Phantom braking in reverse

[someTimesJoe]

This happens to me when backing up and there isn’t anything moving. It’s either a curb or a parked car. Yesterday, it was a parked car and I was doing a 3 point turn on a street and the car was behind me. Sometimes it just feels like I hit something when it just shows the red detection arrows on the screen. I was warned about this early on from my SA that it’s common in the Macan EVs.

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[W1NGE]

I did a search but only found two other reference to this issue in a broader assistance systems thread. Thought it might be worth a dedicated thread.

I should preface the following by saying that I'm very happy with my Turbo that I picked up in April. It makes me feel like when I had my first car! I just want to drive it for the sake of driving it. So much so that I've decided not to stress about the guaranteed future value kilometres and to just drive it.

I've got an occasional and not very repeatable issue when I am reversing (usually slowly), the car will suddenly slam on the brakes. The first time I was reversing down my long driveway and honestly, I thought I had run into either the house or a person it was that abrupt and intrusive! Other times it has happened, I've been reversing into my very tight car space at work (got to love a space with huge pillars on either side to stop door dings ). I'm well practiced doing this so I'm careful of lining up both sides in the rear vision mirrors. Despite having a comfortable margin on both sides, it has again slammed on the breaks (sometimes more than once during the same park). It's the worst feeling as each time it happens, it honestly feels like I have hit something or someone.

The weird thing is that when it happens at work, it has only happened when I've gone out for a meeting and come back during the day. It's never happened when I arrive and park first thing in the morning.

Anyone else have this issue?

Probably due to the rear cross traffic alert when reversing. It will activate when reversing out of a garage if there are pillars in close proximity on either side of the car.

I disable it on my 911 otherwise I won't get out of my garage!

 

[jsaccio]

Yes happens to me a lot. I can't figure out a pattern but it scares the crap out of me each time as I think I hit something.

 

[ColdCase]

Just in case anyone is fretting. I always use my seatbelt on the road.

I very often move a car a few feet for parking and sometimes don't buckle up. Some cars have a feature that throws the car into park when its moving and the seatbelt unfastened, a safety thing to mitigate litigation should someone accidentally get run over... if I recall correctly. Application can seem random and was just suggesting (wrongly) that perhaps thats what the OP was seeing.

 

[AndrewH]

Application can seem random and was just suggesting (wrongly) that perhaps thats what the OP was seeing.

All good It’s actually not a bad suggestion and would be a logical behaviour to program in - eg, take your seatbelt off, car stops

 

[CraigW1]

Yes happens to me a lot. I can't figure out a pattern but it scares the crap out of me each time as I think I hit something.

Same here. Macan 4.

 

[Riddler82]

Had this happen to me 3 times now, all while reversing slowly. It feels like I accidentally hit something which freaked me out (cuz I'm watching and Im like WTF did I hit!?!?!?!?). I'm glad I wasn't the only one experiencing this! I thought it might just be the sensors picking up an object and slammed on the brakes to prevent me hitting something? I'm not sure but it def scared the shit out of me.

…Same

 

[SteveInKirkland]

I have also encountered this. I also wear my seatbelt religiously. The most common time we see the phantom effect is when we're backing up in a retail store parking lot from an angled space and the sensors "see" cars on a busier section of the parking lot but my lane has no cars.

 

[2EVs]

I took delivery of my 2025 Macan 4 about 2 weeks ago.

I have a tight garage and experienced braking trying to back out. I tried disengaging the feature and that didn’t work. The car would brake, go into park, and the feature turned back on.

I had someone from the dealership come out so he could see what was happening. He pulled right out of my garage with no issue. We went back and forth multiple times with no issue.

I thought maybe a small bag in my garage, which I moved right before the dealership came to my house, was causing the braking. I figured I’d test that theory.

I decided to try backing out today, and realized that when I roll down the window and look back (which has been my usual practice) the car brakes itself. If I back out without looking back through the window, it reverses without stopping.

I don’t have an issue pulling into my garage.

Now, I’m wondering if having my head out the window triggers the sensors for driver inattention.

Does this make sense?

 

[joeev]

I took delivery of my 2025 Macan 4 about 2 weeks ago.

I have a tight garage and experienced braking trying to back out. I tried disengaging the feature and that didn’t work. The car would brake, go into park, and the feature turned back on.

I had someone from the dealership come out so he could see what was happening. He pulled right out of my garage with no issue. We went back and forth multiple times with no issue.

I thought maybe a small bag in my garage, which I moved right before the dealership came to my house, was causing the braking. I figured I’d test that theory.

I decided to try backing out today, and realized that when I roll down the window and look back (which has been my usual practice) the car brakes itself. If I back out without looking back through the window, it reverses without stopping.

I don’t have an issue pulling into my garage.

Now, I’m wondering if having my head out the window triggers the sensors for driver inattention.

Does this make sense?

Just a guess, but I would be willing to bet that when you turn your head to look back, you lift your butt off the seat just enough to trigger the weight sensor. The car thinks you've jumped out the window, so it brakes and puts it into park.

I'll try the next time I'm in the car - lift myself off the seat while backing up and see what happens

 

[krissrock]

yeah, if it went into park, you didn't have your seatbelt on. and you lifted your butt off the seat. that's the only time this happens. If your seatbelt is on, it will not go into park.

 

[2EVs]

yeah, if it went into park, you didn't have your seatbelt on. and you lifted your butt off the seat. that's the only time this happens. If your seatbelt is on, it will not go into park.

I think you are correct. I backed out this morning with seatbelt on and just a peek out the window and it was fine.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[AndrewH]

Interesting idea and something that you could definitely imagine with attention monitoring. I’m not sure it’s what’s happening in my case (although it’s possible) as I only use my mirrors and surround view when reversing, my belt is always on when driving/reversing too.

 

[2EVs]

Thank you for starting this thread as it was really helpful for figuring out the issue with backing out of my garage.

 

[W1NGE]

Interesting idea and something that you could definitely imagine with attention monitoring. I’m not sure it’s what’s happening in my case (although it’s possible) as I only use my mirrors and surround view when reversing, my belt is always on when driving/reversing too.

Which icon do you press on the surround view when reversing out of the garage?

I get this on my 911 until I remembered to tap the manoeuvring icon so that it lit up blue to deactivate.

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