Duuuude, my Taycan arrived!! Love it and have some basic questions

[SWORDER]

My Taycan Turbo S was delivered a couple of days ago and I've been having a blast with it! Seriously the best car I've ever driven. Did my first free charge at Electrify America and everything worked flawlessly. Some pics, and then some questions:

Private Mode

Some of the material I've read indicates that Private Mode basically shuts off the cellular radio. Is that the case, or does it just disable certain data from being transmitted to Porsche? I only ask because while exploring the system, I saw this note:

So it appears that, should I decide to use Private Mode, the built-in cell service is actually still on, correct?

What's a typical example of when I would want to use Private Mode?

Wired CarPlay & Cord Management

Wireless CarPlay kind of works but not really. Connecting to the car's wireless hotspot seems to disable internet access, which means some of the apps that depend upon it won't fully work (e.g. real-time Waze alerts, etc).

Long story short, I decided to just use wired CarPlay instead. Not a big deal but for those of you who are using wired CarPlay, what's the secret to fitting both the phone and the USBC-to-Lightning cord in the center console? That center console is really tiny. By the time I plug the cord into my phone (iPhone XSMax), it's too long to fit in there and comfortably close the console lid. I assume the center console is where the phone is supposed to live when plugged into the USB, correct? Or am I supposed to run the cord out through a special hole and rest it in the cup holder? Or is there some other USB port and storage area I'm supposed to be using instead?

Bluetooth

Why is Wireless CarPlay not available over Bluetooth? Is there something about the Bluetooth protocol that provides insufficient bandwidth for app-to-car communications? A post on this forum indicated that might be the case and furthermore, newer versions of Bluetooth allow for more bandwidth. If indeed that is the case, is a Bluetooth upgrade something that could be done OTA or is it a hardware-specific thing that we're just stuck with until the next model year(s)?

About Hotspots

This is more of a philosophical design question than a tech question. What's the rationale of having the car act as a hotspot? Pretty much everyone has a hotspot in their pocket via their phone, and unlimited data plans are cheap. Why not have the car act as a client to the user's hotspot (or the user's / dealer's WiFi network when parked at home or the shop) rather than having each car have it's own cell radio, SIM, etc.? Seems like leveraging the user's own hotspot would be a lot simpler and cost effective than having the user be forced to connect to a car-specific WiFi network infrastructure. There must be some reason Porsche designed things the way they did. Does it have to do with automatic OTA updates, perhaps?

Parting Thoughts

All in all, I'm loving this car! I swear I've beaten more yellow lights in the last two days than in the last two years. It's an absolute marvel of engineering. Next step is to get the radar detector installed and I'll be all set.

 

[Oink]

Private Mode

When your wife wants to visit her boyfriend without you tracking her. Or other way around.

Wired CarPlay & Cord Management

Don't connect to the cars hotspot. That's not how carplay works. Remove that hotspot from your phone entirely or at least disable auto-connect.

Bluetooth

See above.

Enjoy the car!

 

[SWORDER]

When your wife wants to visit her boyfriend without you tracking her. Or other way around.

Ha! Never had any interest in the drudgery of marriage/family life, so no issues there.

I could totally see myself enacting Private Mode when visiting IHOP (International House of Pancakes) though. It's embarrassing and not something I'd want to share with Porsche.

Don't connect to the cars hotspot. That's not how carplay works. Remove that hotspot from your phone entirely or at least disable auto-connect.

Yup. That's what I did. I clicked "Forget this Network" for the Taycan hotspot and may have even unchecked WiFi on the car when I was playing around the first day. And of course the hotspot on the phone is off too.

The sales rep did tell me though that if I want to use Wireless CarPlay, I need to connect to the car's hotspot. Is that not the case? If so, great, what's the workaround? If not, no big deal. Wired CarPlay works fine and isn't the end of the world.

 

[RBGtaycan]

Ha! Never had any interest in the drudgery of marriage/family life, so no issues there.

I could totally see myself enacting Private Mode when visiting IHOP (International House of Pancakes) though. It's embarrassing and not something I'd want to share with Porsche.



Yup. That's what I did. I clicked "Forget this Network" for the Taycan hotspot and may have even unchecked WiFi on the car when I was playing around the first day. And of course the hotspot on the phone is off too.

The sales rep did tell me though that if I want to use Wireless CarPlay, I need to connect to the car's hotspot. Is that not the case? If so, great, what's the workaround? If not, no big deal. Wired CarPlay works fine and isn't the end of the world.

my wireless car play STOPS working if I connect to my (inactive) car hot spot - so it is obviously NOT needed

 

[SWORDER]

my wireless car play STOPS working if I connect to my (inactive) car hot spot - so it is obviously NOT needed

Wait, what??? How does your phone communicate with the car then when using CarPlay? Sounds like I have a total misconception of how this is supposed to be configured.

 

[cfp]

Yup. That's what I did. I clicked "Forget this Network" for the Taycan hotspot and may have even unchecked WiFi on the car when I was playing around the first day. And of course the hotspot on the phone is off too.

This may be a redundant piece of info but I believe the way that wireless CarPlay works is that it uses Bluetooth to establish the connection between iPhone and car and then once that connection is established, all communication between car and iPhone happens over WiFi. So I think you need WiFi active on the car. Not sure if that's what you were getting at or not.

 

[SWORDER]

This may be a redundant piece of info but I believe the way that wireless CarPlay works is that it uses Bluetooth to establish the connection between iPhone and car and then once that connection is established, all communication between car and iPhone happens over WiFi. So I think you need WiFi active on the car. Not sure if that's what you were getting at or not.

Ah... That's interesting. So putting the pieces together then: Keep WiFi on in the car but, from the phone, do NOT connect to the SSID that represents the hotspot in the car. I'll run down and try that right now.

I guess I don't quite understand how the phone and car can talk over WiFi after the initial Bluetooth handshake without actually connecting to a named WiFi network but hey, doesn't hurt to try.

 

[andrewket]

The car does have an SSID and the phone will connect to it. It tries to be automatic - you don’t have to select the WiFi network and you don’t have to enter the password. That exchange happens over BT or via USB. The phone will still use the cellular connection for data.

 

[RBGtaycan]

Wait, what??? How does your phone communicate with the car then when using CarPlay? Sounds like I have a total misconception of how this is supposed to be configured.

I gotta admit my wireless car play drove me nuts..mostly could not get it to work at the beginning and then somehow got it to work and now it connects like a rock..EXCEPT the other day when I was playing and connected my phone to the (inactive) hot spot..immediately car play stopped dead.

Suggestion: make sure wifi is enabled on the phone and NOT connected to your car hot spot. Then go Devices > Connect New Devices > Connection Manager > Apple Car Play . Good luck

 

[B61]

Congrats & enjoy, Dixson!

 

[submatrix]

Private Mode

Some of the material I've read indicates that Private Mode basically shuts off the cellular radio. Is that the case, or does it just disable certain data from being transmitted to Porsche? I only ask because while exploring the system, I saw this note:

So it appears that, should I decide to use Private Mode, the built-in cell service is actually still on, correct?

What's a typical example of when I would want to use Private Mode?

I don't have a great answer for you but I found that since I value the ability to use the app to control functions in the car/check on car status when I'm not physically in it, I have to have Private Mode turned off. If not for that limitation, I'd prefer to be as off the grid as possible as far as Porsche HQ is concerned.

Wired CarPlay & Cord Management

Wireless CarPlay kind of works but not really. Connecting to the car's wireless hotspot seems to disable internet access, which means some of the apps that depend upon it won't fully work (e.g. real-time Waze alerts, etc).

Long story short, I decided to just use wired CarPlay instead. Not a big deal but for those of you who are using wired CarPlay, what's the secret to fitting both the phone and the USBC-to-Lightning cord in the center console? That center console is really tiny. By the time I plug the cord into my phone (iPhone XSMax), it's too long to fit in there and comfortably close the console lid. I assume the center console is where the phone is supposed to live when plugged into the USB, correct? Or am I supposed to run the cord out through a special hole and rest it in the cup holder? Or is there some other USB port and storage area I'm supposed to be using instead?

I've only had the car for 2 days but I've found Wireless CarPlay to be finicky. It's my first time using CarPlay so I'm not well versed on how it works, but yesterday I tried a simple 5 minute navigation home from the grocery store using Wireless CarPlay and the connection dropped 3 minutes in and the center screen changed back to the default PCM. Magically, 30 seconds before I arrived back home, it seemed to reestablish connection and then switched back to CarPlay without me touching anything. If it's always this unreliable, I'm not sure I'll ever use it and will have to end up going wired like you.

 

[W1NGE]

Disable privacy mode permanently. If you don't then you can't access the car remotely with the Porsche Connect App or My Porsche web portal.

The hot spot is to share the data package if you purchase it to enable non cell devices access to the internet. Redundant these days particularly if you do the same with your phone.

 

[Kayone73]

My Taycan Turbo S was delivered a couple of days ago and I've been having a blast with it! Seriously the best car I've ever driven. Did my first free charge at Electrify America and everything worked flawlessly. Some pics, and then some questions:

Private Mode

Some of the material I've read indicates that Private Mode basically shuts off the cellular radio. Is that the case, or does it just disable certain data from being transmitted to Porsche? I only ask because while exploring the system, I saw this note:

So it appears that, should I decide to use Private Mode, the built-in cell service is actually still on, correct?

What's a typical example of when I would want to use Private Mode?

Wired CarPlay & Cord Management

Wireless CarPlay kind of works but not really. Connecting to the car's wireless hotspot seems to disable internet access, which means some of the apps that depend upon it won't fully work (e.g. real-time Waze alerts, etc).

Long story short, I decided to just use wired CarPlay instead. Not a big deal but for those of you who are using wired CarPlay, what's the secret to fitting both the phone and the USBC-to-Lightning cord in the center console? That center console is really tiny. By the time I plug the cord into my phone (iPhone XSMax), it's too long to fit in there and comfortably close the console lid. I assume the center console is where the phone is supposed to live when plugged into the USB, correct? Or am I supposed to run the cord out through a special hole and rest it in the cup holder? Or is there some other USB port and storage area I'm supposed to be using instead?

Bluetooth

Why is Wireless CarPlay not available over Bluetooth? Is there something about the Bluetooth protocol that provides insufficient bandwidth for app-to-car communications? A post on this forum indicated that might be the case and furthermore, newer versions of Bluetooth allow for more bandwidth. If indeed that is the case, is a Bluetooth upgrade something that could be done OTA or is it a hardware-specific thing that we're just stuck with until the next model year(s)?

About Hotspots

This is more of a philosophical design question than a tech question. What's the rationale of having the car act as a hotspot? Pretty much everyone has a hotspot in their pocket via their phone, and unlimited data plans are cheap. Why not have the car act as a client to the user's hotspot (or the user's / dealer's WiFi network when parked at home or the shop) rather than having each car have it's own cell radio, SIM, etc.? Seems like leveraging the user's own hotspot would be a lot simpler and cost effective than having the user be forced to connect to a car-specific WiFi network infrastructure. There must be some reason Porsche designed things the way they did. Does it have to do with automatic OTA updates, perhaps?

Parting Thoughts

All in all, I'm loving this car! I swear I've beaten more yellow lights in the last two days than in the last two years. It's an absolute marvel of engineering. Next step is to get the radar detector installed and I'll be all set.

Congrats, so Plug & Charge at the EA DC fast charger worked without any hiccups?

 

[cfp]

I guess I don't quite understand how the phone and car can talk over WiFi after the initial Bluetooth handshake without actually connecting to a named WiFi network but hey, doesn't hurt to try.

I don't know either. This is beyond my level of technical knowledge but I think the CarPlay protocol tells both clients to use their WiFi radios to exchange information. For instance, in other wireless CarPlay systems I've had, I can be in my driveway and my iPhone can be connected to my house's WiFi system. But once I turn the car on and CarPlay initiates, my WiFi icon disappears and I'm only receiving data through cellular. So the WiFi radio has been repurposed to communicate with the car only.

 

[Cpoarchy]

I agree with you if there is a better car to drive at this price point, I want to know about it, like a monster if you want it to be or drives like a dream it you want it to be, electrifies my soul is right. Happy travels, she’s a nice one

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