Help! I accidentally liked the PCM!

SwissTaycan

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I don‘t dislike it per se… I actually like how the integrated Apple Music and podcast look in PCM better than the look of CarPlay.

What just annoys me is that pretty much every other day Apple music/Podcast icons do not appear or exist. Then after the drive to work they might be there on the drive home. Or not. Or…. Ask me to login again to Apple Music — which of course does not work whilst driving.
 

Dee

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+1 on the lack of customization for the instrument cluster. The two things that I most want to see - the outside temperature and the speed, are blocked by the steering wheel and I have to tilt my head to see them.
It has to do with your driving position.
There are two black areas in your instrument cluster where your steering wheel will fit in.
It's either your steering wheel that doesn't align properly or your seat (or both).
It's just clever design to get you in the best position behind the wheel...

Porsche Taycan Help! I accidentally liked the PCM! 2021-07-13_19.59.27
 

DerekS

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I don‘t dislike it per se… I actually like how the integrated Apple Music and podcast look in PCM better than the look of CarPlay.

What just annoys me is that pretty much every other day Apple music/Podcast icons do not appear or exist. Then after the drive to work they might be there on the drive home. Or not. Or…. Ask me to login again to Apple Music — which of course does not work whilst driving.
There is definitely some kind of bug with the Apple Music authentication failing to stay refreshed. It's on my buglist.
 

Dave T

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It has to do with your driving position.
There are two black areas in your instrument cluster where your steering wheel will fit in.
It's either your steering wheel that doesn't align properly or your seat (or both).
It's just clever design to get you in the best position behind the wheel...

2021-07-13_19.59.27.jpg
Yes, I’ve tried adjusting the seat and steering wheel, but Couldn’t find a comfortable position where I could see the temperature and speed. It’s unfortunate that too such useful pieces of data are in that black area.
 


Smithy37

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I don’t hate the PCM but find it frustrating.

You listen to the car radio then CarPlay initiates wirelessly and turns the radio off.
you get a Waze alert and the radio turns back on (my 991.2 does this too). Also doesn’t like being interrupted by telephone calls neither and it and the radio have a real good game of cat and mouse

I have little or no cellular coverage where I live so step into a double glazed car and I’m marooned on a desert island.
So I find myself in the minority of someone who actually buys the data from Porsche.

This has a mind of its own. Sometimes it just doesn’t want to connect. Other times it will drop from 4g to 3G and then never revert back to 4g. Even if I park under a cell tower. Then there is data renewal at 30 days (not a calendar month). I set it to auto renew and if it happens to fall on a weekend then forget about any data over those two days. It normally is off line for 24 hrs on a weekday too. Like there is someone paid to physically sit there and flick a switch. I think it’s like one of those telephone exchanges where the ladies would plug cables into massive old switchboards to connect telephone lines.
Anyway, I digress.
Even a reboot of the PCM won’t solve this and there is no way to eject the sim & reinsert as it is hidden away in the circuitry somewhere.

The Sat view in the dash never remembers I’ve ticked its box. I’ve heard others say this is fixed. Not on my car it’s not.

Black CarPlay screen occasionally. Yep. Still there. Have to disconnect CarPlay then switch it back on again. To get a screen I can see.
I’m sure there is more but i have cramp from typing.

However, I still love the car and I’m just learning to live with these issues. I’m sure we’ll all be flying cars like the Jetsons before Porsche finally get on top of these issues.
 

dickp

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I don’t hate the PCM but find it frustrating.

You listen to the car radio then CarPlay initiates wirelessly and turns the radio off.
you get a Waze alert and the radio turns back on (my 991.2 does this too). Also doesn’t like being interrupted by telephone calls neither and it and the radio have a real good game of cat and mouse

I have little or no cellular coverage where I live so step into a double glazed car and I’m marooned on a desert island.
So I find myself in the minority of someone who actually buys the data from Porsche.

This has a mind of its own. Sometimes it just doesn’t want to connect. Other times it will drop from 4g to 3G and then never revert back to 4g. Even if I park under a cell tower. Then there is data renewal at 30 days (not a calendar month). I set it to auto renew and if it happens to fall on a weekend then forget about any data over those two days. It normally is off line for 24 hrs on a weekday too. Like there is someone paid to physically sit there and flick a switch. I think it’s like one of those telephone exchanges where the ladies would plug cables into massive old switchboards to connect telephone lines.
Anyway, I digress.
Even a reboot of the PCM won’t solve this and there is no way to eject the sim & reinsert as it is hidden away in the circuitry somewhere.

The Sat view in the dash never remembers I’ve ticked its box. I’ve heard others say this is fixed. Not on my car it’s not.

Black CarPlay screen occasionally. Yep. Still there. Have to disconnect CarPlay then switch it back on again. To get a screen I can see.
I’m sure there is more but i have cramp from typing.

However, I still love the car and I’m just learning to live with these issues. I’m sure we’ll all be flying cars like the Jetsons before Porsche finally get on top of these issues.
Does not look like " I accidentally liked the PCM" lasted very long!
 
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Jhenson29

Jhenson29

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This thread has made my day!

I have a Taycan Turbo on order, I run a tech company for a living and consider myself both a car and tech enthusiast.

After reading the never ending whinging on here I was starting to get very nervous about the PCM.
Less worried now.

Thank You!
Yeah, that’s part of why I wrote it.

Sometimes, reading this forum, it can seem like the Taycan is a complete dumpster fire.

But I really don’t think that’s the case, and I don’t think most of the people on here feel that way either.

I really have been having a good experience in the car and wanted to share that and spread some good cheer!
 


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Jhenson29

Jhenson29

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I like the -design- of the PCM just fine.

What I don't like are the bugs, which I've started writing down.
  • Configuring Apple Music -after- configuring Apple Podcasts clears podcast credentials
  • Apple Music stops working after a period of time, requiring changing profiles to fix
  • Occasionally, Apple Music will require pause/play to resume when tracks change
  • When carplay connects, it frequently stops playing the current media
  • Sometimes the PCM stops working entirely (no sound at all) such that only a reboot recovers it.
  • Reboot is not user-friendly and can't be done while driving, which needs to be fixed since it has to be done often.
If anyone else has PCM bugs please let me know as I'm maintaining a list and I'm sending it to them in hopes of getting them fixed.
It looks like other people are reporting similar issues. I hope this gets resolved for you.

I always either listen to the normal radio (NPR), or songs/podcasts on my phone through Car Play. But I did go ahead and set up Apple Music in the car the other day because of a thread on here and my wife will probably use it, so I’ll keep an eye out….err…uh….ear out, I mean. ?
 
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Jhenson29

Jhenson29

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Yes, I’ve tried adjusting the seat and steering wheel, but Couldn’t find a comfortable position where I could see the temperature and speed.
You keep saying speed, but the speed is in the middle. Do you mean the time?

Also, as @Dee said, I was also able to adjust to see everything, but I realize body types are different and that may not be the case for everyone.
 

submatrix

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Yes, I’ve tried adjusting the seat and steering wheel, but Couldn’t find a comfortable position where I could see the temperature and speed. It’s unfortunate that too such useful pieces of data are in that black area.
I'm the same way, and I spent a bunch of time in the first couple of weeks changing my seat position and steering wheel position nonstop to try and find something that was comfortable. I'm not a particularly unusual height, 6', but I prefer the steering wheel at a height where I can put my hands at 3 and 9 and not feel like my arms are uncomfortably "raised" up. Additionally, I found I have to raise the seat up so that the angle of my leg and ankle is such that it won't get tired or feel strained over time. Too low of a seating position, and my leg feels uncomfortable.

I can either raise the wheel to improve sight lines to the cluster, which would make my arms feel tired. Alternatively, I can lower the seat, which would make my right leg feel strained. Both of these options would result in less comfort for me. And of course, as we all know, the cluster itself is unfortunately not adjustable.

This all adds up to most of the cluster being blocked from my view. Specifically, when the speed is in the center of the display (the default view, not the map one where the speed is up top), The top part of the steering wheel is just above the top of the numbers in my line of sight. Even the "hold" symbol is partially blocked, when it shows. If I switch to the map view, which puts the numbers at the top, I can't see my speed at all.

I don't think I have an unusual body type or fitness level...it's not like I'm out of shape and can't handle holding my arms up lol :) I weigh 160 lbs, workout ~4 times a week and run a 6 minute mile...
 

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+1 Jhenson29, I'm with you.


Thought I would really dislike the PCM. And in the first few days of ownership, I thought it was a bit clunky.

Minor gripes:
o Lag of PCM when vehicle is starting up ... takes 30-60 seconds for all the wireless gremlins to get along
o Menu system / logic tree is not that intuitive at first glance, agree with the earlier post, why should "..." hide important settings?

(Same with the "CHARGE" square on the main screen -- why is the "temp/pre-heat & cool" in the "CHARGE" submenu? At first I thought it had to do with pre-conditioning the battery, but no, it's just the cabin HVAC ... odd.)

But once I took a deep breath and just learned how it's organized, it kind of 'clicked'. I kind of half-closed my eyes and pretended I was a German padowan named "Klaus" and absorbed the German-ness of it... :)

I feel for other owners who complain of device non-compliance with CarPlay etc. ... wish I could offer solutions but my vehicle has never had any of these problems (May 2021 build).

My only ongoing strangeness is with my iPhone 12 heating up to cook fried eggs, but that's in another thread.

So yeah, it's easy to pick apart an awesome vehicle like the Taycan, but God ... I love this automobile. In the end, the sum of the vehicle is absolutely stunning, despite its small oddities.
 

Wakesurfer

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So, I’m going to be the oddball here and say I like the PCM and don’t really have any real issues with it.

I’ve read and read and read everyone’s complaints about Porsche’s software in general, and, I’m just not there.

I promise I tried. I tried really really hard to dislike the software, but I just don’t.

I tried to have a pretend conversion with someone on why I don’t like it and it went like this:
“Ugh, the software is terrible. Because…um…err…well, see here? This button…this button here…is too…square. I don’t like it.”

That’s all I could come up with. And it was a lie. I secretly liked that it was square. Don’t tell my imaginary friend. ?

I’m not referring to actual issues people have with things like FOD not working. Or isolated feature requests like saving the sport sound setting (FYI, i don’t have sport sound).
But rather just the overall software and UI in the car.

It could also be that 95% of the time I don’t use it. Most of the time, all I use is
  • the diamond button on the instrument cluster for homelink on a single garage door (works great)
  • the sport button (um…also works great..turns on every time I press it…unless it’s already on…then pressing it turns it off…seems okay)
  • the parking camera button when pulling into a parking space (yep…woks too).

Beyond that, drive the car and watch the instrument cluster. And the instrument cluster is outstanding.
??

But even when I do have the rare occasion to browse the PCM, I don’t find it awkward, difficult, slow, or confusing. It seems perfectly fine to me.

And actually I’m going to go a step further here and compliment Porsche on their touch screen ergonomics. Touch screens in cars are typically a pain because I can’t hold my hand outstretched steady and press whatever it is I’m trying to press without hitting 10 other wrong buttons, but that’s not an issue in the Taycan.
  • On the instrument cluster side buttons, I’m able to brace my hand on the side and accurately press the desired button.
  • On the PCM, I can brace my hand on the lower ledge and accurately press any button.
  • On the center console, I can either brace my hand on the side, or lightly rest my finger on the screen and then push harder when I’m on the desired button. Actually, here, because the buttons are fairly large and the screen is closer so my arm isn’t outstretched, I can usually easily just hit the button I want.
You’re welcome to try to convince me otherwise.

I’m currently looking for a support group for other people who also don’t hate the software. I’m available Tuesdays and Thursdays. Preferably one with coffee and donuts. ☕?
I dunno................I guess that I am just a simple guy. I like the way that my car handles, accelerates and looks. Really cannot find anything that is particularly troubling and I think that all of the stuff on my car works.....................but even if something does not work (what in the heck is Apple Car Play anyhow?????) I am having way to much fun driving it to notice...........................I would end by saying Vroooommmmmm, but my car does not do that. ?
 
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Jhenson29

Jhenson29

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I don't think I have an unusual body type or fitness level...it's not like I'm out of shape and can't handle holding my arms up lol :) I weigh 160 lbs, workout ~4 times a week and run a 6 minute mile...
Um…not being out of shape is an unusual body type for America? But then again, you’re in California? Yeah…you’d be an alien in the Midwest…?

::in Missouri accent::
“Martha, I saw one of those fit people walking around again…”

I can say that. I live here.

And FYI, if you don’t know, Missouri accent is very sing-song. Or so I’m told by my wife who claims CA as her home, even though she only lived there for a few years growing up…

But I’ve been informed we’ll retire there (but only because Seattle is too rainy).

I think I’ve gone off topic now.

I'm not a particularly unusual height, 6', but I prefer the steering wheel at a height where I can put my hands at 3 and 9 and not feel like my arms are uncomfortably "raised" up. Additionally, I found I have to raise the seat up so that the angle of my leg and ankle is such that it won't get tired or feel strained over time. Too low of a seating position, and my leg feels uncomfortable.
Interesting…different seating positions people prefer. I’m 6’ also, but I prefer my seat as low as possible. In pretty much anything I drive. One of my favorite cars I’ve ever had was an Elise. Hard to get much lower. My Macan seat is as low as possible but still sadly high. I’m considering removing the cushion. Anyone here try LWB in their SUV?

And I think I may have the wheel fairly high also, but I’m not in town to check at the moment.

I would have never thought anyone would have trouble seeing the speed, given the view I have, but…just goes to show what I know…?‍♂
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