Porsche Connect - is it down?

[Bobby]

Yesterday, I have picked up my new Taycan 4S (its beautiful) but the dealer couldn't connect to Porsche Connect. They said it is down and to retry today. Its still not working. Am I missing something?

Thanks

Sponsored

 

[W1NGE]

It’s not down but generally unreliable at the best of times - cell connection (quality of signal) dependent. Have you tried My Porsche website (another path to your car for access)?

 

[Bobby]

It’s not down but generally unreliable at the best of times - cell connection (quality of signal) dependent. Have you tried My Porsche website (another path to your car for access)?

Thanks - I have been onto MyPorsche but since the car is not connecting - the MyPorsche site keeps telling me to login from the car.

 

[W1NGE]

Is privacy mode disabled on the PCM - it must be for remote access otherwise no contact with the car can be made?

 

[DerekS]

I think it's down. This morning I was suddenly unable to log into anything but the guest profile - my main profile was greyed out.

The app and website haven't been able to talk to the car all day either.

I tried multiple PCM reboots, no improvement. Someone broke something, methinks.

 

[Bobby]

Is privacy mode disabled on the PCM - it must be for remote access otherwise no contact with the car can be made?

Yes it is disabled.

 

[W1NGE]

You could be suffering from an OTA module failure (several folk on the forum have experienced this). If you can't login via the PCM with your Porsche ID or generally lose contact then that could be related symptoms. Typically the module is replaced and all is well after that. Why it fails is anybody's guess - it shouldn't happen!

Mine's been fine all weekend except when I wanted to pre-heat the cabin before leaving for a drive - in my case this is because of weak cell connection and when the car is idle I think it goes into a deeper sleep and takes longer to wake up before the app times out. That said there could have been maintenance over the weekend which knocked various things out of kilter - hard to tell. In true IT support fashion changes are made and rolled out without notifying the customers!

Hopefully you get a better explanation and solution than offered here.

 

[Bobby]

You could be suffering from an OTA module failure (several folk on the forum have experienced this). If you can't login via the PCM with your Porsche ID or generally lose contact then that could be related symptoms. Typically the module is replaced and all is well after that. Why it fails is anybody's guess - it shouldn't happen!

Mine's been fine all weekend except when I wanted to pre-heat the cabin before leaving for a drive - in my case this is because of weak cell connection and when the car is idle I think it goes into a deeper sleep and takes longer to wake up before the app times out. That said there could have been maintenance over the weekend which knocked various things out of kilter - hard to tell. In true IT support fashion changes are made and rolled out without notifying the customers!

Hopefully you get a better explanation and solution than offered here.

Thank you - I will follow up with my OPC and keep the chat updated

 

[tigerbalm]

The PCM software team should just admit temporary failure on getting its "wake up" logic right – and put a "connect now" button in the devices screen. Every owner that parks underground nightly (me) or lives in a weak cell signal area has experienced it.

Porsche, put a "connect now" button in while you continue to tweak (or ignore) the wake up logic issues. Its better than the current solutions which is to park the car in a strong cell signal area, lock the car and walk away for 40 mins in the hope it will "reboot/reconnect" when you re-open the car.

 

[qwick69]

I constantly have problems with this. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. It is the worse remote app I have ever encountered.
I rejected my first Taycan due to a number of "technical" failures and received a brand new replacement car. Most of the issues were resolved with the new car, apart from the connectivity with the app.
For me, it really does spoil the enjoyment of the car, as I use the pre heat/cool all the time. I had a Panamera Turbo before the Taycon, and the connectivity worked perfectly on that car.
I will live with it for the next 18 months, then the car will be changed with something else that is more reliable.

 

[tigerbalm]

While the remote app is a "victim" of the connectivity issues, it isn't the only thing that stops working when the car refuses to re-connect to a cell signal.

For me, the most serious is that the PVTS+ tracking service is also impacted. I've confirmed with Vodafone that when the car is having connectivity issues, they cannot see or control the car. A working PVTS+ service is a condition of my insurance – so this aspect of the problem really upsets me.

There is nothing my Porsche Centre can do – as it does not appear to be a hardware issue – but is some sort of failure on the software side. Its impossible to predict when it will occur – for me its less than 10% of the time, but its not 0% either.

The pitch for PVTS+ isn't: "we'll monitor your car most of the time".

 

[W1NGE]

While the remote app is a "victim" of the connectivity issues, it isn't the only thing that stops working when the car refuses to re-connect to a cell signal.

For me, the most serious is that the PVTS+ tracking service is also impacted. I've confirmed with Vodafone that when the car is having connectivity issues, they cannot see or control the car. A working PVTS+ service is a condition of my insurance – so this aspect of the problem really upsets me.

There is nothing my Porsche Centre can do – as it does not appear to be a hardware issue – but is some sort of failure on the software side. Its impossible to predict when it will occur – for me its less than 10% of the time, but its not 0% either.

The pitch for PVTS+ isn't: "we'll monitor your car most of the time".

Hmm, that's a worry plus Vodafone told me the opposite. I had a suspicion that my PVTS+ wasn't working shortly after I picked the car up last November. I had some recall work done in December and as a consequence this triggered the PVTS+ (I deliberately didn't disable it) and I got a call from Vodafone. I asked the chap if he could determine any prior issues and he was able to advise that the unit was offline for two weeks from delivery and precisely when it original came on line, when it went off and when it came back.

Apparently, the PVTS+ unit is entirely separate / independent from the other systems BUT has a dependency on the tracker fob. The fobs must be paired to the Vodafone unit and can sometimes lose this pairing without warning. Mine had this situation and I had to have the pairing exercise completed again - you'd think a 10 min job but no, 3 hours it took whilst I hung around waiting.

Another feature that has hitherto been 100% reliable on other Porsche models and yet a botched implementation on the Taycan!

It would be reassuring to know the exact dependencies as we have been given conflicting information it seems. It would also be good to be able to 'test' to provide some assurance that all is well but there is no way to achieve this other than move the car without your fob and trust that it triggers and Vodafone calls.

 

[tigerbalm]

PVTS+ is its own unit but it has a dependency on the OTA/esim/GSM module of the car. PVTS+ is closer to being a software docker image on this car than more traditional Porsche's. Though maybe with PCM 6 being in new 91's, Panamera's they may have changed.

Before PCM 6/Taycan, the PVTS+ unit was totally isolated with its own SIM/eSIM and GSM module – but this no longer appears to be the case. There is a dependency there that the older tech did not have.

Of course this approach saves on a SIM connection and duplication – and I'd have gone that way myself had I been an engineer on this product – but I would not have expected the re-connecting issue to be so serious. The consolidation effort falls apart if the network connectivity is unreliable.

 

[tigerbalm]

It would also be good to be able to 'test' to provide some assurance that all is well but there is no way to achieve this other than move the car without your fob and trust that it triggers and Vodafone calls.

I have rang Vodafone when car has no connectivity but when I am driving it with fobs, asking them if they can "see/ping" the car and they say that they cannot and the car isn't responding to their commands.

 

[DerekS]

This morning I was pleased to discover the app/web talking to the car again. When I got in, the car was back on my Derek profile, and everything performed as it should.

I was sad to note that I lost my trip data for 11/14 while it was down though.

Sponsored