'Place Hands on Wheel' Message

[Tooney]

NHTSA: report a safety problem

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[Uknown]

I get this occasionally if my hand is on the wheel at 7 or 8 ( lower wheel ). Almost always on the freeway at cruising speed.

 

[NSurge]

I had minimal problems with this on my 2021 Taycan 4S. Now I have a 2023 Taycan GTS and it happens way more. The dealer said Porsche did change the threshold of activation and there was no way they could modify it.

I agree it's very dangerous to have the car suddenly brake on the interstate, especially in high traffic and also unsettling to passengers.

Has anyone found a solution? I'm going to try one of these ponytail holders from my daughter. It doesn't look great but will see if it works.

 

[Genau]

Has anyone found a solution? I'm going to try one of these ponytail holders from my daughter. It doesn't look great but will see if it works.

i've thought about getting a large binder clip (??) and leaving it on the wheel somewhere. or maybe a pipe clamp

Wait, does pressure/grip on the steering wheel clear the "hands off the wheel" alert? My experience over the last 41,000 miles has been that I must rotate the steering wheel to reset the alert. For example, I can reset the alert by rotating the wheel with my knee or pushing on inner spokes of the wheel.

 

[pio]

Sometimes I steer into a curve, and ALK has the same perfect line ... and then the message pops up that the car would like to see proof that I am paying attention. This does not happen often, but kind of shows that the car wants to feel *rotation* not *grip*.

Another thing that I noticed is that, if the car does not feel any inputs, after a while it will try to ping pong between the lines. Very softly. If you are holding the wheel, the car will immediately feel that you are countering this motion.

So in practice, I am holding my hand on the steering wheel and resting my hand on my leg. This avoids any (bogus) warnings 99% of the time.

 

[bluesky]

I thought this was proven that the Taycan does not have a capacitance steering wheel, and instead relies on driver “rotation” in order to detect driver presence. As such, I don’t see how clamping pressure on the wheel would produce the stimuli the system is looking for.

Capacitance wheel is another item I’d like to see on the refresh.

 

[anonymouse]

As far as I know, the vehicle’s safety systems require a small amount of torque (rotational pressure) on the steering wheel periodically in order to ensure the driver is not unconscious or asleep while using automated steering assistance. This is a good thing - it keeps you and other drivers safe.

Tesla has the same requirement, but in their case a small amount of torque is ignored by the steering system when in autopilot (other than as confirmation that the driver is alive). So in a Tesla we can drive with continual gentle torque, ie just let an hand hang on the wheel, and never see a nag message. The problem with the Taycan is that it DOES seem to interpret torque as a steering instruction, so in order to keep the vehicle alive we have to wobble it in the lane very slightly at intervals.

Nevertheless it is a safety system and we should not try to counter it with clips or whatever other crazy ideas occur. There were some really, really stupid YouTubers in the early Tesla days, doing dumb things to defeat the safeguards, and we really don’t want that in the Taycan community!

 

[bluegrassvroom]

Wait, does pressure/grip on the steering wheel clear the "hands off the wheel" alert? My experience over the last 41,000 miles has been that I must rotate the steering wheel to reset the alert. For example, I can reset the alert by rotating the wheel with my knee or pushing on inner spokes of the wheel.

i must have a light grip- i've gotten this on our Volvo, Audi, and now Porsche. to me it's a simple squeeze. i guess i barely have a finger or two on the wheel (mainly highway) and when it gives this warning i jsut squeeze the wheel - without rotating it at all, and it goes away

i'm not saying your rotation doens't work - i'm just saying i KNOW a squeeze does for me (21 4s)

 

[Gav8]

Has anyone found a solution to this? I have a 24 Taycan 4S cross turismo and have had it happen multiple times where I’m not using LKA or ACC and the car will tell me I need to place my hands on the steering wheel and will then immediately center the steering and slam on the brakes. I’ll then regain control 1-2 seconds later. Always happens above 45 mph and will happen when going straight or turning. My dealer told me this is a built in safety feature and refused to try and diagnose the problem any further after they couldnt replicate it during a 5 mile test drive. The dealer also I said that their rep told them this is a common complaint and that I need to keep two hands on the steering wheel at all times or keep one hand in a specific spot on the steering wheel. However, they couldn’t tell me where these specific spots were and couldn’t point to anywhere in the manual where it refers to a specific driving position. I also spoke with Porsche USA customer service on this multiple times and not one person there has said this is a safety feature. I have a case open with Porsche on this now but I now need to take it to another dealer to have them diagnose - which is about a 1 month wait to get a Taycan in. I’ve also bought a GoPro that I’m attaching to the headrest to try and film this to have proof the car is not functioning properly.

Anyway I have a hard time believing the car slamming on its brakes and taking control of steering while driving normally is a safety feature. Feels like the dealer is trying to avoid a problem they know they can’t fix.

 

[SergeyIndy]

I am experiencing the same and I do not think there is a fix as this is normal operation. As soon, you relax and cruising for some time, resting your hands and not giving the wheel any rotation, the car issues the message with a beep and stops accelerating, giving a small jolt that is unsettling. It has been confirmed that there are no capacitive sensors, so resting your hands on the wheel or gripping it, will not work.

 

[Kief]

Just experienced this today since taking delivery last month. Very concerning. Interestingly, warning never popped up when driving home from the dealer after taking delivery from another state/highway driving

 

[Gav8]

Just experienced this today since taking delivery last month. Very concerning. Interestingly, warning never popped up when driving home from the dealer after taking delivery from another state/highway driving

My Taycan is back at the dealer due to the same problem where the car doesn’t recognize that my hands are on the steering wheel and then shuts off power to the motor, brakes and locks the wheel. The first dealer told me nothing was wrong and didn’t find any faults. However this second time I took it in for service I tried another dealer and even though they couldn’t identify what was causing this issue they did find one fault in the system. This is what they told me :

Hello! Yours is a tough one because it hasn't really been acting up for us, but it has a few faults in it. We have ordered a High Voltage converter because one of the faults deals with the high voltage being too high and then quickly too low, which could account for what you are experiencing. The ETA of this part shows next Tuesday. We hope this resolves the issue as we haven't seen this problem before and this makes the most sense for the fault that the vehicle stored.

I’ll report back once I have the car back to see if this fixed the issue.

 

[Jonathan S.]

"My Taycan is back at the dealer due to the same problem where the car doesn’t recognize that my hands are on the steering wheel and then shuts off power to the motor, brakes and locks the wheel."
As has been previously posted, the Taycan lacks a capacitance steering wheel.
I often drive on two particular highway stretches where the road is perfect straight for a long distance. (A rarity in New England!)
If I don't heed the initial warning in white and jiggle the steering wheel a bit, then the red warning appears, and after that ... well, fortunately, I've learned to react before then.
I suspect that other faults that have been found are unrelated to what is unfortunately just normal behavior.

 

[fika]

"My Taycan is back at the dealer due to the same problem where the car doesn’t recognize that my hands are on the steering wheel and then shuts off power to the motor, brakes and locks the wheel."
As has been previously posted, the Taycan lacks a capacitance steering wheel.
I often drive on two particular highway stretches where the road is perfect straight for a long distance. (A rarity in New England!)
If I don't heed the initial warning in white and jiggle the steering wheel a bit, then the red warning appears, and after that ... well, fortunately, I've learned to react before then.
I suspect that other faults that have been found are unrelated to what is unfortunately just normal behavior.

I still experience this, however there is no white warning and my hands will be firmly on the wheel. This is with no assistance (ACC or PID both off). I've had it happen with cars in front of me, no cars in front of me, on the highway, on the street, day and night, there doesn't seem to be a common denominator. I keep trying to catch it on video with an action cam but it's been elusive (and I'm bad about turning the cam on and/or off).

 

[Jonathan S.]

^ Yipes, that does sound wrong! By contrast, my warning functions perfectly predictably, as it should. (When I have tested the LKA/ALK combo on interstate curves by letting my hands hover over the steering wheel yet not touching it all, the Taycan stays almost perfectly centered in the lane, no ping-ponging. Although I prefer to keep both hands on the wheel - for safety of course, plus the car is so fun to drive, even within the de facto speed limit, and I love the feel of the steering wheel, even though at first I thought it was oddly slim compared to my other German vehicles.)

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