are all rear cameras this bad?

buruburu

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The camera's more than fine. Couple things to understand.

1) After spending weeks in both vehicles w/ premium package and without, I'm pretty certain there's a difference between the two. The premium package which adds the 360 view definitely has a higher res.

2) Another thing is that the camera is a fisheye lens and has heavy barreling due to the low focal length. By default, parking view will be blurry on the edges because there's a lot of pixel stretching. If you switch you Front/Back view where it doesn't correct for the barrel effect, you'll see that it's much clearer. <See below, photo 1 is park assist w/ barrel correction, photo 2 is front/rear view raw feed>

Porsche Taycan are all rear cameras this bad? PXL_20210831_224258828
Porsche Taycan are all rear cameras this bad? PXL_20210831_224315704


3) Early Taycans that were manufactured before Nov 2020 has an issue w/ the rear wiring harness where water can leak into the camera and cause significant fogging. This is the case with the images posted in this thread. There is a TSB regarding this where the proper fix is to replace both the camera and the rear wiring harness. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10189706-0001.pdf.
 

kort

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The camera's more than fine. Couple things to understand.

1) After spending weeks in both vehicles w/ premium package and without, I'm pretty certain there's a difference between the two. The premium package which adds the 360 view definitely has a higher res.

2) Another thing is that the camera is a fisheye lens and has heavy barreling due to the low focal length. By default, parking view will be blurry on the edges because there's a lot of pixel stretching. If you switch you Front/Back view where it doesn't correct for the barrel effect, you'll see that it's much clearer. <See below, photo 1 is park assist w/ barrel correction, photo 2 is front/rear view raw feed>

PXL_20210831_224258828.jpg
PXL_20210831_224315704.jpg


3) Early Taycans that were manufactured before Nov 2020 has an issue w/ the rear wiring harness where water can leak into the camera and cause significant fogging. This is the case with the images posted in this thread. There is a TSB regarding this where the proper fix is to replace both the camera and the rear wiring harness. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10189706-0001.pdf.
just one more poorly implemented tech feature found in the taycan. why is it that the base kia rio seems to get it's tech features right while porsche offers such a flawed product.
I am more an more convinced that there is a very deep seated problem over there at porsche, one tech flaw after another.
 
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Dee

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You've missed the point: this is a $100k+ vehicle. Fine is how the previously mentioned Kia should work. The Porsche should be able to see through walls.
You missed the point too.
It's just the owners that expect a €100K+ car to be perfect.
Many of them even rent it from a lease company and act like they own the damn universe.
Surprise, it's just a car.
You want a perfect Lamborghini? Good luck.
If you're whining about a camera instead of a dead battery you really haven't much other things to complain about.
If you have a problem with the camera, write to Porsche, take action, let them know.
If there's one company that listen to their customers it's Porsche (héy, they listed to my request to activate the passenger display when I'm alone in the car, ha!).
If that wasn't the case we wouldn't even have the "Mission E" in production form anyway.
Rant over, sorry. ?
 


kort

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If there's one company that listen to their customers it's Porsche (héy, they listed to my request to activate the passenger display when I'm alone in the car, ha!).
now that's funny, from my perspective I've found them to be quite unresponsive. Porsche NA customer care is a black hole that generates a boilerplate we're sorry to hear about your problems contact your dealer response, in other words a black hole. the dealership points to porsche and porsche points to the dealership and the issues remain unaddressed. the ONLY reason porsche came up with a fix for the sudden loss of propulsion was that so many complaints to the US regulators, NHTSA, forced porsche to address the problem before the government made the stop sales, which would have been disastrous for porsche and EV sales in general. See GM bolt issues
 

Dee

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now that's funny, from my perspective I've found them to be quite unresponsive. Porsche NA customer care is a black hole that generates a boilerplate we're sorry to hear about your problems contact your dealer response, in other words a black hole. the dealership points to porsche and porsche points to the dealership and the issues remain unaddressed. the ONLY reason porsche came up with a fix for the sudden loss of propulsion was that so many complaints to the US regulators, NHTSA, forced porsche to address the problem before the government made the stop sales, which would have been disastrous for porsche and EV sales in general. See GM bolt issues
WMA5/6 and WMA7 and all the other updates before those weren't initiated by the NHTSA... (only AMB5 fits that criteria, sort of).
There are already many bugs and issues solved.
So yes, Porsche IS solving issues and bugs and still are.
Sorry you have a different view but it's not as common as you like to believe.
Unfortunately there are a few cars that have problems and that's no different at any other brand.
For me, Porsche have excellent service and I have a rock solid car, no problems whatsoever, even after every single update.
 
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Scandinavian

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If there's one company that listen to their customers it's Porsche
Good for you to have these experiences from Porsche

This is the response I received from them after my car just would not respond to anything they tried to do. And they had tried already a week at that stage. The PCM and all assistance systems had been out of action for over two weeks prior to this as there was no slot at the dealer for repair.

Nous accusons réception de votre email et nous reviendrons vers vous dans les plus brefs délais.

Nous vous prions d'agréer l'expression de nos salutations distinguées.

Relations Clients
Porsche France SA
25/29 quai Aulagnier, CS30038, 92665 Asnières-Sur-Seine Cedex
Tél. : 0800.400.911

and now more than two weeks after this mail, I still have not heard anything from them.

They might hear what I am saying! But they do not respond or take any action.
 


nycebo

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You missed the point too.
It's just the owners that expect a €100K+ car to be perfect.

Rant over, sorry. ?
No, you missed my point. A clear rear view camera is not rocket science in 2021. Every other German automaker, and all the Japanese and Korean automakers, have nailed a rear view camera...perhaps the most important component on a car considering you are driving in reverse.

I don't begrudge them the 12V issue, PCM, or other developments, but this crappy camera just stinks of trying to save $5 on 20k cars delivered. That's just cheap.
 

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No, you missed my point. A clear rear view camera is not rocket science in 2021. Every other German automaker, and all the Japanese and Korean automakers, have nailed a rear view camera...perhaps the most important component on a car considering you are driving in reverse.

I don't begrudge them the 12V issue, PCM, or other developments, but this crappy camera just stinks of trying to save $5 on 20k cars delivered. That's just cheap.
I don't know if it's only $5, that's just a guess, it's probably a lot more...
What I do know is that you need a fisheye lens/camera to generate a full 360°/3D image, maybe that's the reason it can't be "just a simple camera".
Just because it's a €100K+ car it should have a proper 360° view.
Maybe that's why Porsche did it this way.
Like the image, it's just the perspective of things...we look at it differently.
We don't know why it's like this but it's defenately not "a problem" for me, sorry.
I'm driving forward most of the time anyway. ??‍♂
 
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hshm

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The camera's more than fine.
I respectfully disagree. The surround view is fine, but the rear camera on the Taycan is terrible.

My other vehicle (BMW X5) has a noticeably better camera. It's the same camera that's in the BMW 3-Series which is 1/3 of the price of the Taycan.

While reversing in the Taycan, you have to do mental gymnastics to make sense of the distortion. Objects appear much closer than they really are. In the BMW, what you see is what you get.

I sincerely hope Porsche fixes this in the next generation rear camera system.

EDIT: I'll try switching to the rear camera (non-fisheye) but it looks like you lose the lines ?
 
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buruburu

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I'm making assumption here that people are thinking that they should be getting the same quality image that they get from their 4K TV. If that was the case, I can easily see the hardware that would be required to do that to easily be another 5-10K if not easily another 10-20K.

1) Lenses are not cheap. Especially when you're want something that would function with perfect clarity in multiple focal lengths. If you want to support both 180 degree angel for 360 surround and normal view, you'd need a variable focal length lens that's probably 12mm to about 35mm. This basically doesn't even exist for SLR cameras and if so, it's probably going to be a $5K lens.

2) If 1 isn't an option, well... then you basically have to use a fixed fisheye lens which is what is done here. So what this means is that the further the object is away from you, the smaller it's going to be on the sensor. Well.. the sensor doesn't have infinite resolution so that means when you try to make the fisheye image looks like normal like a regular backup camera you're going to have a stretch a lot of pixels. Guess what... when you stretch the pixel, it's gonna look block / blurry.

I'm willing to bet that if Porsche had their say, they would of just made the Taycan to have 360 surround view only. However because of government regulation they have to have a standard rearview camera.

I actually don't like digital images for when I'm trying to do something precise like maneuvering a giant car in a tight underground office garage with concrete pillars everywhere. You can't see depth with images formed from a single view. Same reason why even though my Bolt had a digital rear view mirror, I never turn it on. Only time I turned it on is when my rear view was physically blocked. The surround view is much more valuable IMO because you can easily tell the distance so with the choices that Porsche was faced with, I'm glad that they made the choice that they did.

This is one of those things that if they didn't give you the option to toggle between the fisheye and normal perspective, no one would of been the wiser and no one would of complained. Some product manager just simply made a decision not understanding that sometimes, it's just better to not have a feature than to provide it.

As for the quality in the X3 and X5, do those cars have 360 surround view?
 

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Backup is useless. I keep hoping for a software fix for the fisheye distortion. I revert to just craning.

I‘ve driven many good vehicles, and this does not rate as ‘fine’ in my book. Still lots to love tho!
 

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I'm making assumption here that people are thinking that they should be getting the same quality image that they get from their 4K TV. If that was the case, I can easily see the hardware that would be required to do that to easily be another 5-10K if not easily another 10-20K.
Are you utterly trying to be obtuse? 5-20k for a 4k camera? Just drive any other freaking car, especially the Mercedes, and tell me that you think it's not literally infinitely better.

Christ, I am as much a Porsche enthusiast as the next guy, but some of you threaders are pathetic apologists. Don't you have standards?
 
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B61

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@nycebo: no need to sit into Mercedes... any vehicle for more than 40k€ has better rear camera.
Regarding 360view: it's all about software. For example, Nissan has cameras infront, on the back and both mirrors... and 360view was excellent.
That was four years ago and we all know what one year means in a software industry, right?

Renault Koleos. I'm parking it only with a screen, no mirrors needed.
Suzuki Vitara. Same.
No distortion, great & clear view of everything in the back...
Sponsored

 
 




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