Wilson Laidlaw

I bought two key wallets from Amazon - useless. The key still unlocked the door while in the wallet, so a thief would be able to pick up the signal as well. When in the house, both my keys sit in a small tin, which will act as a Faraday cage and block the signal. Even if they have the key code, they still will not have the driver card, so the tracker company will be altered as soon as the vehicle moves.

Wilson

cometguy

OK, at 2500 miles on the odometer, I got my first software error message, on the main instrument digital circular dial immediately to the right of the tachometer:
"ACC/PAS not available ... Service necessary". I wasn't using either ACC or PAS/PID at the time, on that particular drive on an expressway for a 15-mile drive.
It kept sounding a warning sound and would go off and come back on. It also said something like "you can continue to drive the car" or "the car is still driveable" or something like that...
As I've noted previously, this is a horrible system in Porsche, in which a huge warning message appears that blocks out other critical information on the instrument panel -- and a failure in ACC is not in the least critical for driving the car, as long as it doesn't happen when you are using ACC, so it doesn't warrant paralyzing your instrument panel. It's ironic that it says "you can continue driving the car", but then does everything possible to annoy the driver so much that you almost don't WANT to drive the car any more (warning sounds, images, blocking out instrument panel).
I kept fiddling with the ACC control on the lower-left stick, and then all of a sudden the warning stopped and I got my instrument dial back. And, not only that, but ACC then seemed to work ok when I tested it.

Talk about annoying! And I'm planning a long out-of-state drive coming up when I really wanted the ACC. Has anybody else had experiences like this, where an error message comes on and then just disappears as if nothing was wrong?

Regarding navigation: the map and GPS location seems to work very well in my car (often better than on my iPhone, in fact), knock on wood (knowing those of you who've had navigation and GPS problems). That said, I still dislike the map tech (much inferior to Google Maps), even though the roads and GPS seem pretty precise; the traffic-flow colors work only for major expressways, and then not very well (unlike Google Maps, which has great traffic-flow colors for all roads that have any traffic at all on them), and the maps are more crude in that more-major roads tend to be indistinguishable from more-minor roads in terms of thickness of lines representing the roads. Major places that tend to be marked on Google Maps (shopping centers, parks, etc.) generally have no such markings on the Porsche map -- which has caused me to miss exits until I learned that I need to check my Google Maps on iPhone first if I'm not using Navigation to get me somewhere (I'm usually a map reader, not one who likes to have a computer/voice tell me every turn to take, because I often change on the fly according to traffic conditions, and I just don't want to be dependent on something that I don't trust anyway).

ajriches01

Comet - maybe a silly question but do you not use the google maps on your Porsche Nav?

One thing I will say is that Google maps in the Porsche seems more to be an underlay of the terrain, versus using the actual maps and the routing software. So it still uses Porsche traffic, and Porsche maps but just looks prettier.

SaratogaLefty

I have only had one "incident". It happened when I was driving home on the freeway on E Power only. ICE hadn't been on at all for the entire drive. I was in a tight spot and wanted to quickly move lanes and pass and so I pushed the "max power go button" and the ICE fired up instantly and I was moving very quickly. Almost immediately the yellow check engine light came on and stayed on. I pulled off the freeway and shut down the car. Then when I restarted everything was fine again. I believe the check engine yellow light came on because I was on max acceleration the instant the ICE came on and obviously it was cold so I'm thinking that caused the problem.

Regarding the Nav system I have not had any problems at all ever. I use Google Maps and as AJ mentioned it seems to work well showing terrain features and also the traffic conditions on the main roads. I also use the ACC all the time. The only problem I have with it is if you forget it is on and then are passing cars quickly and then move into a slower lane somewhat close to a car in front and forget the Adaptive Cruise is still on, it can be startling cause it sounds the collision alarm and slams on the brakes. Have to remember to disengage when entering a lane close behind another car.

cometguy

Yes, I sometimes use Google Earth as a backdrop to the map, but not always (sometimes it's easier to read maps without the background clutter, though it is cool to see).

I've been testing my ACC a fair bit the last 24 hours in preparation for a longer upcoming trip, and the error/warning has not returned and the ACC has worked fine. I do notice that the ACC seems to be not as smooth as ACC that I've used in Toyota rental cars (an Avalon and a Camry) in recent months, and it seems worse than the Toyota ACC in curves on multi-lane expressways in that it picks up slower cars in adjacent lanes (in curves) more than the Toyota systems do -- meaning that in the Panamera, it's jerking more due to those cars in nearby lanes in a frustrating way.

I just hope that the ACC warning doesn't come on again when I'm on a long road trip; that would be a royal pain.
I wish that Porsche put the cruise-control controls on the steering wheel instead of on that stick in a very-hard-to-see location to the lower left behind the wheel.

cometguy

I'm impressed with the night-vision infrared camera in my car: it will correctly highlight a pedestrian (in a yellow box) who is 50 yards ahead of me on a dark street, when I can't see the person with my eyes directly until I'm only 10 yards away. My main gripe is how Porsche makes the steering wheel wider at 10:30 and 1:30 o'clock, blocking direct view of the left and right sides of the instrument panel; with the infrared view screen, I'm often having to move my head to the left to see the right part of the screen. But I'm very glad that I opted for the night-vision camera, and I'll get it in every future car I buy if possible.

cometguy

My center screen sometimes takes up to a full minute to "boot". Is this common? It's frustrating sometimes waiting to get access to things in the screen... (see photo) ...
Also, my predicted electric range continues to go up, perhaps based on my driving habits while using the electric motor? This morning I woke up to a fully charged car with an estimated range of 32 miles with AC off (with AC on, it read 27 miles). (Wonder if I can get it up to 34, like SaratogaLefty did...)

AJe4Me

cometguy

It has to be displayed in order to show in the infrared screen; I don't think there's an option to have the infrared view show up automatically if the car detects a person or animal.
And I don't know if there's something in InnoDrive that would produce a warning; I've not used that yet, nor am I likely to much (if at all), as I find ACC to be sufficient for my driving. I only use ACC for long trips of hundreds of miles, as I'm a pretty engaged driver (which is why I buy Porsches).

AJe4Me

cometguy

I'm surprised that car manufacturers aren't going all out to make infrared cameras standard, in fact. Porsche is new to the game -- I think this new-gen Panamera is their first foray into infrared cameras. I'm shocked that Volvo, with its high reputation for safety features, doesn't even offer infrared cameras as an option yet.

Pana TJ

Not sure about Porsche in particular, but VW has been in infrared cameras for a few years. I have this feature in my 2012 Audi and it is because of my experience that I definitely specified it in my upcoming Panamera (due in September) From what I have seen so far, it appears that the system in the 2018 Porsche will be far better than the 2012 Audi. Looking forward to seeing it in person. I know that in the Audi, I have to turn the IR on before it will detect moving objects. I drive some dark country roads at night and it has definitely helped me see and avoid deer coming out of the woods.

cometguy

In the Panamera, you use the dial on the right side of the steering wheel to flip through a bunch of different windows for the circular digital window immediately to the right of the tachometer (there's a smaller circular window further to the right that's generally hidden by the steering wheel through poor design). This dial will get you to the map and also to the infrared-camera screen, both of which fill up both of the two circular digital "windows" to the right of the tach. I agree that it would be better to have the infrared screen in the center (more so than the tachometer at night, when the tach isn't so important), but more importantly, as I've stated previously, the other information windows in that right circular window are not available when the infrared screen or map are on, and they should be made available in the left digital windows (the speedometer is a joke and unnecessary -- should only be an optional window, not a permanent window). All you have left in the right screen when you have the infrared screen on are estimated ranges for the gas tank and the electric battery pack; with the map showing, I don't think you even get that much.

skyrider

I have had exactly this same issue. I videoed it and it was about 40 seconds till it finished booting. I have also noticed that some of the tiles in the PCM will take much longer than others to load. Overall I have noticed quite a few bugs in the new PCM.

cometguy

I just got back from my first "long" trip ... about a thousand miles roundtrip. I stayed in Hybrid Auto most of the time (occasionally E-Charge, for maybe a half hour total out of perhaps 15-16 hours of driving, to have enough E-Power for some areas where I wanted to use electric only), and I got 28 mpg overall for the trip (starting with a full electric charge only on the first day, leaving my garage; I stayed at a hotel, so no charging with cord) -- and I drove 75-85 mph on mostly expressways (perhaps 90% expressways; though slower in heavy traffic, of course) and on Adaptive Cruise Control about 90% of the time (which really reduces the fatigue tremendously on 7-hour drives!). One thing that's interesting is that the car's computer seems to adjust for your driving habits, so after a while, the Hybrid Auto kept the batteries charged to about 20% over 4 hours of non-stop driving; on another segment of the trip returning home, it kept the batteries charged at close to 50%. I didn't use Sport or Sport Plus at all. The car has plenty of pep in Hybrid modes -- never lacking; I would never consider getting the Turbo E-Hybrid, even if I could rationalize paying all that money for it.

The ACC worked better than in my tests around home, and I got to using short distances (from the car in front of me) in heavy expressway traffic and long distances when there wasn't much traffic around. When I came to a complete stop in heavy traffic with ACC, I would have to gently touch the gas pedal to get the ACC going again -- no big deal. But if the car got to only 1 or 2 mph (but still moving), the ACC never turned off. Occasionally the ACC picked up a car in the adjacent lane close to the line but not crossing it (and slowed my car down a lot) -- that was annoying, but I guess it could be good for cases where you're not paying attention enough...

I continue to dislike the stalks on the side of the steering wheel. I keep accidentally flicking the upper stalk (turn signal; flashing bright lights, etc.) when I mean to flick the lower stalk for ACC. ACC Resume and Cancel on the lower stalk correlate to the left and right turn signals on the upper stalk, and while it only happened occasionally, on a long trip it happened about 6-8 times that I turned on the turn signal by mistake that way. And I've also flashed my bright lights by mistake by pulling the upper stalk (meaning to pull the lower stalk, which reduces your ACC speed). I'm getting the hang of it after using ACC for many hours, but I still would rather have the cruise-control levers/buttons on the steering wheel, as on my Volvo -- just way more practical and sensible.

I will not be renewing my satellite subscription. There were many times when the Sirius stations faded in and out -- annoying when you're listening to music (or anything) -- and I don't find the selection all that interesting. And again, I find the traffic-flow coloring to be very very inferior that on to Google Maps (doesn't seem to be updated very quickly, and I ran into some horrendous traffic jams that I could have avoided, in which the Porsche map showed green -- but looking at Google Maps on my iPhone, I saw lots of red).

I ordered the 14-way "memory" seats, expecting them to be great. The verdict so far is: ok. I got a backache on the way there (7 hours of driving -- around the 5th hour), and kept playing with the lumbar support without finding a happy setting. I didn't have the same back problem on the return trip, so I think I found a decent compromise. But these seats are not nearly as comfortable as those in my Volvo. The seats in my 2015 Panamera also seemed more comfortable.

After reading several online articles about the key-fob hacking, I've been using heavy-duty aluminum foil to wrap my key immediately after locking the car. I'm assuming that small towns and rural areas probably don't have too much potential for car-stealing with key fobs, but in urban areas and on/near heavily travelled interstate highways (including rest areas, malls, hotels, etc.), I do think about this a lot now. I'm trying to get answers from Porsche as to what they have done (if anything) to try to prevent our cars from being stolen via hacking.

Last night in rural NY state, I was driving about 11 pm and a large female deer ran in front of me on a dark, 2-lane road. She cleared the road with about 5 yards to spare, so not overly close. The odd thing is that I had my infrared camera screen on, and was looking at it quite a bit. But I wasn't looking at it when the deer crossed, and I was too focused on slowing down to look at the infrared screen view... lol.. This was in an area clearly marked with warning signs (Deer: next 5 miles).

I find that my blind spots seem noticeably less in my new Sport Turismo, vs. my old 2015 Panamera. I do think that the passenger-side mirror on my 2015 Panamera turned down more when backing up, to give a better view of the curb, vs. my 2018 Panamera. (I don't have the surround camera -- it didn't impress me.)