VW Sued Over ID.4’s Dangerous Steering Wheel Controls originally appeared on Autoblog.
VW’s physical buttons can’t come back soon enough
The backlash that Volkswagen faced after switching to touch-based controls in recent years was so bad that the German brand eventually admitted its mistake and started reintroducing conventional buttons.
This still leaves a generation of VW vehicles with frustrating touch controls that are distracting and hard to use on the move. It’s specifically the brand’s touch-sensitive capacitive steering controls that have left customers irate, and these controls have now led to a class action lawsuit. According to the plaintiffs, the controls are not just annoying, but downright dangerous in certain situations.
Unintended Activation Of Adaptive Cruise Control
View the 3 images of this gallery on the original article
Most people would agree that adaptive cruise control is one of the more useful driver-assistance functions. It can make longer drives a lot less fatiguing, as drivers don’t have to expend energy on manually managing a car’s speed based on changing traffic conditions.
However, in the case of this lawsuit, customers have found that it’s easy to accidentally activate adaptive cruise control in 2021-2023 Volkswagen ID.4 crossovers, due to their oversensitive steering wheel controls. According to Car Complaints, this activation can happen “with a mere light brush of the hand over the steering wheel’s haptic controls,” leading to unintended acceleration.
A “light brush with one’s fingers” is enough to activate the cruise control, causing the vehicle to assume the most recent set speed, which could be far higher than what is appropriate for the conditions.
“Platintiffs have been involved in fatal crashes because of the defect, leaving them terrified and hesitant to drive their Class Vehicles,” stated the lawsuit.
Related: Volkswagen’s Big ID.4 Changes Should Worry Tesla And Ford
Multiple Injury-Causing Incidents Involving ID.4
Janice Beecher, one of the plaintiffs from Connecticut, said her ID.4 suddenly accelerated when she was pulling into a parking space. The vehicle ended up going over a curb and hitting a tree, damaging the undercarriage and wheels, while leaving her with a bruised hand. Even worse, the ID.4 was at VW’s authorized repair shop for 100 days, and it cost over $14,000 to fix.
Another plaintiff, Omar Hakkaoui, said his wife experienced the same surge of acceleration due to the overly sensitive controls activating ACC. She was pulling into the garage at the time and hit the door.
The plaintiffs argue that VW did not disclose the defect, which they say the automaker was aware of.
“Despite knowledge of the Defect from customer complaints, information sent from dealers, and its own internal records, Defendant has not offered its customers suitable repairs or replacements free of charge or offered to reimburse its customers,” said the lawsuit.
For the 2025 model year, the VW Golf GTI returned to traditional steering wheel buttons, but these changes are only expected to make their way into the ID.4 as of next year.
Beyond VW, automakers in general may soon be forced to do away with distracting touch-based controls, as major safety authorities will soon penalize models with hard-to-use controls.
The complete Volkswagen lawsuit is available here, but requires a subscription to Pacer.
VW Sued Over ID.4’s Dangerous Steering Wheel Controls first appeared on Autoblog on Aug 18, 2025
This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Aug 18, 2025, where it first appeared.
Comments