Active Lane Keeping is surprisingly good

[Perry]

I thought it could be interesting to hear what others think about this. I've been driving my Taycan for a few weeks now and when I bought the car I can honestly say that I did not expect much from ALK, especially coming from a long time Tesla owner.

However, now a few weeks later, I'm surprisingly impressed by how good it actually is. While it's absolutely nowhere near as technically advanced as Tesla Autopilot, the way it naturally blends in rather than forcibly taking control from the driver like Autopilot actually makes it useful. I find myself using it significantly more frequently than I ever did with Autopilot. It feels like it knows its own limitations and doesn't try to be more than what it is, while Autopilot works like magic until it suddenly out of nowhere fails spectacularly for no apparent reason, making it outright unreliable.

To clarify for those who don't know how these systems work:

Autpilot
Autopilot is activated by double tapping the cruise control lever. While activated it will take control over the car from the driver. You can push the accelerator to temporarily override the set speed, but pushing the brake or forcibly moving the steering wheel will instantly turn off Autopilot. Breaking free from Autopilot by moving the steering wheel is arguably more of a safety feature rather than typical usage. The car will fight you a bit and you can't move the steering wheel without turning off Autopilot.

If the car ever gets into a situation which Autopilot can't handle, Autopilot will audibly and visibly show a warning and then instantly turn off and/or emergency brake if the situation is determined (right or wrong) to be critical.

While the system does require you to physically keep your hands on the wheel for safety reasons (and regulations), the system is overall designed to be a hands-off experience.

Active Lane Keeping
Active Lane Keeping (+InnoDrive) will turn on together with the cruise control if it has been enabled in settings. While active, it will keep the car in the centre of the lane, but it will show very little resistance if the driver manually moves the steering wheel. Moving the steering wheel will also not turn off ALK, but rather just temporarily pause it while the driver is moving the steering wheel and then resume when the driver lets go. In situations that ALK can't handle, it will visually notify on the screen that it's paused and then resume again when the conditions get better, assuming that the driver is keeping their hands on the steering wheel.

In many situations where it knows beforehand that the car is approaching a section that it can't handle (e.g. stop signs, roundabouts, e.t.c), it will notify the driver beforehand, adjust the speed and then temporarily pause throughout that section. This means that the system can remain active in a paused state while for example taking a roundabout, whereas it will then automatically resume when it can.

ALK only lets you keep your hands off the steering wheel for a few seconds before showing a warning, so it's effectively designed to be an always hands-on experience.

Sponsored

 

[whan]

Question for you - for ALK, is the hands detection capacitive or torque based? IE is just lightly resting your fingers on the wheel sufficient to keep it happy, or is it trying to detect if you're actually moving the wheel yourself?

Second question, how is the following distance on the ACC part on the shortest setting? Bay Area traffic is on the more aggressive side so prefer to have an option of having a relatively closer following distance that doesn't encourage others to constantly merge in

FWIW I have ACC and plan to keep it spec'd no matter what but curious how truly good the systems are. Am planning on adding just ALK in FoD if it's any good

 

[luuk]

Question for you - for ALK, is the hands detection capacitive or torque based? IE is just lightly resting your fingers on the wheel sufficient to keep it happy, or is it trying to detect if you're actually moving the wheel yourself?

Second question, how is the following distance on the ACC part on the shortest setting? Bay Area traffic is on the more aggressive side so prefer to have an option of having a relatively closer following distance that doesn't encourage others to constantly merge in

FWIW I have ACC and plan to keep it spec'd no matter what but curious how truly good the systems are. Am planning on adding just ALK in FoD if it's any good

My personal experience indicates that it's torque based, because many times when I simply put my hands back on the wheel it didn't clear the "Steering Required" warning. Giving the wheel some minor movement reliably clears the warning, though. I think capacitive is more ideal.

 

[PorscheCH]

I tried it extensively and seems to be torque based, counter to what other threads speculated. Tied a big, thick rubber band (one of those used for gym) with knots on the steering wheel, took hands off and the warning appears after a few seconds. Testing with a plastic water bottle, not completely full, stuck in one of the spokes sometimes prevents the car from throwing the warning (very sensitive to how big the bottle is and how much water).

Shortest distance in Europe is short enough to keep intruders out. It's still within safety though

 

[whan]

Thanks - good news is I guess I can have a 3 month trial of ALK via FoD before I decide whether to buy or not. I mostly care about ALK in stop and go traffic so hoping it works well in that scenario

 

[buruburu]

Question for you - for ALK, is the hands detection capacitive or torque based? IE is just lightly resting your fingers on the wheel sufficient to keep it happy, or is it trying to detect if you're actually moving the wheel yourself?

Second question, how is the following distance on the ACC part on the shortest setting? Bay Area traffic is on the more aggressive side so prefer to have an option of having a relatively closer following distance that doesn't encourage others to constantly merge in

FWIW I have ACC and plan to keep it spec'd no matter what but curious how truly good the systems are. Am planning on adding just ALK in FoD if it's any good

Torque based, but you just need a very slight nudge.

I set the distance to 3 which gives you about 3-4s of distance between you and the person in front. If it's heavy traffic, then I change it to 2 so that it follows closer. Even at 2, the Taycan starts being more aggressive in braking when it's coming up on traffic and I'm not a big fan of that. I would never use 1 because at that point, you're basically tailgating.

I have no desire to weave in and out of lanes. Totally happy flashing my high beams to get them to realize they need to get out of the way rather than trying to pass on the right.

 

[Perry]

It’s absolutely torque based, which I honestly think is a bit cheap for such a premium car. However, at least it’s pretty sensitive so just gently keeping your hands on the wheel seems to be enough to satisfy it.

Also, since I forgot to mention it: If you’re trying out InnoDrive (which is the active cruise control part of the package), make sure to turn off automatic speed sign recognition. The idea is that it’s supposed to automatically adjust the speed based on traffic signs, but it gets annoying fast. Turning it off won’t stop it from reading signs, but you have to confirm the speed change with the lever before anything happens. You can then choose if and when you want to adjust the speed (even before reaching the sign) or just manually accelerate and set the limit to the current speed.

 

[Lansford]

It’s absolutely torque based, which I honestly think is a bit cheap for such a premium car. However, at least it’s pretty sensitive so just gently keeping your hands on the wheel seems to be enough to satisfy it.

Also, since I forgot to mention it: If you’re trying out InnoDrive (which is the active cruise control part of the package), make sure to turn off automatic speed sign recognition. The idea is that it’s supposed to automatically adjust the speed based on traffic signs, but it gets annoying fast. Turning it off won’t stop it from reading signs, but you have to confirm the speed change with the lever before anything happens. You can then choose if and when you want to adjust the speed (even before reaching the sign) or just manually accelerate and set the limit to the current speed.

This is so good to hear -- the positive feedback on how well the ALK works

Perry -- can you use ALK without Innodrive on? Just use ACC + ALK?

Thanks for sharing your experiences

 

[whan]

In theory you should be able to - in FoD ALK and Innodrive are separate purchases. I'm only planning to get ALK and not Innodrive as it seems that most don't like the sign reading, and I don't really need the car to slow down in bends (A Taycan should be able to handle gentle highway bends at 70mph just fine IMO)

 

[submatrix]

This is so good to hear -- the positive feedback on how well the ALK works

Perry -- can you use ALK without Innodrive on? Just use ACC + ALK?

Thanks for sharing your experiences

Yes, you can. Additionally, you can rent ALK as FoD one month at a time. This is what I do when I have a road trip coming up. Rent for 1 month for $24, cancel after.

You just need to spec ACC so you have the necessary hardware. Without it, you can't have ALK.

 

[Lansford]

Yes, you can. Additionally, you can rent ALK as FoD one month at a time. This is what I do when I have a road trip coming up. Rent for 1 month for $24, cancel after.

You just need to spec ACC so you have the necessary hardware. Without it, you can't have ALK.

Thanks. Good advice. For 2022, I don't believe an option to get as a FOD but a good tip nonetheless

Sponsored