Backup Camera Quality to Improve?

Dolomite

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Completely agree. The camera on my ‘21 Taycan is vastly infoeriot to the Panamera GTS and our Macan GTS.

in a word it sucks. My dealer told me it’s not going to get fixed. It’s a new camera supplier they used for this car.
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B61

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Completely agree. The camera on my ‘21 Taycan is vastly infoeriot to the Panamera GTS and our Macan GTS.

in a word it sucks. My dealer told me it’s not going to get fixed. It’s a new camera supplier they used for this car.
With lots of complains and negative feedbacks, I'm sure that they'll change supplier soon.
Unfortunatelly, it won't help us... early adopters :no:
I was expecting that problems are software, not hardware related.
 

zenoliu

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I ordered a 992 S before I bought the taycan,after getting the taycan for 1 month, I went to make a configuration change before the 992 was locked down. I Changed the Surround View on my 911 to the most common camera.After using taycan's Surround View system, I couldn't even reverse for the first few days.The distortion is so severe that it is completely impossible to determine the distance, even though it is a Porsche, but this problem really should not.Recently this year, the competition for Chinese brand cars has been fierce. I can responsibly say that Porsche's Surround View system is totally inferior to those cars that only cost 100K RMB,almost 2w USD( And taycan needs at least 1200k-1300K RMB,Twice the price of the United States)
 

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With lots of complains and negative feedbacks, I'm sure that they'll change supplier soon.
Unfortunatelly, it won't help us... early adopters :no:
I was expecting that problems are software, not hardware related.
When you switch to full fisheye you can see it passes a point where there is not that much distortion.
It's not a fixed focus camera so it can be adjusted and/or image rendering so it's totally s/w related.
Dealers don't know anything.
 
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mangobay

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You all think your cameras are bad? Check mine out….
I’ll be pleased just to get an image I can use however distorted. It’s carded to be replaced as it’s a known issue with water ingress down the cable loom. Can’t believe I lived with this for 10 months. Has helped me relearn how to reverse “properly” though!

Porsche Taycan Backup Camera Quality to Improve? 4DE7E112-1B3D-474A-AFCD-1808A1CE2B8F
 


Windpower

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The point is that this is a forum for posting about the car, some people have silly issues while some people have faced serious issues, even to the point of forcing a recall, so the exchange of ideas should not and cannot be limited. If someone has something to say, they can say it, if you can help them, help them, if you think that they are foolish, skip the message. But all Taycan related comments are welcome
I agree.

When I tested the Taycan a few months ago, I felt the backup camera was pretty bad: the image is very distorted. To me, it seemed like the 'stitching' software which assembles the picture from the multiple cameras was not very good. Personally, I think this is a software issue and not a hardware problem with the cameras.

In my Tesla model Y (2021), the backup camera is unusable at night. The image is so dark you cannot see what's behind you. On the Tesla there is no 'stitching' to create a 360 degree image. Instead it shows the image from the three cameras in three sections on the main screen, but at night all you get are three black images.

Bottom line: different car manufacturers use different methods, and some are better than others. I didn't find the Taycan backup camera to be unusable, it was just very distorted. If you want to talk about unusable, try the backup camera on the Tesla at night.
 

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Agree with all of the recent posts about civility here. We are all trying to improve our ownership experience, so we have a lot in common on this board. My original comment, while defending the camera, is largely in agreement that the camera is not state of the art. It is merely adequate. Clearly, there are people who do not think it is even that! That said, I am not hopeful that this will be improved in our vehicles, but perhaps in future model years.
 
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ujjtaycan4s

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I’m sorry but the purpose of finishing driving school is also to make you not hit things with your car. You failed your job too.

In all seriousness the complaints in here are getting out of hand.
I don't agree with you, this is like saying an F-16 pilot should be able to fly a fighter plane regardless of whether the instruments are working or not! This is not a Mazda 3, and what's ironic is their backup camera is actually more accurate
 


batteredhaddock

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Shame to hear this but ties in with my 4S test drive. I did find myself wondering if there was something wrong with the reversing camera (only reversed briefly when at the dealer so didn't have a ton of time to study). Seemed way worse than my MY'19 ipace which really really suprised me (that had a bad lag initially but was fixed in software, the image quality/visibility is pretty good which is essential given it is similarly pointless looking out the rear window in that as with the Taycan).
 
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B61

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Rear camera is awful...

Just went out two times (today) to check how far away I am.
360 view is (slightly) better, but not useful in some lower objects/obstacles on the ground.

I don't know if there's a car today, with such a bad camera.
It's a shame!
Period!
 

whitex

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Tesla is relatively unique in updating things like rear camera clarity via software update because it's all in the one computer. (turns out there's benefits to being an iPhone on wheels).
Which Tesla model are you talking about? On the S/X MCU1 and MCU2 the rear camera is passed in "as-is", hence people selling multiplexer kit which allows you to connect your own HDMI source, such as your phone or a custom mounted front camera - if there was any processing, the additional video source would look distorted, but it doesn't. Some older S can increase their backup clarify by purchasing and installing a newer generation camera, since it's output is compatible.
 

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There is a lot posted on this forum about the camera system so I apologize if I missed this but sometimes I see little camera icons to press for each of the individual camera angels and sometimes those camera icons turn to just dots. Many times as I’m backing up it flickers between the camera icons and the dots (almost like a short). Is there any reason for the dots and the flicker? I tried searching for dots in the camera posts but didn’t see this question asked before. It just looks weird when it flickers.
 

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I don’t understand. Isn’t it just a matter of applying a undistortion mask to the imaging?
 

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Which Tesla model are you talking about? On the S/X MCU1 and MCU2 the rear camera is passed in "as-is", hence people selling multiplexer kit which allows you to connect your own HDMI source, such as your phone or a custom mounted front camera - if there was any processing, the additional video source would look distorted, but it doesn't. Some older S can increase their backup clarify by purchasing and installing a newer generation camera, since it's output is compatible.
I witnessed them improving the backup camera on a 2018 Model 3. It was a very very marked change in performance at night. It happened quite a while ago, I want to say mid 2019. It was definitely a broader thing, numerous people commented on it online.
 

KensingtonPark

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I don’t understand. Isn’t it just a matter of applying a undistortion mask to the imaging?
There are two complaints about the camera, one of which is more “fixable” than the other.

  1. Distorted View. When backing up in particular, the image is quite distorted. This is because the image is compressed in too narrow a frame, making the perspective unusually long. Backup cameras all have some degree of this, but this definitely more than you see in newer cars today. The reason for this is pretty clear, however: Someone made a choice to show the overhead view occupy the left quarter of the frame, which forced the perspective for the backup camera. In some cars, this is a view that you toggle between. While I understand the choice, it is very clear that many people would prefer the perspective afforded by the full width backup view. Because this is software, this is fixable if there is enough negative feedback to overcome the power of the product person who chose the current view.
  2. Low Resolution. The camera is not as high a resolution as some of the cameras that you see in the market. Because this is likely hardware, I view this as less fixable. It certainly would not be a free fix.

I reference both the overhead and the backup view in about equal amounts when backing up. People who use primarily the backup view are more likely to complain about Distorted View in particular. There is some chance that #1 gets fixed, as it would seem to be somewhat easy to implement. I would not count on #2 unless UR willing to risk an aftermarket solution.
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