PCNA baffled over phantom "Collision Warning" and "Driver Attention Required" Messages

[Pennyroyal]

On August 28, 2021, I was on I-75 in light traffic going about 70 MPH when a red alert on my screen appeared that said, “COLLISION WARNING.”

It remained illuminated for about 3 seconds, then disappeared.

It startled me because I didn’t know what evasive action to take. There were no vehicles even close to me.

I also continue to receive "Driver Attention Required" warnings from time to time. My dealer told me that can happen if I don't have both hands on the wheel. In all instances, I had both hands tightly on the wheel.

I sent an email to my dealer's manager with a request that he document this with Porsche corporate and that I receive a written response that includes the number of owners reporting a similar event to Porsche, Porsche's attempts to ascertain a cause, Porsche’s determination of the probable cause and Porche’s proposed remedy. He replied, "I’ve escalated your concerns to PCNA."

They asked me to take my 2021 Taycan RWD in for them to download the event log for analysis. I did that.

Hearing nothing back three weeks later, I followed up with another email to my dealer. I promptly received a phone call from the service manager saying that he was told by PCNA "that they reviewed the log, they have never seen or heard of the problem and that they don't know what may have caused it."

Of course, they declined to say that in writing.

Has anyone experienced a "Collision Warning" or "Driver Attention Needed" warning with no explainable cause?

Has anyone received an explanation from their dealer or Porsche Cars North America – or a fix?

I'm getting the feeling that my request for an explanation or a fix is going nowhere.

Is this the type of problem within the purview of NHTSA?

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[RoseyPSU]

Has anyone experienced a "Collision Warning" or "Driver Attention Needed" warning with no explainable cause?

I've gotten both. The "Driver Attention Needed" warning more often. Usually the same situation as you: both hands on the wheel when cruising on the freeway. I've generally just ignored it.

I've also gotten the Collision warning at seemingly random times. It happens less frequently than the Attention Needed warning, but it's certainly more startling. I've ignored that one too.

 

[kort]

I was getting the driver take control message, even had forced braking, fairly often but since I had the software updates I haven't seen it again.

 

[chrisk]

There are several reports in this forum. See the following threads. According to these threads, owners have already reported the issue to dealers and to PCNA.
https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/threads/driver-control-required-message.4955/

https://www.taycanforum.com/forum/t...required-while-not-in-innodrive-acc-alk.5502/

In my opinion, any issue with the safety assist systems is reportable to NHTSA. There is a specific reporting category for "Forward Collision Avoidance" issues.

 

[NC_Taycan]

The driver control message is triggered when the car does not sense any steering inputs after a period of time. You can have both hands on the wheel driving straight and get this message, (I believe you can get it regardless if you have or are using Innodrive, ALK and/or ACC, but I cannot confirm this). A flick of the wheel will get rid of it. It is annoying, but infrequent.

The forward collision warning thing could be a bigger problem. The sensor is based on radar (not the ultrasonic parking sensors). I guess it's possible some radar somewhere else just happened to interfere. I assume the system tries to filter out such interference. This would not likely be logged as a fault since the sensor is measuring distance and if it measures something close and closing, it should trigger the alert - it has no idea if it's a false alarm, only what it measured.

 

[Neptune]

It's just an over reactive driver collison sensor. You can turn down the sensetivity in the PCM or switch it off.

Driving in a packed city even on the lowest setting will trigger it every now and then.

I have it switched off.

 

[Jay]

Someone is lying. I reported the inappropriate "driver attention required" messages to PCNA in September 2020. As a result, they issued a software update... Oh wait, no they didn't.

 

[Chris8536]

Porsche GmB has so many software issues with the taycan they sort of just lie about it all at this point. It’s shameful behavior because it’s otherwise a great car.

they need to bring their software chops up to their hardware. And take a dose of humility to recognize it. Right now they act more like a pentulant child than a company of adults.

I’ve owned Mercedes, BMWs, Bentley and other lux brands and I have never been treated so poorly as I have been by Porsche. It’s shameful and embarrassing for the marque since it’s so avoidable with a bit of listening and politeness.

 

[kort]

The driver control message is triggered when the car does not sense any steering inputs after a period of time. You can have both hands on the wheel driving straight and get this message, (I believe you can get it regardless if you have or are using Innodrive, ALK and/or ACC, but I cannot confirm this). A flick of the wheel will get rid of it. It is annoying, but infrequent.

I was getting the warnings often despite having all the driver assists turned off, one time it implemented emergency braking which was not cool at all.
this is a serious flaw, emergency braking while at speed on crowded roadways can cause collisions from the rear as the car drops speed quickly.

 

[kort]

Someone is lying. I reported the inappropriate "driver attention required" messages to PCNA in September 2020. As a result, they issued a software update... Oh wait, no they didn't.

I reported the issue to NHTSA, I would suggest that anyone who has encountered this problem to do the same.
https://www.nhtsa.gov/report-a-safety-problem#index

 

[Mike V]

On August 28, 2021, I was on I-75 in light traffic going about 70 MPH when a red alert on my screen appeared that said, “COLLISION WARNING.”

It remained illuminated for about 3 seconds, then disappeared.

It startled me because I didn’t know what evasive action to take. There were no vehicles even close to me.

I also continue to receive "Driver Attention Required" warnings from time to time. My dealer told me that can happen if I don't have both hands on the wheel. In all instances, I had both hands tightly on the wheel.

I sent an email to my dealer's manager with a request that he document this with Porsche corporate and that I receive a written response that includes the number of owners reporting a similar event to Porsche, Porsche's attempts to ascertain a cause, Porsche’s determination of the probable cause and Porche’s proposed remedy. He replied, "I’ve escalated your concerns to PCNA."

They asked me to take my 2021 Taycan RWD in for them to download the event log for analysis. I did that.

Hearing nothing back three weeks later, I followed up with another email to my dealer. I promptly received a phone call from the service manager saying that he was told by PCNA "that they reviewed the log, they have never seen or heard of the problem and that they don't know what may have caused it."

Of course, they declined to say that in writing.

Has anyone experienced a "Collision Warning" or "Driver Attention Needed" warning with no explainable cause?

Has anyone received an explanation from their dealer or Porsche Cars North America – or a fix?

I'm getting the feeling that my request for an explanation or a fix is going nowhere.

Is this the type of problem within the purview of NHTSA?

Sometimes I get the "Collision Warning" which auto-switches to the IR night-vision dash viewer appearance. It happens on the freeway where there are no visible pedestrians. The system seems to mischaracterize hot exhaust parts from large trucks in another lane in gentle sweeping bends where the curvature is so slight that the IR pedestrian recognition algorithms "think" the size, shape, and position of the hot-spot is wild life of some sort.

I also get the "driver attention needed" if I am driving straight ahead on freeways without needing to correct my course for only a short time.

 

[kort]

I was getting the driver take control message, even had forced braking, fairly often but since I had the software updates I haven't seen it again.

update, I am still getting these warnings despite all the driver's assist features being set to off

 

[XLR82XS]

I also continue to receive "Driver Attention Required" warnings from time to time. My dealer told me that can happen if I don't have both hands on the wheel. In all instances, I had both hands tightly on the wheel.

Has anyone experienced a "Collision Warning" or "Driver Attention Needed" warning with no explainable cause?

You will not get that message with 1 hand on the wheel. Those warnings have never happened to me and I drive with 1 hand 99% of the time. You may get it if the car drifts outside lane markers when LKA is active.

 

[kort]

You will not get that message with 1 hand on the wheel. Those warnings have never happened to me and I drive with 1 hand 99% of the time. You may get it if the car drifts outside lane markers when LKA is active.

that is not true for me at all. I always have a hand on the wheel, I don't drift out of lane, all the driver's assist features are set to off and I still get the warnings and sometimes the car will either stop accelerating and sometimes will apply braking for a moment.
this is a flaw is the car. I had similar experiences in my tesla model 3, but not as often as I do in the taycan. in the tesla I called it getting the red screen of death, the taycan gives a red warning as well.
this flaw can be dangerous when power is halted for a moment while at speed on crowded roadways. Porsche as per usual has not accepted reports from me or others regarding this, they will not openly admit that there is a flaw.
I have submitted a NHTSA complaint.

 

[IrishCarNerd]

My TS has the collision warning issue as well. Pretty annoying. Happens 5-6 times in an 80mi HW drive.
For the others with this issue do y’all have innodrive?

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