HomeLink shortcomings...

[Dee]

Range is actually my only real complaint with Homelink. Do you have Thermally & Noise insulated glass? I had to extend the Liftmaster anntena to outside the garage for a good signal. None of my other vehicles have range issues including the 911

The glass doesn't have anything to do with it.
The transmitter is in the front of the car.

I have thermally and noise insulated glass and I don't have any issues.
The reciever is inside the garage (5cm alu isolated door and double stone wall, also isolated).
The distance is about 15 meters when it opens.

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[cjne]

Man - I see so many problems with the User Interface. I totally agree.

I'ld ALMOST be willing to organize a list of GUI issues - with suggested resolutions - so we could provide them to Porsche to get them fixed. (I just started another thread odocumenting frustrations with creating a route through specified chargers in the NAV system...)

...

So many software problems on so many aspects of the Taycan ecosystem. ...and, so far, Porsche hasn't demonstrated that they give a crap! They are the ones who should be collecting a list of all these issues and THEN ADDRESSING THEM.

I don’t have any insight in how Porsche operates but I think they will want to try and beat Tesla in any way they can, one such area should be the continuous improvements through OTA software updates. UI improvement would probably be possible to do OTA and is low hanging fruit.
So if we can I think we definitely should try and give the appropriate department at Porsche the feedback

 

[Dee]

Man - I see so many problems with the User Interface. I totally agree.

I'ld ALMOST be willing to organize a list of GUI issues - with suggested resolutions - so we could provide them to Porsche to get them fixed. (I just started another thread odocumenting frustrations with creating a route through specified chargers in the NAV system...)

BUT, how much faith do you have in Porsche actually making use of that list to fix the problems? Given the amount of attention they obviously gave this in the first place its hard to see how they would give it any different level of attention moving forward. Similarly, the CHARGING NA app has documented problems (can't activate 350KW Chargers) and Porsche STILL hasn't fixed that bug (they rolled back the IOS app to a prior version instead - and then just pretty much abandoned Android users all together). I have to "force Stop" and clear the Cache and Data for the PORSCHE CONNECT App just to get logged in and then it just crashes EVERY TIME I ask it to display charging locations on the "EXPLORE" screen. Porsche knows about ALL of these problems. They even call me to ask how things are going after I log the problems. They should be calling the software developers and not me... Save the nickle!

So many software problems on so many aspects of the Taycan ecosystem. ...and, so far, Porsche hasn't demonstrated that they give a crap! They are the ones who should be collecting a list of all these issues and THEN ADDRESSING THEM.

Did you write to Porsche?
Ranting on a forum only provides you sympathy from us, maybe even confirmation but it doesn't really solve any "problems".
I have written Porsche Netherlands ([email protected]), Germany ([email protected]) and their German website (the personal one with your actual vin number).

 

[evanevery]

Range is actually my only real complaint with Homelink. Do you have Thermally & Noise insulated glass? I had to extend the Liftmaster anntena to outside the garage for a good signal. None of my other vehicles have range issues including the 911

I have the insulated glass. Range is great!

 

[evanevery]

I don’t have any insight in how Porsche operates but I think they will want to try and beat Tesla in any way they can, one such area should be the continuous improvements through OTA software updates. UI improvement would probably be possible to do OTA and is low hanging fruit.
So if we can I think we definitely should try and give the appropriate department at Porsche the feedback

You mean the OTA updates we have to bring to the dealer to get done?

Did you write to Porsche?
Ranting on a forum only provides you sympathy from us, maybe even confirmation but it doesn't really solve any "problems".
I have written Porsche Netherlands ([email protected]), Germany ([email protected]) and their German website (the personal one with your actual vin number).

I have SPOKEN with Porsche and they are quite aware of many of these issues. In fact, they call me every once in a while to see how things are going. I tell them "no change" and suggest they would be better off calling their software development team and talking to them. Apparently they would rather pay someone to try and manage the customer rather than manage their own product...

Nope, I'm fine with making sure everyone on the planet knows about these problems. Call it a "rant" if you like but Porsche needs to understand we are not going to stop talking about this crap until they give us reason NOT to. The best possible place to "rant" about this stuff is right here. If Porsche wants to minimize the negative discussions they can damn well start fixing stuff!

The more light we can give to these items the more likely Porsche will be to do something.

They really SHOULD find this crap publicly embarrassing! I'ld like to help them with that...

 

[KensingtonPark]

I have the insulated glass. Range is great!

I also have the insulated glass and find my range to be excellent.

 

[Miwa]

Yup. agreed!

...and also the typical fallback excuse: "It drives like a Porsche"!

Which is the main reason to buy a Porsche. The rest is fluff. I can't imagine the 911 forums are overrun with complaints about some app.

 

[Sonic]

It's a car.

The UI works but not everyone is excited about it which is understandable.
I don't like some components of Windows, Word or Excel either.
What were they thinking?!!
I also think there's no company in the world that'll satisfy all of it's customers 100%.
I love this car but that doesn't mean it's perfect.
Still, I'm used to it but it could be better (which I think it will).
Some settings aren't stored (yet).
Annoying? Yes.
Spoiling my mood? No way!

I"m not quite sure if we're agreeing on the same thing here - but the purpose of any business is, generally, to have it's customers enjoy its' products.

The Taycan is indeed a car, with lots of human interfaces, which people want to enjoy, and which UX departments specialise in. It's their whole reason for existance.

It's clear some people wish for some improvement in certain areas and that's fine - and it doesn't take away from all the great things about it.

If you any of us didn't care about the experience, then we wouldn't have bought a Porsche!

As for mood and annoyance... on the UI, i have none... as mine isn't delivered yet

 

[daveo4EV]

I’m finding the voice controls to work better for long lists of items - either “hey siri” or “hey porsche” will get you the artists/album you’d like to listen to - but it’s no excuse for poorly designed software.

however I belive it’s a trend - less GUI more voice is the future…

but yeah Porsche UI is an oxi-moron just like Tesla Track car.

 

[evanevery]

I’m finding the voice controls to work better for long lists of items - either “hey siri” or “hey porsche” will get you the artists/album you’d like to listen to - but it’s no excuse for poorly designed software.

however I belive it’s a trend - less GUI more voice is the future…

but yeah Porsche UI is an oxi-moron just like Tesla Track car.

Yeah, but once again, you can't BROWSE by voice...

I can SEARCH by text or voice but I can't scroll through my artists/albums and see if something peaks my interest. Most times I just like to puruse my collection and pick something I might never have heard for a while (and wouldn't even have thought to search for). ...and, of course, passengers will want to BROWSE the collection as they have no idea what's there.

 

[snstevens]

Hey guys! I don’t want to sound retro, but I think this is an instance where the simple solution was abandoned because someone on the design team said that Homelink control had to be done via the screen UI.

There is plenty of unused space on the bottom of the rearview mirror for 3 buttons to control Homelink. It would be so easy that it is almost astonishing that it was not done. Imagine trying to turn on a turn signal via the UI and you’ll get my point.

Porsche Management - Do me a favor and fire the guy who thought it was a good idea to eliminate a standard interface used by literally every car on the road for something that doesn’t work. Thanks...

 

[svp6]

Hey guys! I don’t want to sound retro, but I think this is an instance where the simple solution was abandoned because someone on the design team said that Homelink control had to be done via the screen UI.

There is plenty of unused space on the bottom of the rearview mirror for 3 buttons to control Homelink. It would be so easy that it is almost astonishing that it was not done. Imagine trying to turn on a turn signal via the UI and you’ll get my point.

Porsche Management - Do me a favor and fire the guy who thought it was a good idea to eliminate a standard interface used by literally every car on the road for something that doesn’t work. Thanks...

How about do what Tesla does and enable geo-located garage door activation..... Or to the very least allow to assign the two buttons (screen and wheel) to different garage doors. I had to decide whether to keep both garage doors in homelink (but then deal with the hide-and-seek homelink and parking assist play everytime) or delete one button so this is now activating the garage door directly. UI has to improve, but I really do not hold my breath that it will. In the 4 months I had the car, the only update was the WLG2 campaign, and that had 0 changes in user interface. My wife's model 3 had about 4 updates....

 

[evanevery]

Hey guys! I don’t want to sound retro, but I think this is an instance where the simple solution was abandoned because someone on the design team said that Homelink control had to be done via the screen UI.

There is plenty of unused space on the bottom of the rearview mirror for 3 buttons to control Homelink. It would be so easy that it is almost astonishing that it was not done. Imagine trying to turn on a turn signal via the UI and you’ll get my point.

Porsche Management - Do me a favor and fire the guy who thought it was a good idea to eliminate a standard interface used by literally every car on the road for something that doesn’t work. Thanks...

Unlike NOT including a PHYSICAL rotary control for vertical scrolling (instead of swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, etc) - its easy enough to RETROACTIVELY solve this issue with a SOFTWARE UPDATE.

We don't need them to re-engineer, re-manufacture, and replace, the mirror. Just make the Homelink button a small pull down window on the UI (which doesn't cover everything up). (This is exactly the Tesla does this on my Model X)

...or allow us to assign a SINGLE/SPECIFIC Homelink button to one of the User Definable Buttons. (...although this would "burn" one of those buttons - but I'ld take it!)

 

[Pozuelo]

Range is actually my only real complaint with Homelink. Do you have Thermally & Noise insulated glass? I had to extend the Liftmaster anntena to outside the garage for a good signal. None of my other vehicles have range issues including the 911

One small detail is important when programming any Homelink remote, whether on a car or copying the remote to another. THE REMOTE YOU ARE COPYING FROM, MUST HAVE FRESH BATTERIES !!! if the battery is not new, the range is decreased or may not work at all. This is because the frequencies vary slightly under voltage changes. This was explained to me by the European Homelink engineering department many years ago when I had problems with my first Homelink equipped Mercedes back in 1996 ! I have found that this advice has helped many people over the years that complained about range, including various head mechanics at different dealers ! I suggest you retry with fresh batteries. You can try an experiment: program a second memory for the same door with a fresh battery and test range for both.

 

[TomP]

One small detail is important when programming any Homelink remote, whether on a car or copying the remote to another. THE REMOTE YOU ARE COPYING FROM, MUST HAVE FRESH BATTERIES !!! if the battery is not new, the range is decreased or may not work at all. This is because the frequencies vary slightly under voltage changes. This was explained to me by the European Homelink engineering department many years ago when I had problems with my first Homelink equipped Mercedes back in 1996 ! I have found that this advice has helped many people over the years that complained about range, including various head mechanics at different dealers ! I suggest you retry with fresh batteries. You can try an experiment: program a second memory for the same door with a fresh battery and test range for both.

Thanks for the suggestion.
Fresh battery definitely helped increase the range

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