2020 Porsche Taycan Driver assistance Problems

While driving my Porsche Taycan through a high-speed intersection, the vehicle suddenly displayed battery and chassis system error messages instructing me to pull over immediately. Before I could safely move the vehicle to the side of the road, it completely lost propulsion, speed control, and steering capability, causing the vehicle to abruptly slow to 0 mph in active traffic and leaving me stranded in the middle of the roadway. This created an immediate safety hazard, as approaching vehicles nearly collided with my car because it effectively performed an unexpected emergency stop without warning. Approximately one month earlier, the vehicle experienced the exact same failure while parked, displaying battery and chassis errors and losing power and steering functionality. The vehicle was towed to an authorized Porsche dealership, where it remained for approximately one month; however, the dealer was unable to diagnose the problem and returned the vehicle to me, stating that no fault could be found. Just two days after the vehicle was returned, the identical failure occurred again while I was driving. After restarting the vehicle multiple times at the roadside, I was eventually able to move it to a safer location, where it failed again shortly thereafter. The vehicle is currently at the Porsche dealership and is available for inspection. The dealership has indicated that the issue may be related to the high-voltage battery but has not yet identified the root cause or completed repairs. The only prior warning of this defect was the nearly identical battery and chassis system failure that occurred approximately one month before this incident.

NHTSA ID

11746390

Incident

May 12, 2026

My 2020 Porsche Taycan 4S (VIN [XXX]) has a recurring, dangerous brake failure that remains unresolved after multiple dealer repair attempts. At low speed, the automatic emergency braking system activates on its own and begins decelerating the car. As the car slows to roughly 5 mph, the brake pedal drops, braking pressure disappears, and the vehicle keeps rolling forward. Pressing the pedal as hard as I physically can does not bring the car to a stop. On more than 5 occasions I have had to steer around the vehicle in front of me to avoid a collision. The failure is intermittent and unpredictable, which makes it especially hazardous. The problem has existed since early in my ownership. On [XXX] (16,631 miles), Porsche Livermore found multiple brake booster faults and replaced the brake booster assembly, re-bled the brakes, and recoded the PSM control unit (RO [XXX]). The dead-pedal emergency-stop failure continued. I returned on [XXX] (40,904 miles) for the same problem; the dealer recoded the PSM unit and reset the brake pedal value but classified the pedal travel as "normal" (RO [XXX]). I returned again in May 2026 (46,585 miles) reporting that the dead-pedal emergency-stop failure still remained. The dealer could not duplicate it and called it "operating as designed" (RO/Invoice [XXX]). No crash or injury has occurred only because I was able to take evasive action each time. The defect is unresolved and creates a serious risk of a crash, and I am reporting it so it is on the federal safety record. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ID

11745252

Incident

Apr 29, 2026

This vehicle can not be driven on straight roads of freeways without the "take over steering warning" engaging. This is problematic, this morning on icy roads driving on straight roads the warning engaged, braked and cut power and put the vehicle into a slid on icy roads. This warning also happen frequently on freeway driving, suddenly braking and almost causing drivers behind the vehicle to react to the sudden braking putting this vehicle in jeopardy of rear end collisions or other possible accidents.

NHTSA ID

11706605

Incident

Dec 22, 2025

The vehicle experiences a sudden and dangerous malfunction while driving. Without any prior warning, the vehicle begins to shake and then immediately brakes on its own, coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of traffic. Only after the vehicle has already braked and shut down does an “Engine Control Error” message appear on the display. There is no advance alert and no time for the driver to react or move out of traffic. This is exceptionally concerning especially as this vehicle was being used a primary mode of transportation for my 2 young toddlers who were present in the vehicle during these failures. The vehicle was purchased directly from Porsche as a Certified Pre-Owned vehicle in June 2025, and was represented by Porsche as having passed all safety and mechanical inspections at the time of purchase. Despite this, the vehicle has continued to experience catastrophic failures. Following the initial shutdown incident, the vehicle was towed to Porsche for service on September 2. Porsche stated that the issue had been repaired and assured that the vehicle was safe to operate. However, on September 29, the same failure occurred again. The vehicle shook, abruptly braked in active traffic, shut itself down, and only then displayed the engine control failure message. This shows that the underlying defect was not corrected and continues to pose a serious safety hazard. The problem is severe, unpredictable, and reproducible. It places the driver, passengers, and surrounding motorists at immediate risk because the vehicle becomes immobilized in traffic with no prior warning and no ability to pull over safely. The vehicle has been inspected by Porsche technicians, but the root cause remains unknown, and Porsche has been unable to provide a successful repair or assurance of safety. This pattern strongly indicates a critical defect in the engine control or power-management system that renders the vehicle unsafe for public road use.

NHTSA ID

11703735

Incident

Sep 29, 2025

Vehicle randomly thinks that I’m about to be in a collision when nothing is in front of me. This causes the vehicle to just stop and almost causes me to have an accident.

NHTSA ID

11601648

Incident

Jul 9, 2024

It was stop and go traffic. I was distracted and the car failed to auto stop and I hit the car in front of me. The alert did come on after the collision. I would assume the automatic braking failed or the collision would not have occurred. It was a low speed impact so not a major safety risk but even a minor collision can have a significant injury in susceptible subjects? The problem has not been reproduced to my knowledge. The component has not been inspected. The car has been evaluated by a body shop for damages and the damages are significant. The warning light came on in an inadequate time to prevent the collision. There were no other warning lamps

NHTSA ID

11592619

Incident

May 29, 2024

On three separate occasions over the past year, my car's emergency collision avoidance system was triggered, (an alarm sounded, a red symbol was on my dash, and the brakes locked), erroneously. No accident occurred, but in the second case below, it caused the car behind me to lock up their brakes and just avoid hitting me...thankfully they were very alert. The first two occasions happened two months apart, but at the same time of day and at the same location. On both occasions, I had driven down a street at approximately 7:30 in the morning. I slowed to make a left turn and then came to a complete stop because traffic was coming in the opposite direction. There was also a car facing me in the alternate lane of the road that I was turning into. Once all oncoming traffic had passed, I pressed the accelerator to make a left turn and turned and moved forward just a few feet when the emergency collision avoidance system was triggered and the car's brakes locked. Within a few moments, the system released and I was able to drive on. Both situations were identical in location and the traffic situation was as I just noted in both cases. The most recent occasion that the system was triggered happened this week. I was in a right turn lane with a car in front of me and one or several cars behind me. I had come to a stop behind the car in front of me who was waiting to make a right turn onto the road. Our turn signal was red. Once the turn signal turned green, the car in front of me moved forward and made the right turn. I accelerated and went about 25 feet and was about to join the road when the collision avoidance system activated, (an alarm sounded, a red symbol was on my dash, and the brakes locked). The car behind me skidded to a stop, luckily without hitting me, and then my car's system released and allowed me to drive on. This must be happening to other users. If so, Porsche should be made aware and they should fix this.

NHTSA ID

11582465

Incident

Apr 8, 2024

The rear view camera on all Taycan models and years are unsafe and unusable as they are so wide angled that you can not reliably use them as it is almost impossible to see anything.

NHTSA ID

11563037

Incident

Jan 2, 2024

I was driving 30 mph in drive mode on westheimer rd when the car suddenly emergency braked and lost all power i went from 30 to 0 in about a second. Yes the car is available for inspection on request. The car had 180 miles of battery power. The car behind me slammed their brakes on and nearly slammed into the rear of the car. The red warning light came on "Electrical System Error park vehicle in a safe place". There was absolutely no warning before this occurred. I am afraid for my life with this car i nearly got into an accident at 30 mph let alone if i was on the highway i could have easily died. This problem has been reported with thousands of porsche taycans. The car has been at the porsche dealership for a week so far where they are reporting electrical faults in the car.

NHTSA ID

11546706

Incident

Sep 18, 2023

I was driving in the fast/lane of the freeway, and suddenly the car flashed red "Electrical System Error" "Park Vehicle in Safe Place". The car immediately started to decellerate on its own and I didn't have time to go over to the right so had to move into the left shoulder of the freeway. I was stuck in the middle of the freeway, with cars driving fast coming around a bend of the freeway behind me having to swerve out of the way. Cops finally came to give me cover from behind. Dealership still trying to figure out what the issue is.

NHTSA ID

11509850

Incident

Feb 8, 2023

In the center of the lane on a straight highway, vehicle will suddenly brake without warning. There are no vehicles ahead. A warning light comes on the dash and says “Driver Control Required,” yet both my hands are on the steering wheel. The feeling is that of a brake check performed by the electronic sensors of the car, and not at the driver’s command. Had there been a car following behind me, he could have hit me in the rear. Dealer is aware of the complaint but says, “system is working as designed.” Manufacturer responds by directing me back to the dealership. Yet the problem persists.

NHTSA ID

11471268

Incident

Jun 27, 2022

The backup camera is highly distorted and it is difficult to see what is in the distance (more than 10 ft) from the rear of the car. I have had multiple incidents where I almost hit someone who was walking up the street past my driveway entrance. The other problem is when you turn the backup camera turns, and there is no frame of reference left so it is extremely distorted and hard to figure out where things are at. I have a Mercedes GLS450 and the backup cameras clearly show the street at the end of our driveway. I've attached comparison views of the street from our garage using the Porsche and Mercedes cameras. This backup camera is hazardous to the safety of anyone walking across the backup path of this car, and this issue needs to be addressed immediately. There is just no excuse to have such a poor quality camera on any car. By the way this car cost $50,000 more than my Mercedes!!

NHTSA ID

11438189

Incident

Oct 22, 2021

- Parking Assist has failed several times with message "ParkAssist not available. Continued driving possible, Service necessary" - Forward collision warning (aka Warning And Break Assist) has disabled itself several times for no apparent reason with message "WBA Limited, See owners manual". The sensors and windshield was clean so nothing was obstructing the system. - Headline Control error while driving with message "Headline control error. Temporary condition, Continued driving possible". ParkAssist and Forward collision unavailability has been reported to Porsche dealer but they were unable to diagnose or fix it. It seems the car does not record any error codes for the dealer to debug. There was a pending software updated at the time which was installed but the issues happen even after the updated. The issues started from first days of ownership and happen intermittently and stopping and restarting the car always fixes them which probably suggest they are software bugs. After the software update I have experienced an additional issue - Central computer (aka PCM) which controls everything in this car has frozen and restarted which leaves the driver with no ability to control any of the car's settings or systems.

NHTSA ID

11418367

Incident

May 24, 2021

After a software “upgrade” the speed control features were stated to be “unavailable” however the car still was in cruise and accelerator was depressed without indicating that to me as the driver. Car accelerated unintentionally on highway and emergency action had to be taken to avoid accident.

NHTSA ID

11418125

Incident

Mar 13, 2021