Taycan set for range-enhancing software update
Own a Porsche Taycan? Then good news, there are improved features and functionality coming your way - for free
This isn’t news. Well, not for Tesla owners. Free, over-the-air-updates are as normal as buttered toast to Tesla drivers. They’re used to any day being like Christmas Day – while their Tesla Model ‘Something’ is sitting in the garage at night, a virtual stocking may have appeared and the next morning the car will be better – a new toy or a bug fix, or both. And all for free.
This is news to Porsche Taycan owners, though. There’s a new, free update available for all the 75,000 Taycans that have been delivered worldwide since 2019. Only it’s not coming over-the-air, sadly. You’ll have to visit your local dealer to have your Taycan infused with ‘uPdate’ goodness, which is what Porsche is calling it. The age of your car will determine how much updating it’ll need – the oldest cars will see the most benefit – but bank on leaving your car at the dealer for a day. In part, this because the update is so huge it needs to be done manually and also because Porsche wants to check each car is performing as it should before handing it back to you. The other factor is some of the Taycan’s modules cannot auto update at the moment. One of the items on the list of fixes will address this, though. uPdate will switch on more modules to over-the-air updating from here on in.
Another part of the update will decrease charging times and increase the battery range – by up to 31 miles depending on the model. As standard, the Taycan comes with an 11kW AC on-board charger, but recently a 22kW AC charger became optional on new cars. This can now be retrofitted to older cars (for a cost), and uPdate synchs in with this and enables a Plug and Charge function. Plug and Charge does away with payment cards or apps. Instead, as you can probably guess, just plug in and the car establishes an encrypted communication with a compatible charger. Your bank account is debited automatically.
Of course, the Taycan can charge a lot quicker than 22kW on a DC charger – up to 270kW. That’s still its peak, but the charging rate varies enormously depending on factors such as the battery’s current state of charge and temperature. This update will extend the maximum charging speed window when the battery is nearer full, and also keep it higher over a wider temperature range. After the update, the ideal charging temperature for the Taycan will drop from 35 degrees C to 28 before de-rating occurs. It also uses more waste heat from the electrical components to maintain the ideal battery temperature, increasing the charging efficiency.
Another efficiency gain comes from improved battery regeneration on the move and the ability to de-couple the front axle. Obviously, the latter is only applicable to the AWD Taycan’s, and it’s an electrical de-coupling, done in the inverter, rather than a full mechanical disconnect. Because the armature is still turning there are still some losses as a result of the electromagnetic field it produces, but overall there’s a net benefit.
Right, what about new toys? Yes, there are some of those, too. The uPdate switches on Android Auto, so both Apple and Google devices can now be mirrored wirelessly onto the infotainment screen. There’s also Spotify available as an app, and there are enhanced graphics for the infotainment, with coloured icons added, along with usability improvements – including optimising the voice control. You can also select charging stops based on charging speed through the navigation system. For example, you can select chargers that are at least 200kW. The navigation system also shows you the latest charging stations, including the recently opened Tesla Superchargers. If you struggle with parking then the Park Assist has been improved. The sensors it uses to locate parking spots have a greater range and will be less picky – they’ll agree to attempt docking in even tighter spaces. Finally, there are features that can now be unlocked post purchase. Among them is keyless entry, although, just as it will with a new car, Porsche will charge you to add it.
“This campaign will allow all customers to benefit from the continuous further development of the Taycan. We have extensively optimised the model series in almost every respect since 2019,” says Kevin Giek, Vice President Model Line Taycan. “New functions have been added and others have been revised or tweaked to further enhance the customer experience. Following this update, anyone driving a Taycan from early in the car’s production run will be pleasantly surprised by how much has developed on the vehicle side since then.”
Worth noting that the real reason for the recal is pretty much guaranteed to not be actually anything mentioned. They will have found something that needs fixing but without over-the-air updates, have used the recal to fix the fix, but also to wrap it up in something the owner might find useful so as to disguise the true fix and so as to avoid the bad press from a "recall". The fact some critical module didn't have OTA updates originally is however rather significant, suggesting the model was rushed out the door originally....
For the second hand buyer I suspect aftermarket solutions will be available and likely a court case will happen to determine who owns the tech in a car. If you have paid for the car, the tech is yours and if you want Bill Blogs chips to unlock it that is your prerogative will be the argument, so the OEM may find themselves forced to open the code.
Equally for the new market, yes you may not choose for heated steering to be enabled and ask for it later. But as we see cars perhaps become more homogenised, it will be these features offered as standard that shift metal (plastic?) and soon the features do creep through the auto world.
When I was a kid you bought a Merc S-class and it didn't feature a standard radio, now you buy a Kia and it parks itself. Automakers who overly restrict tech may find themselves swiftly overtaken. The game changer is the end of performance as a differentiator, auto speed limiting etc means it is tech and body shell rather than handling and power that will differentiate cars, so I guess it will have to be standard to offer the differentiation?
One interesting feature - it is now clearly so cheap to add all the tech at build to simplify manufacturing and is therefore the lower cost option, amazing pace, first noticed that when manual window windows on a range became more expensive than electric to manufacture so were deleted and went all electric but it's clearly moved on a long way!.
Worth noting that the real reason for the recal is pretty much guaranteed to not be actually anything mentioned. They will have found something that needs fixing but without over-the-air updates, have used the recal to fix the fix, but also to wrap it up in something the owner might find useful so as to disguise the true fix and so as to avoid the bad press from a "recall". The fact some critical module didn't have OTA updates originally is however rather significant, suggesting the model was rushed out the door originally....
The main sticking points appear to be bootloader's and backend infrastructure.
Worth noting that the real reason for the recal is pretty much guaranteed to not be actually anything mentioned. They will have found something that needs fixing but without over-the-air updates, have used the recal to fix the fix, but also to wrap it up in something the owner might find useful so as to disguise the true fix and so as to avoid the bad press from a "recall". The fact some critical module didn't have OTA updates originally is however rather significant, suggesting the model was rushed out the door originally....
Tbh, there’s nothing sufficiently exciting in this “uPdate” that would cause us to get the car booked in.
Worth noting that the real reason for the recal is pretty much guaranteed to not be actually anything mentioned. They will have found something that needs fixing but without over-the-air updates, have used the recal to fix the fix, but also to wrap it up in something the owner might find useful so as to disguise the true fix and so as to avoid the bad press from a "recall". The fact some critical module didn't have OTA updates originally is however rather significant, suggesting the model was rushed out the door originally....
Polestar have been doing them since November 2020 for the P2, and most other EV's released in the last two years get OTA updates too.
Polestar have been doing them since November 2020 for the P2, and most other EV's released in the last two years get OTA updates too.
Worth noting that the real reason for the recal is pretty much guaranteed to not be actually anything mentioned. They will have found something that needs fixing but without over-the-air updates, have used the recal to fix the fix, but also to wrap it up in something the owner might find useful so as to disguise the true fix and so as to avoid the bad press from a "recall". The fact some critical module didn't have OTA updates originally is however rather significant, suggesting the model was rushed out the door originally....
And it wouldn't be the first change that was involved enough that older builds needed to plugged in for hours to do - repartitioning the main eMMC (to give more space for temporary update data funnily enough) was what nobbled someone else's easy shift between old and new standards as the regular onboard software updater couldn't do that and it needed to be done as a full forced reload.
Biggest motivation behind this seems to be the scope to upsell upgrades and features on the cars that have already gone out the door.
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