Car went into neutral then park spontaneously - deja vu all over again

[EVer]

My 2nd week of ownership of Taycan RWD, some minor quirks in computer but otherwise love driving it, but today running around doing errands some very disconcerting things happening, the car twice went into neutral spontaneously while moving, I hit the accelerator and nothing happened and after a few seconds realized I was in neutral. Then later two different times at a light the car went into park spontaneously. The 2nd time I couldn’t put it in drive, the car asked me (by a message on the screen) to put the key in the storage compartment, and then I could put it in drive.
Anyone have this happen? Little quirks I’m ok with but this seemed a little dangerous.

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[W1NGE]

My 2nd week of ownership of Taycan RWD, some minor quirks in computer but otherwise love driving it, but today running around doing errands some very disconcerting things happening, the car twice went into neutral spontaneously while moving, I hit the accelerator and nothing happened and after a few seconds realized I was in neutral. Then later two different times at a light the car went into park spontaneously. The 2nd time I couldn’t put it in drive, the car asked me (by a message on the screen) to put the key in the storage compartment, and then I could put it in drive.
Anyone have this happen? Little quirks I’m ok with but this seemed a little dangerous.

Not good or safe. Dealer I'm afraid Never heard or experienced this in 12+ months.

 

[EVer]

Thanks for the reply. Could it be something very simple like it stopped recognizing the key? Even if that were the case the car forcing a stop while it’s being operated does not seem like a safe thing for its occupants

 

[W1NGE]

Thanks for the reply. Could it be something very simple like it stopped recognizing the key? Even if that were the case the car forcing a stop while it’s being operated does not seem like a safe thing for its occupants

Most unlikely. Unrecognized keys would result in a notification on the digital cockpit and would not interfere with the safety aspects when in motion. Typically it would put the car in limp mode (believing a theft is in progress for example).

 

[NoRPM22]

Please keep us posted on this issue. Seems concerning. I had seen some prior posts about the car going into park mode at stop light but not of the neutral shift like you have described. I am waiting my car in a month now, so anxious to know if it has any safety issue like you have described.

 

[EVer]

I did call the dealer this morning and they were concerned it was a safety issue and had me bring it in right away, and now I’m driving a loaner. I hope I get it back soon, will definitely follow up on the outcome, thanks for asking.

 

[gps217]

Anyone have the issue of the car going into park (not hold, but park) at red lights? Has happened to me twice in last week.

 

[EVer]

That is part of what mine was doing, also shifting into neutral while at speed (50 mph or so). Did yours give you some kind of message about putting key in storage compartment to allow you to put it back in drive? If so we have the same problem. Mine is still at dealer while they try to figure it out. My SA says they are in communication with Porsche headquarters about it.

 

[W1NGE]

That is part of what mine was doing, also shifting into neutral while at speed (50 mph or so). Did yours give you some kind of message about putting key in storage compartment to allow you to put it back in drive? If so we have the same problem. Mine is still at dealer while they try to figure it out. My SA says they are in communication with Porsche headquarters about it.

Wow! That sounds like the car lost contact with your key and was asking for it to be re-registered by placing in the main cupholder?

This is indeed a worry.

 

[gps217]

No message - just went from drive to park at redlight.

 

[HawkBlitz]

Any updates from the dealer? This is really worrisome safety issue

 

[EVer]

Got the car back today from the dealer, they said there was nothing on the car logs when they tried to pull them up. Then they went through a checklist of things to check as per Porsche headquarters, no error codes came up. Then they drove the car around 60-80 miles total over a few days trying to reproduce the problem, could not reproduce it. So no explanation for the issue and they returned the car to me. If it never happens again than fine, but if it does I’ll let them know obviously, since I agree it felt a bit unsafe when it was happening. I can imagine changing lanes to pass on the highway and hitting the accelerator and nothing happens, could turn out badly. To their credit my service advisor and Porsche seemed to take the issue seriously. I’m just surprised they found no information logged, as I had noted previously the car gave me that weird message to put the key in the main storage when it got stuck in park. Well, we’ll see.

 

[HawkBlitz]

So they didnt have a log entry indicating the weird warning message to put the key in the main storage? Seems like a diagnostic bug where they are not logging the warning and associated logs. Hopefully you never encounter it again, but Porsche needs to do better with their logging here. Not being a software company they probably need to learn how to diagnose issues in production from logs instead of relying on live repros

 

[W1NGE]

So they didnt have a log entry indicating the weird warning message to put the key in the main storage? Seems like a diagnostic bug where they are not logging the warning and associated logs. Hopefully you never encounter it again, but Porsche needs to do better with their logging here. Not being a software company they probably need to learn how to diagnose issues in production from logs instead of relying on live repros

Specific to the key meesage - this is not an issue and is part of the security / theft measures. It is a warning rather than an error.

Put simply the key needs to present and in certain situations if you are in / out of the car and it is powered on before actually driving the proximity sensor (located beneath the central cupholder) may temporarily lose contact with the key.

This is documented in the manual.

Same situation with other Porsches (my Panamera would occasionally flag this warning).

 

[HawkBlitz]

Specific to the key meesage - this is not an issue and is part of the security / theft measures. It is a warning rather than an error.

Put simply the key needs to present and in certain situations if you are in / out of the car and it is powered on before actually driving the proximity sensor (located beneath the central cupholder) may temporarily lose contact with the key.

This is documented in the manual.

Same situation with other Porsches (my Panamera would occasionally flag this warning).

As a software engineer, I would say the state machine (or state of the machine here ) makes this an issue. The car is not in locked or stationary state where the key message happens, its already on the move so if the key detection fails at that time it should be unexpected and state of the car at that time logged.

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