As seen above, the front passenger airbag may only work right in 140,000 Volkswagen Atlas and 2020 Atlas Cross Sport SUVs. In cars with a passenger occupant identification system, the passenger airbag may be turned off by accident when the front heated seat is used. The NHTSA notified car owners that they should only let people ride in the front seat once the car has been fixed. Volkswagen of America is calling back 143,053 Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs from 2018 through 2021 to fix a problem with the passenger-side front airbag system. When a passenger is present, the occupant detection systems in the affected vehicles could turn off the airbag. In case of an accident, it wouldn’t go off. The NHTSA recall notice says a wire under the front passenger seat connects the Body Sense passenger occupancy recognition system to the seat heating system. If this wire’s contact broke, the front passenger airbag might not work. In the event of a crash, it would not open. According to the paper, the problem stopped happening in Atlas cars after October 2022, when a new cable with a shield went into production. The NHTSA said that if the airbag stops working, an error message and a light on the instrument panel should let the owner know. The safety group tells owners they should wait to put people in the front seats until the problem is fixed. The 2021 Atlas has already had two recalls for its airbags. The first was in November 2021 because of a water leak that could cause the airbag to go off by accident. The second was in March 2022 because of a front-side airbag that might deploy slowly. By May 26, VW will let Atlas owners and dealers know about the recall. In the meantime, Atlas owners can check the NHTSA’s website for recalls to see if their cars are affected.
