NHTSA complaint #11735528

Owner complaint summary

I am filing this claim because a mandatory remote software update pushed by Volkswagen, combined with recent invasive repairs to the interconnected safety restraint network (PODS), caused a critical emergency safety feature (SOS) to fail, and the manufacturer is refusing to restore the vehicle to compliance. 04-01-2026: Received mandatory manufacturer software update v3.8.1. Updated failed and had to be reset. 04-16-2026: Vehicle was brought to the dealer to repair the Passenger Occupant Detection System (PODS). The technician unplugged electrical harnesses and recalibrated the safety network to install the new sensor mats. 04-29-2026: Received mandatory manufacturer software update v3.8.1. 04-30-2026: Immediately following these two events, the emergency SOS system threw a critical hard failure light and became non-functional. 05-01-2026: The dealership and VW Corporate both denied Goodwill coverage, claiming it is an out-of-warranty hardware failure, despite it being a globally documented software side-effect. The v3.8.11 update is known to overwrite the measured state of health of the emergency backup battery, artificially timing it out after 5 years regardless of its actual physical health. The PODS system that the dealer just serviced actively talks to the vehicle's Supplemental Restraint System. I am requesting that Volkswagen covers 100% of the cost to restore the vehicle's emergency SOS system to working order—whether that requires a physical replacement of the telematics module/battery or a manual software reset of the battery history timer.