driver69

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This is my short review of the Night View Assist option and whether you should spec one for your vehicle as well. My current place of residence is in Kyiv, Ukraine. Considering recent developments, our electrical infrastructure has been severely damaged and as a result - street lighting is only available 20% of the time, in rural areas it’s even less than that. NVA has already helped me avoid potential collisions with pedestrians walking across the road in pitch dark wearing black clothes.

What exactly is NVA?
Night View Assist equips your vehicle with a thermal imaging camera in the front bumper that provides a thermal image of the surroundings, which can be displayed on the instrument cluster. The system can detect persons and animals beyond the area illuminated by the headlights and highlight these in the camera image. Night View Assist detects persons and animals when it is sufficiently dark and at an ambient temperature of under 28 °C. (Description from the Porsche Taycan Owners Manual(PTOM))

In my experience, it works well even during daylight when it’s reasonably cold: -5C(40F) or less. It manages to detect pedestrians and large animals really well in those conditions. Temperatures above that (during daylight) will trigger a warning that the system is not able to reliably detect pedestrians or animals.

Night View Assist offers the following functions:

Pedestrian warning:
If the system detects a possible collision with a pedestrian, it can warn the driver by means of a warning tone and an appropriate display in the instrument cluster on the vehicle speed range up to 250 km/h (156 mph). The camera image is displayed with the person marked in red. The pedestrian warning is output if a pedestrian is standing or moving onto the driving lane. On vehicles with LED-Matrix headlights, the endangered person is flashed at in order to enhance recognition. (PTOM)

Talking about the situation when the endangered person is flashed at by LED Matrix headlights, it caught me off-guard a few times when there was not any danger of an imminent collision, just a random pedestrian walking down the street. (He probably thought "Why the hell is that jerk flashing" :D)
Nevertheless, it also saved me twice already, as mentioned above. The pedestrian in danger is highlighted by a very bright, precisely focused square beam of light and can be seen VERY clearly, thus allowing you to either apply full brake pressure or swerve out of his way. People are oftentimes negligent of their own safety and refuse or just do not want to invest 2 Euros into the cheapest possible reflective vest despite numerous recommendations from local authorities.

Animal warning :
I haven not yet encountered any big animals (and hopefully I won’t), so I don’t really have anything to share here in this regard. Dogs/cats/etc can be seen on the screen as well, but they will not be highlighted by the system.
Fun fact - you won’t be able to play hide and seek with your friends, as the system automatically turns off if you switch the headlights off.

Conclusion:
Night View Assist comes as an optional feature and costs 84,000 UAH in my region (approx. 2,115 EUR) and is quite expensive. In my case during these times it is practically invaluable. Night View Assist saved 2 souls from being ran over and potentially killed, saved me from facing jail time and costly compensations to the relatives of potential victims. Driving the speed limit is almost suicidal without any street lights, but with this system I can comfortably drive around town and highways while maintaining exceptional situational awareness on the road and see pedestrians far beyond the range of headlights.
Should you get one? It depends when and where you drive, of course. You know your area best and decide for yourself if it is worth the investment, my job here was to describe it to the best of my abilities. It is also a cool feature to show off to your friends and family, as well as tell which car has just departed and which one has been on the road for a while now 🙂 Cheers

Porsche Taycan My take on Night View Assist photo_2023-01-19_19-27-27 (2)


Porsche Taycan My take on Night View Assist photo_2023-01-19_19-27-27
 

tigerbalm

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I haven not yet encountered any big animals (and hopefully I won’t), so I don’t really have anything to share here in this regard
I've had it trigger with a deer/moose in front of the car on rural roads. It knows if its an animal (rather than a pedestrian) and doesn't flash the LED lights at animals to reduce chances of scaring/spooking them.
 

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the first image looked like a person holding a weapon standing in front of you
 
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driver69

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I've had it trigger with a deer/moose in front of the car on rural roads. It knows if its an animal (rather than a pedestrian) and doesn't flash the LED lights at animals to reduce chances of scaring/spooking them.
That is so German, to plan for every possible situation :CWL:

the first image looked like a person holding a weapon standing in front of you
No worries, we can't freely carry weapons here :)
 

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It's pretty cool.
I have it as well.
And I was amazed by the range it detects people, about 30-40 meters.
It doesn't work that well in moist/foggy rain but still detects them.
It also makes a difference in bicycles and motorbikes.
It detects bicycles but motorbikes are detected as cars (and therefore detected by the radar).
In summer it doesn't work when temperatures are above 25°C though....
Very cool and clever system.

Porsche Taycan My take on Night View Assist Screenshot_20230119-202554
 
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That is so German, to plan for every possible situation :CWL:



No worries, we can't freely carry weapons here :)
LOL!
back to the NVA, I also have specced it, basically it's a bit redundant if you live in a city;
Porsche could have done it better to 1) position the infrared sensor a bit higher 2) allow it in an extended view (like the extended google map) rather than in a small circle
 
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Excellent write up by @driver69

I do not have the Taycan yet but NVA is a must have for my needs. I do have it on the Cayenne and from the write up it works the same way but I do not have Matrix lights (LED only) and even if I did in the US they are not programmed to operate as such, which brings up a question when I do get the Taycan and it will have Matrix lights, would they do the cool things of flashing at pedestrians. Per recommendation, will go to the manual to check that out.

The main use case are pedestrians walking along/across the street or deer crossing or standing in the middle of the road. I do not believe the system was able to detect large turkeys or animals smaller than a baby deer. The main value of the system is to detect these objects BEYOND the visible area illuminated by the headlights, and I can confirm that this in fact is the case and detected very quickly.

The only thing that is not well done is how it is just stuck into the lower bumper and not the same size as the ACC camera. On the Cayenne, NVA camera is integrated nicely and not noticeable. I intentionally skipped ACC since that thing is just like a cannon ball in the middle of the grille on the Cayenne and just looks awful.
 


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driver69

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LOL!
back to the NVA, I also have specced it, basically it's a bit redundant if you live in a city;
Porsche could have done it better to 1) position the infrared sensor a bit higher 2) allow it in an extended view (like the extended google map) rather than in a small circle
It is indeed redundant in the city, but a good backup nevertheless. Highway trips are a lot easier, not all of them are lit at all times (for energy saving purposes, in Europe as well).

1) I think the resolution just isn't there, will be the equivalent of looking into a cheap android tablet.
2) Oh I wish, cars look really "tall" when close, but where else can they put it, it's a 911-wannabe and doesn't have a tall front grille :D
 
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driver69

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It's pretty cool.
I have it as well.
And I was amazed by the range it detects people, about 30-40 meters.
It doesn't work that well in moist/foggy rain but still detects them.
It also makes a difference in bicycles and motorbikes.
It detects bicycles but motorbikes are detected as cars (and therefore detected by the radar).
In summer it doesn't work when temperatures are above 25°C though....
Very cool and clever system.

Screenshot_20230119-202554.png
The farthest I could see was a group of people 300m ahead (Measured on google using local terrain features), it is a very impressive device.
 
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RAHRCR

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Person and object detection (day or night) is one of the required subsystems required for full autonomous driving. OEMs have gotten clever by selling the subsystems (ALK, Innodrive, etc) ahead of full self driving capability. I would consider them if they bundled all of their existing capability into one package/price as opposed to piecemeal. As a complete package at the right price, they may offer enough value to consider it.
 
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driver69

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Excellent write up by @driver69

I do not have the Taycan yet but NVA is a must have for my needs. I do have it on the Cayenne and from the write up it works the same way but I do not have Matrix lights (LED only) and even if I did in the US they are not programmed to operate as such, which brings up a question when I do get the Taycan and it will have Matrix lights, would they do the cool things of flashing at pedestrians. Per recommendation, will go to the manual to check that out.

The main use case are pedestrians walking along/across the street or deer crossing or standing in the middle of the road. I do not believe the system was able to detect large turkeys or animals smaller than a baby deer. The main value of the system is to detect these objects BEYOND the visible area illuminated by the headlights, and I can confirm that this in fact is the case and detected very quickly.

The only thing that is not well done is how it is just stuck into the lower bumper and not the same size as the ACC camera. On the Cayenne, NVA camera is integrated nicely and not noticeable. I intentionally skipped ACC since that thing is just like a cannon ball in the middle of the grille on the Cayenne and just looks awful.
The camera itself looks very clean on the body, nothing hideous or looking out of place. I wish it was higher as well, but there's just no other panel to stick it to.

Porsche Taycan My take on Night View Assist tts_nva
 
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driver69

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Person and object detection (day or night) is one of the required subsystems required for full autonomous driving. OEMs have gotten clever by selling the subsystems (ALK, Innodrive, etc) ahead of full self driving capability. I would consider them if they bundled all of their existing capability into one package/price as opposed to piecemeal. As a complete package at the right price, they may offer enough value to consider it.
Autonomous driving and a Porsche are mutually exclusive things, the handling is just too good to let some AI drive it :D
 

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Autonomous driving and a Porsche are mutually exclusive things, the handling is just too good to let some AI drive it :D
Agreed at this point. This is the primary reason I bought none of this stuff. I would reconsider for future Porsche’s if the package was right though.…for the very few times that I dont feel like driving 😁
 

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NVA is on my list of best top 4 features, together with active led matrix, RAS and PDCC.
Sponsored

 
 




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