NHTSA complaint #11424179

Owner complaint summary

I leased a 2021 Audi Q5 (VIN: WA1BAAFY7M2[XXX]) in November 2020. 2021 Audi Q5 has gateway module underneath the middle row seat. The gateway module is like the brain of the car and if it stops working the car stops - basically the car is brain dead. In my case, I was driving the car with my family i.e. wife, 7 and 3 year old kids when the car abruptly shut off. Luckily, I was on a road with 45 MPH speed limit and no traffic, so nothing happened to us. If this happened on a highway or other situation anything could have happened to me and my family. After safely parking the car and getting it towed to Audi Westmont, the car was inspected, and I was informed about the gateway module issue. To my shock, the mechanic said that it’s a design flaw that Audi is aware of but doesn't have a solution yet. Furthermore, he said that just at Laurel Audi in Westmont 4 cars were repaired for this problem. When I googled, several Audi owners have faced this problem. As I mentioned earlier, despite knowing the issue Audi didn't inform the owners and yet to inform the owners despite this being a serious enough problem that could put owners/families in a life threatening situation. Here's the link to the video taken during the diagnosis of the problem: https://asr.autonation.com/tV0Ij5Ym5c. I have also attached picture of the hodgepodge fix i.e. wrapping gateway module in plastic. The reason I say it is hodgepodge is that wrapping in plastic won't prevent water from condensing on gateway module and the problem repeating. Preceding the days my car had this problem, there were heavy rains and humidity was very high, as noted in the video there is no source of water leak or water entering the gateway module externally, given that finding and the fact that there was heavy rains, high humidity in the preceding days - condensation can likely be the potential cause of the problem. There are thousands of 2021 Audi Q5's and every single one has this risk. PARTS OF THIS DOCUMENT HAVE BEEN REDACTED TO PROTECT PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).