was no reason for her to stomp hard on either pedal as she was coasting slowly, and with the vehicle's regenerative braking you only have to tap the brakes gently. If she tapped the wrong pedal by mistake, the acceleration would not be so violent. To do what the vehicle did in such a short distance, the driver would have to stomp forcefully on the pedal and keep it floored all the time. There was no need to do that, and she never even attempted to do such violent acceleration anywhere. There is a real possibility that the vehicle did an unintended full force acceleration caused by defect in the recalled module. GEICO has it
NHTSA complaint #11519354 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Mountain House, CA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
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).
NHTSA complaint #11512590 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Pittsburg, CA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
We’ve been leasing a Volkswagen EV car ID4. And after a recent software update, we got problems as in the following. Intermittently when coming to stop, The vehicle is difficult to stop and Pedal pressure seems low. When we experience concern, the accelerator does not seem to react in the same way. As a result, the car failed to stop at short of stop line. Volkswagen sent us a recall notice of High voltage sudden reset error what promote acceleration failure. But our car has not only acceleration but brake issues more than dozen times in 3weeks. We believe we are in very delicate and dangerous situation. But VW doesn’t provide a substitute vehicle, as Volkswagen view problems as vehicle to be still drivable. I strongly disagree with their view, since we will be in serious danger without secure brake and acceleration.
NHTSA complaint #11508255 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Solomons, MD
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
The Driver Assistance feature of the car shuts down due to a Software error. It will eventually reset if the car is parked and turned off for a duration of 30 to 60 minutes. Some users have reported that the error does not clear without disconnecting the 12v battery. Problem first appeared in the id.4 2021 models in the summer of 2021. VW has issued a software correction for the vehicle in Europe, but that update has not been made available for the US customers. This causes the collision avoidance system to go offline and the driver is warned to drive with extreme care! In some cases the vehicle speed also stops displaying.
NHTSA complaint #11484375 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
San Ramon, CACrash
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
6/21/22 When I was pulling into a parking lot space, the car suddenly accelerated and the steering wheel turned uncontrollably, I could not stop the car, the brakes didn't respond at all. The car was driving by itself, I couldn't do anything to stop it, until I ran into two parked cars where it finally stopped; thank god no injuries. The car was undriveable, and was towed away, I'll have it inspected by the body shop and see if it can be repaired. This was a terrifying experience not being able to control the car, the car pretty much went into run away mode. I hope this gets reported to VW and an investigate gets conducted to find the root cause it as this could happen again to anybody.
NHTSA complaint #11470359 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Portland, OR
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
My vehicle's stability control system will activate in error to slow the vehicle when traversing moderate corners at speeds of approximately 25 to 35 mph. When this happens the vehicle experiences no actual loss of traction but the ESC warning light will flash on the dash and the vehicle will cut power and slow the vehicle with pulsing applications of the brakes by 5 to 10 mph. This is an unsafe scenario because I am unable to accelerate during these episodes even if needed and the vehicle slows to a speed well below the normal traffic traveling speed. In long sections of winding road I have had to disable the system to be able to drive normally, without interference in my ability to accelerate, and even then the stability/abs system will activate if I touch the brake pedal at all, still with no true traction loss. I am confident that it is a system failure because it occurs very predictably on certain sections of twisty road. I have experimented and the system will inappropriately activate when I drive 30 mph on the curves but provide no interference when I drive the same section at 40 mph. This issue has been reported by numerous owners on the idtalk.com forum, seeming to be specific to the AWD models, with one owner reporting he was told it is a software related issue with no imeadiate fix after having his car inspected for an extended period of time. I have reported the issue to my local dealer.
NHTSA complaint #11467482 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Lilburn, GA
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
While driving, both the driver’s and center console displays stopped displaying information and went blank. The panels were still on but nothing displayed. The ID.4 console panel is known to not turn on or be blank, the solution is to press the console power button for 10-15 seconds to reboot the system. I held the power button and the system did restart and both the drivers and center console panel turned on. However, upon turning back on, I received a progressive series of messages that each driver assist module/sensor was no longer available. Finally received a yellow message stating Electrical system not working correctly and to have the vehicle serviced. Pulled over and turned the vehicle off and on which cleared the electrical system not working message. The problem has not repeated itself. VW dealer has not yet seen the vehicle. This vehicle has not have an electrical systems failure warning before. Vehicle was at approximately 50% charge at the time and I was going 25 mph. Safety is at risk by losing all vehicle data and speed. Then rebooting system to get the screen back caused a start to electrical systems failure.
NHTSA complaint #11467215 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.