? PCM 6 Update Announcement [Update: Retrofit Being Explored For Existing Taycans]

[DerekS]

"Retrofit" sounds like hardware, not software.

Come on Porsche. The PCM in our Taycans needs fixing. We just want it to work as it should have when shipped.

Items that need fixing off the top of my head:

• The calendar displaying events on the wrong day
• Apple Music and Podcasts working intermittently, often freezing on "loading data"
• Starting the car in SiriusXM where I left it, then losing playback when Carplay attaches
• Favorites empty (or blinking and unusable) for a period of time after startup
• Retain regen and ESS preferences

If you want to keep the pretty colors for new cars fine but this stuff is just flatly broken.

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[Skilly]

This is such a gongshow from an engineering perspective.

In working with Silicon MFGs platform wins for chip/circuit designs are multi-year events. They don't just swap out and redesign hardware without a clear failure in the original design. The idea that they are changing hardware config within a 12 month period on a platform that was designed to be multi-year is 100% design failure. Nothing short.

Consider you buy your child the latest newly designed XBox Series X and its riddled with bugs, and freezing, and restarts etc, and then Microsoft responds to say:

'don't worry, we just redesigned it and the latest version has all the features that don't work in the one you have and a couple of new things as well!' *fine print* - the one you have is still gonna operate the same buggy way...

Good luck with that Porsche - unless everyone who purchased doesnt care about it working properly I would say there will be a LOT of 2020/2021 owners where that is their limit.

 

[sfr]

"Retrofit" sounds like hardware, not software.

Come on Porsche. The PCM in our Taycans needs fixing. We just want it to work as it should have when shipped.

Items that need fixing off the top of my head:

• The calendar displaying events on the wrong day
• Apple Music and Podcasts working intermittently, often freezing on "loading data"
• Starting the car in SiriusXM where I left it, then losing playback when Carplay attaches
• Favorites empty (or blinking and unusable) for a period of time after startup
• Retain regen and ESS preferences

If you want to keep the pretty colors for new cars fine but this stuff is just flatly broken.

They are not a software company so I'm pretty sure they don't know the difference between retrofit, update and upgrade ... ?

 

[Perry]

Last I heard regarding the previous "new" MY22 PCM was that the older models would not get that update because of hardware differences. I assume that still applies to this version and would then indeed mean a literal retrofit if they would have to change out the hardware.

I still don't understand however what this means for the current MY22 cars. Have they changed the hardware again without changing the model year or is this just software?

 

[paladin732]

Got this from twitter

Thank you for your response. The PCM enhancements will be available for model year 2022 vehicles equipped with PCM 6.0. The 2022 Taycan, 911, Cayenne, and Panamera model series will have a software update available. Unfortunately, the enhancements will not be available for 2020 and 2021 Taycan models at this time. Additional information regarding the PCM update can be viewed here: https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2022/products/porsche-communication-management-pcm-infotainment-system-update-27152.html…. Thank you for being a valued member of our Porsche

personally, I view this as bs. If you want to market the car takes OTA updates you need to actually provide updates. This is a reason folks are looking at Rivian, Tesla, Lucid. They are all updating their cars after the fact to fix bugs and provide new infotainment features.

 

[McgR]

UPDATE 1/25:

Porsche has confirmed that PCM 6.0 is not being made available to existing owners, but a retrofit option is being investigated. This was their reply statement:

“The new functions are now part of the standard equipment of every newly configured Porsche 911, Taycan, Cayenne, and Panamera. Whether there will be a retrofit option for existing vehicles with PCM 6.0 is currently being evaluated.”​

It would be nice to know what they mean by “newly configured”. Will the new PCM be included in all newly produced cars from the 7th week and further. Or only card that are ordered from that week.

 

[tigerbalm]

"Bing! Your map has been Updated. Bing! Do you want me to read out that your map has been updated?"

I press read.

Car says: "Your map has been updated".

Meanwhile, if you have an active navigation while your map has been updated, it will re-calculate the route and is very likely to pick a new set of random charging stops. Instead of that nice juicy 350 kW IONITY, why not try this broken 50kW one 25 km away instead?

Thank you OTA Update.

 

[Skilly]

Got this from twitter

Thank you for your response. The PCM enhancements will be available for model year 2022 vehicles equipped with PCM 6.0. The 2022 Taycan, 911, Cayenne, and Panamera model series will have a software update available. Unfortunately, the enhancements will not be available for 2020 and 2021 Taycan models at this time. Additional information regarding the PCM update can be viewed here: https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2022/products/porsche-communication-management-pcm-infotainment-system-update-27152.html…. Thank you for being a valued member of our Porsche

personally, I view this as bs. If you want to market the car takes OTA updates you need to actually provide updates. This is a reason folks are looking at Rivian, Tesla, Lucid. They are all updating their cars after the fact to fix bugs and provide new infotainment features.

This should be responded with a request to better understand how they are addressing the design flaws within the 2020/2021 MY PCM - will those be addressed. If I summarize the sentiment on this post, they seem to be two separate issues. And, Porsche with this announcement appears to be covering up those issues with a "fix" for 2022... its bizarre.

 

[PerPower]

MY21 under 1 year old and already outdated? Come on Porsche, you can do better.

I don’t understand how Tesla can add new features every second week and make overall improvements on the same hardware, while the only improvements I have seen on the PCM is an update on the map and other minor things.

You have so much potential to improve the user experience. Here are some ideas:

- Clean up the menu’s (no scroll please)
- Remember the last Sport Chrono setting (so I don’t have to change it every time I get in the car). Or set a default setting based on a user profile.
- Better solution for charge planning (drop the Timers and Profiles and keep it simple)
- Improve the Comfort Access so I don’t need to touch the handle to lock
- Lower the music volume when a door is opened
- Make it possible to buy/add other Electric Sport sounds

And don’t get me started with the app…

Thank god the car is so amazing to drive ?

 

[DerekS]

I get that software is iterative, and it can take time to polish out.
That's my life.

But I would not be happy if they just abandoned MY 20/21 PCM as-is.

These are 100-200K cars.

 

[Scandinavian]

"Bing! Your map has been Updated. Bing! Do you want me to read out that your map has been updated?"

I press read.

Car says: "Your map has been updated".

Meanwhile, if you have an active navigation while your map has been updated, it will re-calculate the route and is very likely to pick a new set of random charging stops. Instead of that nice juicy 350 kW IONITY, why not try this broken 50kW one 25 km away instead?

Thank you OTA Update.

Agréé that is very annoying when it happens. And if you are on a longer trip it will be frequent. I had hoped that the Press release with the updates would have fixed this, by filtering the chargers capacity. I cannot believe that Porsche are going to leave the PCM in this terrible state.

 

[vdr]

All speculation and all based on unknown variables. Opinions range from "it's disappointing" to "what does it matter?" I'm in the former group as it's been one disappointment after another with this car; from ordering, to getting an allocation, to having my car languish in production for MONTHS, to having my car (semi) complete production weeks after the production on MY22's started AND finished, to having ‘22's delivered months before my car even made it to port, to having my '21 car delivered in early '22 with a number of open campaigns when my dealer assured me at delivery that the only thing missing was my second key fob to, finally, PCNA's unhelpful responses with anything I've addressed on this thread previously. Oh... I forgot to mention that SiriusXM didn't work upon delivery and my SA's initial response was "Do ya think you'll even use Sirius? If not why bother bringing it back and spending your time to have us diagnose the issue?" *THIS* attitude on a car costing $140k.

Now I've got a year old model with an outdated PCM that's still missing parts with <300 miles on the odometer.. LMAO. The only positive is that ALL car pricing has gone mad and I can likely dump this car (and Porsche) for what I paid for it as I was fortunate enough to get a heavily discounted MSRP. Not saying I'll do that, mind you, as I simply haven't driven this car enough to make that decision though it is nice to have the option....

 

[Scandinavian]

I get that software is iterative, and it can take time to polish out.
That's my life.

But I would not be happy if they just abandoned MY 20/21 PCM as-is.

These are 100-200K cars.

There was a suggestion that we all here on the Forum should send an email to Porsche. I would suggest we do that and not to that press guy, but to some high up in Germany. This is just ridiculous from their side as said for a car in that price bracket. I for one am going to send an email to the top.

I guess we were all completely missold from the start. They promised OTA updates etc, but nothing has so fr been delivered.

 

[Scandinavian]

Oh... I forgot to mention that SiriusXM didn't work upon delivery and my SA's initial response was "Do ya think you'll even use Sirius? If not why bother bringing it back and spending your time to have us diagnose the issue?" *THIS* attitude on a car costing $140k.

This seems just like the old Monty Python sketch with the Dead Parrot, well done Porsche

 

[brba242]

It would be nice to know what they mean by “newly configured”. Will the new PCM be included in all newly produced cars from the 7th week and further. Or only card that are ordered from that week.

Read this on news7h.com:
Porsche says all of these updates will be available to new production models, starting at some point in the next few weeks. However, it did not provide details on when cars already in production would receive the features. Porsche has said in the past that its PCM 6.0 infotainment system will receive constant updates to keep the software up to date, so it’s only a matter of time before current cars yet with PCM 6.0 get the upgrade.

So I think all cars already ordered but not built yet will be getting the new 6.0 straight away.
My ordered ST should end production 2nd week of april, so I'm rather confident that it will have the new one.

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