6 months in with 4S - the great/good, the bad/ugly

[BigBob]

Yep... and VW have had lots of problems with the new infotainment software on VWs as well. They actually had to stop production of the ID3/4 when they first came out because it was so bad. If you read reviews of the VW versions you'll read horror stories as well. Apparently the whole fiasco has led to the guy who was in charge of software being demoted:
https://insideevs.com/news/433908/volkswagen-allegedly-demotes-head-software/

So...i'd imagine that they are well aware of the problems but it will take time to complete re-architect and fix it. Probably not just a matter of simple bug fixes unfortunately. My guess is that they'll try to limp along with the current setup and fix the bugs they can, but that it won't get much better until the next gen system (they seem to introduce a new gen every 3-4 years). One odd thing is that there seem to be much fewer complaints about the Audi versions...if that's true maybe there's hope.

My 2019 VW Touareg R L Tech can be a bit glitchy. I wish i hadn't had the tech version, as most of it never gets used. Issues I've had with it is the reverse camera not coming on (usually when you put in reverse after starting) and sometimes the radio just won't come on - i think its to do with phones pairing at the same time.
The craziest glitch comes from the seat belts. Sometimes i use it (off road) with an old seat belt clipped plugged in. The whole pcm crashes/goes nuts, warning lights, suspension failure lights etc if you take it out and then use the actual seatbelt.
It's just annoying, but not much more. However, I can see the concerns about glitches on the taycan being worse though, as you need to rely on/actually use more of the tech for charging, the app etc.
I'm counting the number of sleeps until delivery of CT4S, but as a first EV and reports of glitches it does have me a little worried.

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[Hirschaj]

With regard to WiFi - it's baffling why I can't connect my Taycan to home WiFi. Even my smart watch can seamlessly switch between cellular/Bluetooth/WiFi. But a $150k computer on wheels can't?

I don’t have my Taycan yet so I can’t try this. I found these instructions in the Good To Know app for connecting to external wifi. It doesn’t mention anything about being limited by region. Has anyone tried this yet?

 

[bah1590]

It's actually surprising to hear so many positive testimonies. I literally just 5 minutes ago stepped outside to put my car into garage, and it gave me the usual "subscription changed", "check SiriusXM antenna", and then boom -- "Park Assist not available, service necessary, blah-blah-blah" and cameras wouldn't work. I had to shut it down, wait a minute, start again - only then cameras came on. Is my car a lemon??? I get it, it's fun to drive, but it's just been so frustrating.

I would push your service group to replace your PCM. Since we all have the same software and I don’t experience the issues you have it’s likely a hardware issue. My PCM is pretty flawless.

 

[FredG]

Hi, One more on the “very happy” camp:

22 CT4; 1200 Miles.

Car has been outstanding in Every way, and I personally think it is a great value for what you pay for it, or for what else one could get for similar money.

Only PCM issue I have experienced is the map in the gauge cluster sometimes doesn’t load and the screen remains black. I have not taken the time to try to reset the PCM to see if it fixes it as it isn’t all that important to me. I’m also seemingly in the minority because I personally like the UI and although my iPhone is connected and CarPlay active, I switch to the Home Screen with the 3 modules I have selected.

The only “annoying “ item for me, is that the car will not start on my individual drive settings and I have to use the knob to select it each time I use the car, but that is how the software is designed to act, so not a bug, but I wish it could be defaulted.

Bottom line, I love the car, get loads of stares and compliments and would buy again tomorrow if something happened to my car.

I wish luck to those who have experienced issues with the PCM And keep the faith. This is all new technology and all manufacturers will work through to improve in the months and years to come.

 

[@lpher]

Porsche are not building the software. They use this company… https://cariad.technology/de/en.html

Cariad is the infotainment arm of VAG.

 

[@lpher]

Cariad is owned by Volkswagen - heard an interview with VW CEO; he indicated that all VW electrics will have the same core software with the Brands tailoring the U/I to match each's brand philosophy.

Indeed...the PCM 6 system that is in the 2019-2021 Taycan's have more or less the same hardware as the Audi MIB 3 infotainmentsystems (latest A6/A7/A8/e-tron/e-tron GT etc.), and while i havent checked all the other carbrands in the VAG portfolio yet, I'm confident many of them have gotten this hardware on some models as well. If not...they will in the near future.

The 2022 Taycan models have a completely different partnumber for the infotainment unit, so to my eyes...it looks like Cariad have implemented hardware changes. But I'm unsure as to exactly what they've changed and why. Although the things discussed in this thread MIGHT be some of the reasons...off course.

 

[kort]

I am one year in with my 4S and am pleased overall.
coming over to the taycan from many years of driving a tesla I found that taycan was a vast improvement over the model 3 and model S. the fit and finish is the big difference. The ride is better and overall the driving is better in the porsche. after porsche finally solved a disastrous software problem which caused the car not to be able to charge at many EA units the car has been great other than the many odd software glitches.
Porsches biggest issue that needs to be solved is their service, cars are sometimes in the shop for days/weeks because of an inability to diagnose an issue or the needed parts are not available and need to be shipped from Germany or the red tape encountered when dealing with an undocumented "new" issue.
many have problems with the PCM and while mine is not working as intended I just work around the issues.
Lastly the fail on the OTA updates is very disappointing. I have had to return to the dealership two or three times for massive software updates that can take a day or two or three to install.
overall I'd give the car a B+ and not an A because of the many software glitches.

 

[356B]

Another possible view of future PCM 6. The Porsche video on PCM 6 has a short sequence that shows an interesint icon "Cockpit" not currently seen in the Taycan.

Two possiblities, 1) it is an already scrapped idea that will never come to pass or 2) Maybe some configurability of displays. I would love to be able to designate whether a function like Trip computer is on the left or right tube.

 

[Pozuelo]

I have the cockpit icon on my passenger display in my 2020 Taycan.. I believe this is a photo of the passenger display.

 

[356B]

Thanks. Gives the your passenger the ability to second guess the driver?

 

[Pozuelo]

I just stepped out to take a photo of the cockpit view. Car parked, not in motion… Nav on right, g’s on left and speed, mode and direction in middle… Never use it… normally use audio display.

 

[356B]

Thank you. That cures me of trying to predict the future of software . Very nice interior finish.

 

[Pozuelo]

It’s Bordeaux red, but unlit it looks brown when photographed with the latest iPhone without flash !

 

[garry@visionconstruction.]

I've owned a Taycan 4S since mid-July 2021 and put on 10K miles. Here is my experience.

The great/good:
- *Dealerships*. Since I bought at a remote dealership, I went to a closer dealership for service, and both have been professional and easy to interact with.
- *Driving*. Car handles beautifully, the ride is very smooth and quiet, despite sitting so low. The power delivery is amazing. Range of ~230 miles is fine by me, even for longer trips with intermediate stops.
- *Instrument cluster*. The curved instrument cluster is functional and easy to read and configure. I've been enjoying the simplified map view (dark background with blue path, white arrows) - so easy to know where to go.
- *Assist features*. The ACC with lane keeping work surprisingly well (in some conditions). In stop and go traffic, cruise control manages speed better than I probably would. However, when merging or splitting, it's not so good at sensing the car infront/off-center - without close supervision, it may lead to an accident.
- *Auto-Regen*. It's brilliant, I love it. However, it doesn't "stick", so I have to long-press the button every time I drive off. Annoying. This has been discussed so much, that Porsche should have just fixed it by now.
- *Aesthetics*. Overall, the car is unique and sharp looking. This was probably my biggest reason for buying.
- *Interior*. The materials and comfort are top-notch, and the execution is impeccable. Zero issues with creaking or fit and finish. This feels like the best place to be in the world.
- *Climate control*. Again, extremely comfortable and easy/fast to adjust. I set the diffuse mode once, and forgot about it. It just works.

The bad/ugly:
- *Servicing*. Getting a service appointment it tough. They need a special technician to work on Taycans, and times are limited. If you need service, prepare to wait and wait. The scope of problems they can fix is also limited - they can reset systems or replace parts, and hopefully raise issues to the "motherland" without ability to provide a fix to you.
- *PCM*. For the first couple months, I would hit a new glitch with PCM almost every day. It's death by a thousand cuts. The PCM is slow and buggy even with basic features. All interactions are incredibly slow - it can take a couple seconds for screen to react to a touch. Scrolling is painfully sluggish as well. A $100 phone has better performance than this. It's really a shame. I routinely see words in German, e.g. "Ziel suchen". There are random messages about system failures - I had those about ACL, SOS, Park Assist, Emergency Stop, Lights, etc. Some may be real, but mostly they seem bogus. It's hard to tell.
- *SiriusXM*. I see pop-up messages about "subscription changed" and "check your antenna" every time car is started. That's just annoying. Dealer said it's a known problem, but un-fixable at this time. Satellite radio worked flawlessly on every other car I've come across.
- *Media/Music*. It routinely takes 3-5 minutes for music to start playing, while it's showing the "loading data..." spinner. Maybe it's a general PCM problem being poorly architected/implemented, but it's unacceptable in a car at this price point.
- *Security*. I had the PIN initially, but it was failing too often and it was slow to take, so I disabled it. As a result, I can drive off faster, but any valet can load my profile and see navigation history, with addresses, as well as adjust settings and such.
- *Multi-driver*. I started with a separate profile for my wife, but just gave up on it -- it's too slow to load a new driver profile. It's also impossible to associate keys with drivers. Sometimes it would fail to load a profile, and make the PCM unusable. So I deleted wife's profile, and we just manually adjust seat from its memory.
- *Charging*. It's been a struggle from day one. At first, Plug&Charge made charging impossible at many EA stations, so I had to turn it off, and used the app to initiate charging. A couple months back I re-enabled P&C and it works in most locations, but not others - so I have to still use the app sometimes. It's been frustrating, but seems to be getting better. EA stations run on Windows XP - I've seen the signage during a reboot. Wow.
- *Navigation*. The navigation is generally good, and it's the first car where I actually use the built-in nav instead of phone. It doesn't "know" about traffic jams very well, which causes sub-optimal routes and inaccurate ETAs. There are also clear bugs, e.g. when instrument cluster map and center screen don't agree on which lane you need to be in. On some intersections, the "next turn" hint is complete bonkers, e.g. "sharp right turn" instead of "left U-turn". Searching for addresses is barely usable, in terms of performance and relevancy. Frequently, when I look up charging stations, the list comes back empty, probably because of some error or connectivity issue.
- *Mobile app*. The Connect app is rated 3 stars and is total garbage - just read user feedback. Porsche seemingly is not even updating it anymore (last update was 3 months ago), I heard they will replace it with something else, and until that happens, I use it as little as possible.
- *Lock by touch*. Sometimes I have to touch the door handle notch 3+ times. It's just not responsive. Dealer acknowledged the problem, and tried to fix it by new battery in the remote key. It's still very flakey.
- *Rear camera*. The distortions are so extreme that it's scary to look at the camera when backing up. At night, the rear view is too dark, barely visible. I also had a white/blank/blinking 360-degree camera view after car was parked under sun (at least I think that's what's causing the issue).
- *Private mode*. I don't understand what it's for. This seems to be the opposite of what's glaringly missing - the Valet mode, which I should be able to turn on remotely. Until last service appointment (when they reset something) the Private mode used to turn on by itself, which meant I wasn't able to use Connect app, or some features like Google search.
- *Alarm*. One day in October, the alarm started going off immediately after locking the car. I found some info in these forums, again, a known issue. Disabling internal monitoring seemed to help.

The most disappointing thing over the 6 months is how little of improvements I've seen. There have been OTA updates for Calendar, News, Legal Info, etc. But the important stuff is seemingly ignored. The PCM is still glitchy, slow and I guess, I have to learn to live with that. Feels like I'm with an abusive relationship with the automaker. Sad.

 

[Capt Mike]

I've owned a Taycan 4S since mid-July 2021 and put on 10K miles. Here is my experience.

The great/good:
- *Dealerships*. Since I bought at a remote dealership, I went to a closer dealership for service, and both have been professional and easy to interact with.
- *Driving*. Car handles beautifully, the ride is very smooth and quiet, despite sitting so low. The power delivery is amazing. Range of ~230 miles is fine by me, even for longer trips with intermediate stops.
- *Instrument cluster*. The curved instrument cluster is functional and easy to read and configure. I've been enjoying the simplified map view (dark background with blue path, white arrows) - so easy to know where to go.
- *Assist features*. The ACC with lane keeping work surprisingly well (in some conditions). In stop and go traffic, cruise control manages speed better than I probably would. However, when merging or splitting, it's not so good at sensing the car infront/off-center - without close supervision, it may lead to an accident.
- *Auto-Regen*. It's brilliant, I love it. However, it doesn't "stick", so I have to long-press the button every time I drive off. Annoying. This has been discussed so much, that Porsche should have just fixed it by now.
- *Aesthetics*. Overall, the car is unique and sharp looking. This was probably my biggest reason for buying.
- *Interior*. The materials and comfort are top-notch, and the execution is impeccable. Zero issues with creaking or fit and finish. This feels like the best place to be in the world.
- *Climate control*. Again, extremely comfortable and easy/fast to adjust. I set the diffuse mode once, and forgot about it. It just works.

The bad/ugly:
- *Servicing*. Getting a service appointment it tough. They need a special technician to work on Taycans, and times are limited. If you need service, prepare to wait and wait. The scope of problems they can fix is also limited - they can reset systems or replace parts, and hopefully raise issues to the "motherland" without ability to provide a fix to you.
- *PCM*. For the first couple months, I would hit a new glitch with PCM almost every day. It's death by a thousand cuts. The PCM is slow and buggy even with basic features. All interactions are incredibly slow - it can take a couple seconds for screen to react to a touch. Scrolling is painfully sluggish as well. A $100 phone has better performance than this. It's really a shame. I routinely see words in German, e.g. "Ziel suchen". There are random messages about system failures - I had those about ACL, SOS, Park Assist, Emergency Stop, Lights, etc. Some may be real, but mostly they seem bogus. It's hard to tell.
- *SiriusXM*. I see pop-up messages about "subscription changed" and "check your antenna" every time car is started. That's just annoying. Dealer said it's a known problem, but un-fixable at this time. Satellite radio worked flawlessly on every other car I've come across.
- *Media/Music*. It routinely takes 3-5 minutes for music to start playing, while it's showing the "loading data..." spinner. Maybe it's a general PCM problem being poorly architected/implemented, but it's unacceptable in a car at this price point.
- *Security*. I had the PIN initially, but it was failing too often and it was slow to take, so I disabled it. As a result, I can drive off faster, but any valet can load my profile and see navigation history, with addresses, as well as adjust settings and such.
- *Multi-driver*. I started with a separate profile for my wife, but just gave up on it -- it's too slow to load a new driver profile. It's also impossible to associate keys with drivers. Sometimes it would fail to load a profile, and make the PCM unusable. So I deleted wife's profile, and we just manually adjust seat from its memory.
- *Charging*. It's been a struggle from day one. At first, Plug&Charge made charging impossible at many EA stations, so I had to turn it off, and used the app to initiate charging. A couple months back I re-enabled P&C and it works in most locations, but not others - so I have to still use the app sometimes. It's been frustrating, but seems to be getting better. EA stations run on Windows XP - I've seen the signage during a reboot. Wow.
- *Navigation*. The navigation is generally good, and it's the first car where I actually use the built-in nav instead of phone. It doesn't "know" about traffic jams very well, which causes sub-optimal routes and inaccurate ETAs. There are also clear bugs, e.g. when instrument cluster map and center screen don't agree on which lane you need to be in. On some intersections, the "next turn" hint is complete bonkers, e.g. "sharp right turn" instead of "left U-turn". Searching for addresses is barely usable, in terms of performance and relevancy. Frequently, when I look up charging stations, the list comes back empty, probably because of some error or connectivity issue.
- *Mobile app*. The Connect app is rated 3 stars and is total garbage - just read user feedback. Porsche seemingly is not even updating it anymore (last update was 3 months ago), I heard they will replace it with something else, and until that happens, I use it as little as possible.
- *Lock by touch*. Sometimes I have to touch the door handle notch 3+ times. It's just not responsive. Dealer acknowledged the problem, and tried to fix it by new battery in the remote key. It's still very flakey.
- *Rear camera*. The distortions are so extreme that it's scary to look at the camera when backing up. At night, the rear view is too dark, barely visible. I also had a white/blank/blinking 360-degree camera view after car was parked under sun (at least I think that's what's causing the issue).
- *Private mode*. I don't understand what it's for. This seems to be the opposite of what's glaringly missing - the Valet mode, which I should be able to turn on remotely. Until last service appointment (when they reset something) the Private mode used to turn on by itself, which meant I wasn't able to use Connect app, or some features like Google search.
- *Alarm*. One day in October, the alarm started going off immediately after locking the car. I found some info in these forums, again, a known issue. Disabling internal monitoring seemed to help.

The most disappointing thing over the 6 months is how little of improvements I've seen. There have been OTA updates for Calendar, News, Legal Info, etc. But the important stuff is seemingly ignored. The PCM is still glitchy, slow and I guess, I have to learn to live with that. Feels like I'm with an abusive relationship with the automaker. Sad.

My 2020 has had a few glitches but nothing like you’re experiencing. One thing I agree on. Locking using the door button is impossible for one thing. And charging is still a toss up even though I have seen the video “how to” a million times. p&C isn’t. EA often hears from me but they are quick to answer and assist. But overall I love the car. Teased my 911GTS for it and never looked back.

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