Good Test of ACC/ALK/Innodrive in Taycan

[smoothound]

(Sorry it's long)...... Last week, I was in a very narrow Motorway outer lane through road works (speed limit 50mph) with a temporary steel barrier to my right. The motorway had been reduced down to two lanes - work going on on the other side of the barrier. Lots of lorries to my left in the inner lane (UK so we drive on left). No opportunity to move into the inner lane it was nose to tail - all traffic going similar speed.

New 'narrow' lane markings had been painted and the original ones had been blacked out. The original markings in my lane were inside the temporary ones - closer to the barrier. The blackout on the original making was beginning to wear through & some white showing through - quite a lot in places. There were no white lines in front of the metal barrier to my right to be detected.

All was good while my left hand wheels were between the new and original (blacked -out) markings - original markings inside my wheels...... but I then reached a section where the original markings deviated outwards slightly closer to the new temporary ones and outside my left wheels - and I guess my lane keeping detected this and tried to steer me to the right - caught me unawares momentarily and my wheels contacted the foot of the steel barrier giving a nasty road-rash to both front and rear 20" wheels (that I had kept absolutely pristine for 2.5 years).

Very upset! ........... but I guess that if there had been a live lane to my right is could have been into another car not a barrier - so perhaps I should be grateful.

Going to use a local diamond cut repairer to reface the wheels estimated at around £80-120 each. The money is not so important - but it either means leaving my car with them for 3 days to do both wheels - or doing the wheels one at a time using my space-saver spare with two 70mile round trips and time used.

The Audi lane keeping has caught me out a few times previously - thankfully not frequently since on 99% of occasions using an indicator is required - and I usually anticipate it - no consequences until now thankfully.

Annoyed.

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[Ross]

I was confused!
Still am!
I was convinced for a time that it was Lane Change Assist was available on FoD not Active Lane Keeping!
Someone put me right on this forum (Thanks!)

Also I had no idea about Lane Change Assist. I REALLY thought it would change lanes for you.

I had a loaner with LCA and I went on the motorway and then indicated to change lanes and let go of the wheel.
Nothing happened at all.
I was not just disappointed.
Massively underwhelmed.
Took me a while to realise if it was working. Then I noticed the little flashing lights in the wing mirrors.
I thought.
“Is that it? £548! Is that it?”
I will be leaving LCA off my specification.

 

[kailifish]

I personally think that ACC is the most helpful in heavy (stop & go), no matter highway or city. Saves you from having to brake, accelerate, brake. Of course, the ALK is pretty much useless in this scenario.

We don't get a lot of long straight empty highways on long road-trips here. But on the few occasions that we do, It's quite useful in lowering driving demand, not eliminating it.

 

[Fish Fingers]

Useful to read that. I was in two minds about getting ACC to have the sensors now I will stick to standard.
I really have zero interest in any self driving aid in my car.

I tend to only occasionally use the standard cruise control on mine, which is fine.

Mostly when stuck on motorways with a speed limit (50mph) and SPECS cameras. I set it to 53 mph.
It won't do 52mph for some reason??

There are a lot of these round our way at the moment (M6, M56) where they are converting to smart motorways.

I have also toyed with the standard ALK on these roads as well - as some of the lanes are very tight, especially when you get HGVs on lanes 1 and 2 crawling along at the same speed for miles on end.

 

[kort]

(Sorry it's long)...... Last week, I was in a very narrow Motorway outer lane through road works (speed limit 50mph) with a temporary steel barrier to my right. The motorway had been reduced down to two lanes - work going on on the other side of the barrier. Lots of lorries to my left in the inner lane (UK so we drive on left). No opportunity to move into the inner lane it was nose to tail - all traffic going similar speed.

New 'narrow' lane markings had been painted and the original ones had been blacked out. The original markings in my lane were inside the temporary ones - closer to the barrier. The blackout on the original making was beginning to wear through & some white showing through - quite a lot in places. There were no white lines in front of the metal barrier to my right to be detected.

All was good while my left hand wheels were between the new and original (blacked -out) markings - original markings inside my wheels...... but I then reached a section where the original markings deviated outwards slightly closer to the new temporary ones and outside my left wheels - and I guess my lane keeping detected this and tried to steer me to the right - caught me unawares momentarily and my wheels contacted the foot of the steel barrier giving a nasty road-rash to both front and rear 20" wheels (that I had kept absolutely pristine for 2.5 years).

Very upset! ........... but I guess that if there had been a live lane to my right is could have been into another car not a barrier - so perhaps I should be grateful.

Going to use a local diamond cut repairer to reface the wheels estimated at around £80-120 each. The money is not so important - but it either means leaving my car with them for 3 days to do both wheels - or doing the wheels one at a time using my space-saver spare with two 70mile round trips and time used.

The Audi lane keeping has caught me out a few times previously - thankfully not frequently since on 99% of occasions using an indicator is required - and I usually anticipate it - no consequences until now thankfully.

Annoyed.

the moral to your story is that people should disengage these systems when in a work zone where the lane markings are distorted.
the tesla AP guide specifically noted that their system should be turned off when encountering situations like this

 

[Ambroos]

I had a loaner with LCA and I went on the motorway and then indicated to change lanes and let go of the wheel.
Nothing happened at all.
I was not just disappointed.
Massively underwhelmed.
Took me a while to realise if it was working. Then I noticed the little flashing lights in the wing mirrors.
I thought.
“Is that it? £548! Is that it?”
I will be leaving LCA off my specification.

Lane Change Assist has that cost associated with it because it adds two additional radars in the rear. They also get used for some other safety features.

It's really useful as an alert to not drive into other people during a lapse of focus. In the US where highway lanes are the wild west and no-one keeps right on highways it's almost essential to have in my opinion. In Europe, less so.

 

[clivep]

Out of Spec Reviews just did a review of the Taycan's ADAS system. It seems the Innodrive part isn't really very useful, as it only adds speed limit detection and slowing for curves, and doesn't have the ability to be set for speed limit + X MPH (since most people in US drive above limit)

ALK seems a bit weaker than other cars at highway speeds - has some issues with ping-ponging and does get close to or leaves lane sometimes. Appears to be more of a lane centering assist, where it helps you to steer, as opposed to a system that steers for you (also makes sense since it's not capacitive and instead is steering torque based)

Overall not a huge deal given we bought these cars to drive, not for assistance systems, but think it's useful in determining whether these options are worth it. Personally it affirms that me only ordering ACC was the right decision. ACC is pretty simple, reliable and helpful in traffic, but it appears ALK isn't solid enough to be of meaningful assistance

 

[clivep]

I am always surprised when I read reviews of Innodrive (usually negative) and this thread seems to have a lot of misinformation so I thought I would register my enthusiasm for it to balance the debate.

I bought my 4S+ with ACC, Innodrive, ALK, LKA and LCA, mainly because my 7 year old Audi S7 had all the features except Innodrive (which means no ALK) and I had found them useful particularly for long motorway drives with regular speed cameras. I rarely used them away from motorways.

If you are spending £100k+ on a new car, they don't seem to be such a big deal though and I do like new technology. I regularly travel to Scotland from Yorkshire which is about 30% slow A-road, 30% motorway and 30% fast A-road and is the perfect test-ground for PID.

Innodrive is a quantum leap from ACC. I use it almost all the time on UK motorways to ensure I watch my speed. It is easy to intervene for a manouevre when Innodrive switches to "passive" and then automatically takes over again when the accelerator is released. NO you cannot set a limit eg +10% to Innodive limits but I prefer to see upcoming speeds (in blue) and then manually adjust with the stalk if I want to (I have the HUD which makes all of this intuitive). On motorways you really can control the car entirely without use of the feet. I often let the car self-drive until the red warning appears in the HUD (about 30 seconds) and then make a minor correction so that the process iterates. Years ago I developed tennis elbow and sciatica as a result of long motorway drives! The HUD provides me with a clear warning of loss of tracking so that I can intervene. Those drivers who say "that's not how you drive a Porsche" presumably spend much of their time at home with their feet up given the plethora of SMART motorways and mobile speed cameras in the UK these days. I think it depends where you are driving.

What did surprise me was how much I have come to use Innodrive on other roads. It is great in stop/start traffic, again allowing the car to self-drive for long periods which certainly eases my aging limbs (I think they recently extended the "ready to drive" period which means that this feature has become even more automatic).

I also use it on busy A-roads BUT without LKA and ALK (clicked off on the stalk) which are not reliable given the poor state of UK road markings. Again it is so easy to take over driving manually either temporarily or entirely, the car waits to see what I do. In busy traffic in urban areas it is very easy to drive interactively (I usually accelerate into roundabouts, the Porsche is just too cautious) without fear of being caught out by unknown speed cameras...WARNING: Innodrive does not recognise traffic lights at all!!

The number of traffic signs appearing on the screen seems to have increased since early 2021 and although I do not rely on them, it can be useful warning of bad bends ahead even when Innodrive is not engaged. Interestingly for any other 21 Innodrive/HUD users, I complained to Porsche - without any success - that most of the Innodrive information (unlike ACC info) was not appearing on the HUD, until March 22 when my HUD failed and the replacement now shows all the information on screen which is incredibly more useful. I still do not know if this was a configuration issue during manufacture or a more recent design development.

When I am on singe carriageway roads without much traffic I leave the Innodrive alone and enjoy the car at its best. I have tried to use the ACC and find it useless in comparison to the PID. We are all different!

 

[Ross]

Excellent Review.
Thank you
You have made me look forward to my car coming next month
which I have specced with ACC (which I DONT like!) just so I can FoD Inno and ALK
I have 3 free months to judge for myself.
I dont do a lot of miles so its just a bit of fun for me.
Sounds useful when you dont want to be 'on it'.

 

[JRNJTAYCAN]

I have all three options in my 22 and love using them on the highways I travel. When using these options I go hands free as much as the car lets me and I find it works great in traffic and curves on the road. I just wish it let you keep your hands off the wheel longer but I will take what it give me as it makes driving long trip more relaxing.

I agree with some the post in this link, if you are spending over $100K on a car what’s a little more, get these options. Just to bad they are not standard at this price!

 

[Archimedes]

I was originally not a fan of the ACC, but the more I use it, the more I like it. It allows much closer minimum following distance than other systems I’ve used, and it is fantastic in slow stop and go type of traffic. I didn’t realize until recently that it would auto accelerate after a full stop, which is pretty cool.

 

[Jonathan S.]

[...]If I were spec'ing a new Taycan I would absolutely buy ACC, ALK, LKA and (begrudgingly) LCA again and not bother with Innodrive proper.

Doncha' always just love that guy who bumps a really old thread?
Well, that's me!

In all seriousness, on the current configurator, for a 2023 4CT, once the Technology and Premium packages are added, Inno Drive is only another $1,570 so that seems like the most straightforward way of getting ALK (which I definitely want to long boring interstate stretches, even if I still have to cradle the steering).

However, looking a used 2022 4CT, ACC is included, as part of the Technology Package, but not Inno Drive. Does that mean I could still buy ALK via FOD?

 

[Hirschaj]

Doncha' always just love that guy who bumps a really old thread?
Well, that's me!

In all seriousness, on the current configurator, for a 2023 4CT, once the Technology and Premium packages are added, Inno Drive is only another $1,570 so that seems like the most straightforward way of getting ALK (which I definitely want to long boring interstate stretches, even if I still have to cradle the steering).

However, looking a used 2022 4CT, ACC is included, as part of the Technology Package, but not Inno Drive. Does that mean I could still buy ALK via FOD?

yes, as long as the car has ACC you can get ALK via FOD. EIEIO.

 

[Jonathan S.]

yes, as long as the car has ACC you can get ALK via FOD. EIEIO.

TYSM!
(Even if I forgot to finish my prior post with TIA.)

 

[Icey4s]

I never really understood the difference between the ACC with ALK vs Innodrive. I understand Innodrive reading speed limit signs and adjusting for curves but other than that, I didn't really see its use.

However, the other night I was driving in a 35mph with Innodrive on to see how it would handle a turn and it did it fairly well. Then as we approached a stop sign I noticed a blue "STOP" come up on the gauges and the car started to slow down. I had no idea this was a thing haha! Anyway, it seemed to almost completely stop but once it got down to 2-4mph it just kept going through the intersection and mentioned "driver interaction necessary" or something along those lines and once I pressed on the accelerator, it continued up to speed. Was king of neat I guess.

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