Driving Assistance Thread: ACC, LKA, ALK, and InnoDrive

Sf-bay-taycan-seeker

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Hi everyone -

I'm a Tesla owner just locking in my allocation for a CT and have been reading various threads here about Driving Assistance, and from an Autopilot perspective, it's all very confusing.


I've read the many less-than-stellar reviews here on InnoDrive. And I know the Taycan is about "driving" - I loved my test drives. But it's in my current build - am I making a mistake?

Here's my use case: I drive SF to Tahoe several times a year. There are long boring stretches of highway with frequent traffic jams - those suck to drive in. I have really relied in Autopilot in such cases to deal with the stop and go, and handsfree (ok, I know, I gotta twist the steering wheel a bit every few minutes). Overall Autopilot is excellent.

Is InnoDrive even similar? Should I just do ACC and LKA? Is ALK an option outside of InnoDrive? And if so, what is the advantage of InnoDrive over ACC + ALK? The idea of predicting traffic in a couple miles seems dumb, maybe I'm missing something?

I'd love to hear from anyone who used Lane keeping tech from Porsche. Is it good/safe?

Also, I've seen a few posts about buying it on demand for short periods. Has anyone done this? Seems like a pain to save not that much?

Thanks in advance for any insights!
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Jayyvr890

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Just spec ACC on your car and do a trial of Innodrive and ALK later. The cost is identical and you can put it on your credit cards and get some points lol. Makes no sense to order Innodrive, ALK or even active steering now as these features are all software and can be added on after purchase.
 

JGF

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The FOD version of Innodrive is not identical to the optioned version.

Unlike TESLA, Porsche builds the car to exact spec's, even the wiring harasses will be unique based on options. TESLA installs all the hardware options and charges you to "unlock", enable.

Porsche Taycan Driving Assistance Thread: ACC, LKA, ALK, and InnoDrive innodrive.JPG
 

submatrix

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It sounds like you want what I also wanted back when I researched this. You may have even come across one of my old posts where I asked/discussed ACC + ALK.

ACC+ALK is not as good as Autopilot, especially the ALK part -- but it is serviceable. It is almost functionally equivalent on straighter roads with well painted lines. I've never had phantom braking, which is reassuring.

I'm one of the people who orders ALK on demand one month at a time whenever I go on a road trip. Since I only go on a few of these a year, at $24/mo, we're talking at most $100/yr for ALK. I'm on a 3 year lease.

To be able to order ALK on demand, you MUST have ACC specced. ALK uses the ACC hardware. Without ACC specced you cannot get ALK on demand or otherwise (nor ACC, obviously).

I just completed a trip LA-bay area and back this past weekend, and used ACC+ALK for 95% of it. The 5 is one of the easiest scenarios for ACC+ALK to handle, since it is almost entirely straight. It can mostly handle the more curvy 152 as well, but I drove this manually for fun just to keep things more interesting after many hours on the road. Plus, there's stretches of the 152 which are one lane each way, and a lot of big trucks drive on it, which can be unnerving.

ACC can handle traffic jams no problem, with basically 2 caveats: ACC responds to people merging into your lane fairly late, so during a slow merge where someone fills a gap in front of you, you will most likely need to brake manually and then reenage ACC after. The second thing is that if ACC sits still for 15 seconds (I believe, might be slightly shorter), it will not release the brake and move forward after traffic opens up. This is a dumb thing on Porsche's part and I have no idea why they do it, since sitting still for 15 seconds in a heavy traffic jam is not uncommon at all. You just need to be cognizant of these situations and nudge the go pedal when this happens. This will end the brake hold and resume normal ACC operation.

I've never tried Innodrive, but personally don't find it's advertised features to be appealing to me. ACC+ALK is as close to Autopilot as Porsche can get, so that's all I went for.

Let me know if you have other questions.
 

timo

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Fly to Utah. You'll probably get there in the same amount of time and the snow is better. Sorry I had to:D

Good luck with whatever you choose. I'm awaiting a GTS to arrive myself.
 


Fedex77

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I have InnoDrive and to this day I don’t know what it does. I can’t even find Posrche official statement regarding what it’s designed to do in plain language. When ALK is working, it doesn’t read the limits of the lane all the time so I’m nervous to let it go. I also don’t use ACC so haven’t had any experience with it.

I imagine that you may wonder why I ordered it - I thought it would be like autopilot and didn’t want to regret leaving it out.

I’m hoping people chime in on this thread and I can learn more about this feature I purchased.
 

notsofast

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I'd love to hear from anyone who used Lane keeping tech from Porsche. Is it good/safe?
As a fellow Tahoe commuter I can add my 2 cents. I have ALK on my car and I would spec it again. To me it makes freeway driving much less draining. The lane keeping is competent. At least it beats my XC90. Oddly I can't speak to stop and go as I haven't had much yet.
That said I don't think it's comparable to Tesla auto pilot based on what I know never having driven a Tesla. The system is not designed for you to take your hands off the wheel as there is no warning when it drops out due to lane markings being bad or other things.

I would call it helpful assistance but no pilot.

Thomas
 

tutis

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I have full Innodrive from factory and I would not think having the car without it. It’s a godsend for daily commute through a mix of city and highway. Innodrive are basically smart algorithms that sit on top of ALK, LKA and ACC to make it work more like a human would drive; it slows down for turns, accelerates up to the PID max road speed when I indicate that I will overtake. It’s not perfect by any means but it takes the edge off driving for me. I think it’s also supposed to optimise consumption based on upcoming terrain using the maps features etc.

I honestly think it’s great even if it isn’t an autopilot replacement. Think of it as a little brain coprocessor that helps along the way while you don’t have to to think about speed, keeping centred in lane, braking etc. It’s rather difficult to explain without trying it. I find that it also helps me be less tired on longer drives as I don’t constantly need to be at the highest state of alert. And with the Porsche IRM I also don’t even have to think about battery charger strategy etc. It just works
 


jam

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Thanks for the plain explanations of this technology.

I tried to get my SA to explain InnoDrive yesterday and it did not go well. Eventually he found out that it’s not available in this market (Australia), which saves me the headache of trying to decide if I’m missing out.

The 4S CT I’ve ordered has ACC + ALK as standard so my bases are covered for driver assistance.

I’ve only ever used Tesla AutoPilot (non FSD) on longer stretches of highway, as it’s pretty twitchy and makes me feel less relaxed than if I were just driving myself. I think ACC + ALK will be more than enough for me.
 

Kayone73

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Here's my use case: I drive SF to Tahoe several times a year. There are long boring stretches of highway with frequent traffic jams - those suck to drive in. I have really relied in Autopilot in such cases to deal with the stop and go, and handsfree (ok, I know, I gotta twist the steering wheel a bit every few minutes). Overall Autopilot is excellent.

Is InnoDrive even similar? Should I just do ACC and LKA? Is ALK an option outside of InnoDrive? And if so, what is the advantage of InnoDrive over ACC + ALK? The idea of predicting traffic in a couple miles seems dumb, maybe I'm missing something?

I'd love to hear from anyone who used Lane keeping tech from Porsche. Is it good/safe?
2021 Cross Turismo & Tesla Model Y owner, I drive both, and can answer most of your questions.

Your car should have a free 3 month trial ALK and Innodrive as long as you option ACC in your car.

ACC - its a must to option, because without it you cannot even use the ALK or other advanced driving aid functions, plus the radar guided cruise works well, about as well as the Tesla or most other cars with a good radar guided cruise.

ALK - you cannot option this separately when you build/config your car (always bundled in with Innodrive). I recommend NOT to option that software bundle, because once you receive your ACC equipped car, you can always choose to option ALK separately as a software add on, either as a monthly subscription or lump sum payment. And doing the math, the lump sum = paying monthly x 5 years. I'll be honest, the active lane keep assist is not very good compared to Tesla's autopilot lane keep assist, hell its not even as good as my Kia Telluride's active lane keep assist (which is nearly as good as Tesla's AP system). if you let go the wheel, the car will basically ping pong off the lane dividers rather than stay nicely centered in the lane, and if you let go for more than a few seconds it will alarm at you to pay attention to your driving. So you pretty much have to keep a hand on the wheel at all times and while its helpful for long boring drives when you're tired, its not as much of a safety net as Tesla's AP.

Innodrive - TBH I haven't even made use of this feature yet and I guess I should but I doubt its something I will purchased as a software upgrade once my trial ends.
 

schad

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The FOD version of Innodrive is not identical to the optioned version.
The optioned version is both ALK and InnoDrive. But with FoD you can get them independently. If there is another difference, I would like to know what it is.

Contrary to what an earlier poster said, unless Porsche has changed their pricing, it is cheaper to get the ALK+PID option than it is to get them both via FoD. But it's only a difference of a couple hundred bucks. Relative to the price of the car, it's practically a rounding error.

Innodrive are basically smart algorithms that sit on top of ALK, LKA and ACC to make it work more like a human would drive; it slows down for turns, accelerates up to the PID max road speed when I indicate that I will overtake.
I want to expand a little on that, because I also had great difficulty figuring out what exactly InnoDrive does.

If you are on a road with a 45mph limit, and approach a sharp corner with a reduced 25mph limit, PID will automatically slow the car down to 25mph for the curve, and accelerate you back up to 45mph after you hit the apex. This feature is hit-or-miss, in my experience, and I wish I could turn it off because it's so inconsistent.

As tutis implied, it will also adjust your speed to match the limit of the road you are on. I gather that in some parts of the world, this is a useful feature. In the US, it is not. Going the speed limit here is a good way to cause an accident, and I'm not joking. Fortunately, this feature can be disabled. But even with it disabled, when the speed limit changes, it will pop up a message on the instrument cluster asking if you want to set the ACC speed to match. If you ignore it, it goes away after a few seconds. This popup feature, specifically, is genuinely useful on roads with frequent speed limit changes, even in the US.

If you have programmed a route in the PCM, PID will automatically slow you down when you approach a turn, and then accelerate you back up to speed after the turn is complete. If you haven't disabled the speed control, it will set your speed to the limit of the road you just turned onto.

Even if you don't have a route in, if you approach a turn and put on your turn indicator, the car will guess which road you're turning onto and slow you down just the same. I actually really like this feature. No-pedal driving!

PID will also... greatly slow you down for stop signs. It doesn't seem to stop you completely. I'm not sure why that is.
 

tutis

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if you let go the wheel, the car will basically ping pong off the lane dividers rather than stay nicely centered in the lane
The pingpong effect that you describe is something that is typical of LKA (Lane Keep Asssist), not ALK (Active Lane Keeping). Are you sure you have ALK? ALK is represented with a Green Steering Wheel on the dashboard when active.

I have a MY22 CT, and the ALK works perfectly fine; the car stays dead center on the road, even in the bends, even when the line on one side is missing. Not sure if there is a difference between MY21 (as you have) and MY22 (as I have) but I am v happy with the ALK.
 

schad

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I have a MY22 CT, and the ALK works perfectly fine; the car stays dead center on the road, even in the bends, even when the line on one side is missing.
Yeah, when the lines are consistently visible or invisible, ALK does a good job of centering. When lines are intermittently visible, it will pogo.
 
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W1NGE

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Given the dreadful state of markings (lane markings, edge markings, give ways, speeds, the whole shebang) it would be almost pointless to rely on for Scottish roads (and I expect most of UK). They apparently don't make road paint like they used to and for systems that rely on 'reading' these markings it is pretty much a pointless option to have.
 

McgR

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I have ordered ACC and I was going to get ALK as FOD. However, apparently for now FOD is not available for model 2022. Will hopefully be solved.

My dealer advised against Innodrive in Belgium because of fantom braking.

I will give it a try when FOD for model 2022 is available
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