sbt007

If you need to get out of your seat, then how is this a safety issue if the car turns off? In fact NHTSA will likely side with Audi.
Now in terms of lifting yourself from the seat while seated. I tried tried doing this yesterday. I often turn my shoulder around while backing up or turning even with the camera. However, I guess I was not able to lift myself up totally off the seat because the car stayed on. Personally this is no issue for me but obviously many of us are able to do this regularly. So I think Audi should just get rid of the feature - there is already a button there - why make gimmicky changes.

WildBTK

A theory I have in my mind is that it affects people who are lighter in weight. The pressure sensor is basically just a switch. If it becomes a problem for me, I may download the wiring diagram from Audi and see if I can make the car think someone is always in the seat via a resistor across the legs of the switch or if it is wired another way.

superswiss

I can see the intent of the feature. With EVs being completely silent it's not unimaginable that somebody doesn't realize their EV is on and in "gear". Then turns around lifting out of the seat and letting go of the brake pedal and the car starts moving. Or they open the door and get out with the car still on and in "gear". The latter has been an issue even with ICEs since the introduction of the electronic gear selectors. The actor Anton Yelchin got crushed by his own car this way in 2016. Now cars with electronic gear selectors automatically engage the parking brake and even automatically go into P the moment you open the driver's door. There are people who mistake the throttle pedal for the brake pedal and crash into stores, so everyday there's a new idiot being born.

As Rick Cook wrote in The Wizardry Compiled:

“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”

grue

Fundamentally they need to look at the whole context of the sensor reading and not just on its own. Is the seatbelt still fastened? Is the door closed? Maybe don't freak out.

Belt is unfastened, door is open, and the weight comes off the seat? Sure, ok,

shyde

Or, you know, just use the f*cking power button and stop guessing at what I want the car to do.

Regalities

This happened to me about ten days ago in my 2023 Q4 étron that we leased three months ago. I was actively accelerating and going about 10mph and it just halted to a dead stop. At first I thought it was the driver assistance or that I had hit something but then I saw the same message on the dash. The car wouldn’t start. I kept turning it off and on, pressing the brake, trying to shift into gear and it kept turning off and shifting into park. This was on a busy street in Seattle and I was blocking traffic. Some people stopped to try to help me push it off the road but the brake wouldn’t disengage. I called a tow truck and while I was waiting I tried again to start it. I moved my seat back and forth and then it started and I reversed off the road. The tow truck driver came and it wouldn’t start again. He tried the same trick with the seat and it started and he was able to get it on the truck. At the dealership though he wasn’t able to start it to get it off the truck. No fault codes came up and the technicians haven’t been able to replicate the issue. Everyone seems to be at a loss as to what to do. They said they will just keep driving it to see if an error code comes up but they don’t have any other way to debug issues, which seems absurd to me. At this point I don’t feel safe driving the car unless they can identify and fix the issue. The fact that the car did this and then didn’t even produce a fault code is very worrisome.

susyk

I'm still having this problem with the "driver recognition" error message and have had the car in for sevice 4 times now to no avail. I had the same experience as you, they couldn't replicate and got no fault codes. But FINALLY at my last visit the service department did acknowledge that Audi has begun to see complaints about this from others. I hope they will put some resources on this issue and solve it soon. Let's keep each other updated.

MichaelCarter

The same thing happened to my wife when she borrowed my car. I guess every new driver just needs to play around with settings.