Feature request?

RSouthern

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Anyone here know how to ask for a change in behavior on the Taycan?

What I’d like to see is the night vision assist display be able to take up the same space as the map or extended map on the dashboard, instead of just the center circle. My 2015 S Class did this (automatically!) when using night vision, moving the tach and speedo to the sides to give an almost full screen view. Seems silly to just use the small space that the power meter would use (that’s my default center gauge)… it’s too small to be useful the way they do it now. Apparently Audi has this function already so it seems like the code for it should be available on the VAG GitHub. And can we change the color to red for pedestrians?the yellow is too difficult (low contrast) to see amidst all the gray and white background.

And while we’re at it, why isn’t there an option to have this happen automatically and have it come on when a person is detected. It puts the yellow overlay on the person, so why not leave it on and running in the background and when the person detect is triggered, put it on the screen. All the mechanisms are there already, so it wouldn’t even be a lot of new code To Q/A.
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RSouthern

RSouthern

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Wow, that’s pretty disappointing. Usually it’s something like “talk to your dealer” but this is the 2020s and more companies have outreach to their users for input.

For example, BMW has their customer care line and I leveraged that to ask for a fix for an unexpected behavior in our 2020 X7 related to the 3rd row HVAC when the 3rd row seats were folded down (it would be disabled because they didn’t think about customers with large dogs in the summer/warm environments). It took 3 months, but a SW fix was issued and dog owners with X7s could actually use their cars for the intended purpose!

Come on Porsche! Customers have good ideas and can help you sell more vehicles.
 


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Anyone here know how to ask for a change in behavior on the Taycan?

What I’d like to see is the night vision assist display be able to take up the same space as the map or extended map on the dashboard, instead of just the center circle. My 2015 S Class did this (automatically!) when using night vision, moving the tach and speedo to the sides to give an almost full screen view. Seems silly to just use the small space that the power meter would use (that’s my default center gauge)… it’s too small to be useful the way they do it now. Apparently Audi has this function already so it seems like the code for it should be available on the VAG GitHub. And can we change the color to red for pedestrians?the yellow is too difficult (low contrast) to see amidst all the gray and white background.

And while we’re at it, why isn’t there an option to have this happen automatically and have it come on when a person is detected. It puts the yellow overlay on the person, so why not leave it on and running in the background and when the person detect is triggered, put it on the screen. All the mechanisms are there already, so it wouldn’t even be a lot of new code To Q/A.
These are valid requests. I have received surveys where they ask for feature feedback from 3rd parties, that would be a long shot, I do think just calling PCNA line is the only route where they can at least record it in the "system".

I am aware of other brands BMW/Audi/MB going all out on the features and exactly what you are describing, but remember, Porsche always chooses the minimalist approach to everything, and I prefer it that way. I have NVA on the now previous gen 2020 Cayenne and it displays the image on the right tube and takes as much of the shape of that area but still very small, since the center tach is analog. I am used to the yellow and that seems to work well with the overall design of the interface.

Taycan is all digital so I do agree that there should be a way to show NVM view as the Extended Map, but this may need to also increase the angle of the NVM camera to capture that wide of an image without impacting resolution. We can always hope for a software update that makes it happen.
 

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What I’d like to see is the night vision assist display be able to take up the same space as the map or extended map on the dashboard, instead of just the center circle.
… it’s too small to be useful the way they do it now.
And while we’re at it, why isn’t there an option to have this happen automatically and have it come on when a person is detected. It puts the yellow overlay on the person, so why not leave it on and running in the background and when the person detect is triggered, put it on the screen.
You probably already know this, but stating it here for anyone else who may not know: night vision assist runs in the background (regardless of whether you have it displayed on the dash) and then takes over the center tube of the dash display when it recognizes a hazard. It also automatically applies braking depending on the scenario. This happened to me when a darkly-clothed individual ran across the highway in front of me at night in poor lighting. So if the NVA algorithms are functioning as designed, there's little reason to display night vision on the dash except as a novelty. BTW, the algorithms are sophisticated enough to ignore animals, but not humans, in urban areas, but then react to animals outside of urban areas.
Porsche Taycan Feature request? 1700339410084
 


Murph7355

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Ref feature requests, I sent an email to the UK customer services mail address ([email protected] for ref. There'll be similar in the US I would think).

One reply bounced it to my local Porsche Centre, but another said the mail address was right and they'd register the requests.

I don't expect to see them go anywhere, but who knows.

One of the requests was to be able to put the same info in any of the "tubes". Which would cover what you're noting I think.

PCM in the Taycan is so nearly "right" IMO.
 

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You probably already know this, but stating it here for anyone else who may not know: night vision assist runs in the background (regardless of whether you have it displayed on the dash) and then takes over the center tube of the dash display when it recognizes a hazard. It also automatically applies braking depending on the scenario. This happened to me when a darkly-clothed individual ran across the highway in front of me at night in poor lighting. So if the NVA algorithms are functioning as designed, there's little reason to display night vision on the dash except as a novelty. BTW, the algorithms are sophisticated enough to ignore animals, but not humans, in urban areas, but then react to animals outside of urban areas.
1700339410084.jpg
I have seen the human warnings from time to time, very useful. Couple of thoughts on this feature:
  1. I did have a situation where the system did not warn, a human was obscured behind a car and by the time the car moved out of the way and the human was fully exposed, it was too close for the night vision to recognize the human. I’m glad I noticed the human (who was crossing a 45mph highway in the dark).
  2. I had one situation where having the night vision on the tube helped. I was driving on a dark highway at 3am, and noticed a yellow rectangle (no warning) on my night vision. I couldn’t see what was triggering it until I got closer - it was a person dressed in all black riding a bicycle in the middle of the highway). Had I not slowed down to investigate the night vision display, it might not have ended well. Perhaps the system would have eventually warned me? It did have a “target lock” on the night cyclist but he (or she) was riding right on the lane markings, so perhaps the car concluded they are not in my lane so no warning necessary?
  3. The warning on the dash is great, but even better if your car has full matrix headlights function - the object which caused a warning is flashed by the headlights (a rectangle around them, not just the object, but it helps not having to take eyes off the road in a situation where you might hit someone). So sad that this functionality is disallowed by the US government. I guess in their zeal for besting each other in paperwork and thinking they know better than the rest of the world, they consider a few pedestrian casualties as acceptable collateral damage.
So I guess the feature request here would be to the US government, get off your high horse, approve the existing adaptive headlights world standard, grandfather in existing cars on the road which have the world standard hardware (and therefore can be enabled with just software), and only then go off on your esoteric philosophical discussions on how you think the system could be better than the current standard - once you agree, probably decades from now, make the new system a requirement few years down the road (to give manufacturers time to develop your new fancy system).
 
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f1eng

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You probably already know this, but stating it here for anyone else who may not know: night vision assist runs in the background (regardless of whether you have it displayed on the dash) and then takes over the center tube of the dash display when it recognizes a hazard. It also automatically applies braking depending on the scenario.
The Toyota system does this and there is only a display if a hazard is detected - which is probably safer, a permanent display may draw the eyes away from the road even when there is no need of a warning.

On balance a display of effectively nothing of importance is a waste of dash screen area IMHO.
 

whitex

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The Toyota system does this and there is only a display if a hazard is detected - which is probably safer, a permanent display may draw the eyes away from the road even when there is no need of a warning.

On balance a display of effectively nothing of importance is a waste of dash screen area IMHO.
Except that displaying FLIR at all times is not "nothing of importance". I often look at the FLIR when I see something in the dark to determine whether it's something I should be aware which could enter my path, like a human walking or lingering on the side of the road, or just a shadow or perhaps a shrub. The car will only warn me if that object will be in my direct path, not if it's 50m (or even 5m out) out on the side of the road.

To take your argument to the extreme, the windshield could be blacked out and only lane markers , traffic lights and signs, and objects directly in your path could be displayed on a monitor for your driving needs. I suspect it would be hard to drive like that. I actually have seen videos of what that would look like in autonomous car development, and will tell you even self driving computers need more than that for full autonomy (e.g. they do need to know about object not in direct path, so they can anticipate whether or not they will enter the direct path).

What seems to be missing from the Taycan is a notification outside of the actual FLIR display (for people who like to only see warnings) that a FLIR warning system is deactivated. Unless you have the FLIR display up all the time, you don't know whether or not the warning system is active. It is not active in certain lighting conditions and above some ambient temperatures.
 

f1eng

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To take your argument to the extreme, the windshield could be blacked out and only lane markers , traffic lights and signs, and objects directly in your path could be displayed on a monitor for your driving needs.
That would be really stupid.
It is the absolute opposite.
You should be looking through the windscreen NOT at a tiny thermal image on the dash.
 

whitex

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That would be really stupid.
It is the absolute opposite.
You should be looking through the windscreen NOT at a tiny thermal image on the dash.
I look at FLIR when I see something out the window and wonder if the object is a human or animal, or just a shrub or some other object on the side of the road. I also scan it regularly when I scan the instrument cluster. FLIR is just another source of information on the instrument cluster, like speedometer, tire pressures, battery status, etc.
 
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RSouthern

RSouthern

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You probably already know this, but stating it here for anyone else who may not know: night vision assist runs in the background (regardless of whether you have it displayed on the dash) and then takes over the center tube of the dash display when it recognizes a hazard. It also automatically applies braking depending on the scenario. This happened to me when a darkly-clothed individual ran across the highway in front of me at night in poor lighting. So if the NVA algorithms are functioning as designed, there's little reason to display night vision on the dash except as a novelty. BTW, the algorithms are sophisticated enough to ignore animals, but not humans, in urban areas, but then react to animals outside of urban areas.
Thanks for sharing this... I didn't actually know that's what's supposed to happen. I'm going by experience behind the wheel/using the system. I've never seen the system respond and took to just turning it on and saw the pedestrians in the tube, highlighted in yellow (hence my comments about small image and low contrast limiting my ability to identify the risk faster - which I suspect you already knew and were being polite about - thanks for keeping it civil and professional!)

So here are my thoughts based on this new information...

I have never seen this happening. the system may be filtering too many events out by deciding that the person isn't exactly in front of the car at that moment, or that I'm not going fast enough at the time that this happened. There have been several situations where I would have expected it to show me the warning, which leads me to my request again, and actually even more necessary based on this new understanding. Situational awareness is key and I see NVA as an important part of increasing that. NVA is a tool that helps us better assess risk in the dynamic environment around us, just like parking sensors, surround cameras, cross traffic alerts, side and rear mirrors, small blind spots etc. I'd prefer to make decisions based on my own risk assessment (and in the event that something bad happened it would be the driver's decisions that determines fault), so I feel it would be more useful if the system notified you about pedestrians, bicycles and animals that could become a risk, rather than waiting until they were already in your path and hitting the brakes for you. And just like other driver-aides, it could have a sensitivity adjustment (including off) so it doesn't become an annoyance. nother way of looking at this is, do you have a radar detector in your car? If so, why? I do and it helps me be aware of what's ahead (or behind) me and make better decisions.

Seeing the other comments about highlighting a pedestrian leveraging the matrix headlights, my 2015 Mercedes S550 did exactly that. This feature was in a US/DOT car, not a European programmed version. When the nigh vision system identified a person or bicyclist or animal it would flash a box on them with the headlights and alert me on the dashboard by switching the entire screen to the nigh vision view and put a red box around the identified object. This happened once or twice a week in my regular drive (and the P-Car has never done this on the same drives with the same pedestrians and cyclists). So it appears that ability is not blocked in the US per say, it's just that some auto manufacturers have chosen not to implement this. Having the car help you see these risks increases the driver's situational awareness without requiring the driver to look down into the dashboard to find the small display and the yellow outlined object to assess the situation.

I understand that Porsche wants to do the minimum in terms of driving assists to have a more "pure" experience with the car. And I appreciate that. Heck, my Lotus Elise is the maximization of that idea - zero drivers aides! But taking a lesson from my motorcycle days, know what's around you (and drive accordingly/defensively) and you live. That's why I got NVA and the small display and incomplete (my impression) implementation of the feature (as compared to Toyota and Mercedes) leaves a lot on the table.
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