[Skyrider]

Hi,

I have recently returned from a 'Porsche Experience' day at Silverstone, which was thoroughly enjoyable & educational. One of the discussion items got me scratching my head, though:

Apparently, the 'Normal' & 'Sport' modes have artificial intelligence & will modify their behaviour according to your driving habits. It was recommended that I use 'Normal' mode in town, rather than my preference for 'Sport' mode at all times, as the result could eventually be some reduction in response in 'Sport' mode. I have never heard of this before & wonder if anyone has any further information about this, please?

 

[DriveInHouston]

I think the Sport AI is a quick learner! If you take it to a track, or a canyon road and floor it and then hit the brakes hard a couple of times, you'll hear it saying 'yeaah baby, let's go!' and it's as responsive as it gets!

 

[Skyrider]

So the AI really exists?

Is it also a feature of 'Normal' mode?

 

[DriveInHouston]

I wouldn’t go as far as calling it AI, but definitely an adaptive algorithm which takes into account how you have been driving recently to adapt more aggressive behavior.

As far as Normal mode is concerned, I wouldn’t know, I only use it on the freeways on long trips, in conjunction with normal cruise control...

 

[Skyrider]

Interesting, thank you for your input.

Safe driving...

 

[jimmuller]

My salesman descibed it as the PDK learns how you drive.

I've also heard that I need artificial intelligence because my real stuff wasn't good enough.

 

[Skyrider]

Ah, but artificial intelligence will never beat real stupidity!

I think I need to re-educate my car, I've probably been too nice to it.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[jimmuller]

What nobody ever said was how long it remembers anything from previous drives.

 

[Skyrider]

Good point, I was wondering how long it would take to re-program it...

 

[DriveInHouston]

My take is a few minutes, say 15. Certainly not days...

 

[Skyrider]

Good to know, I was hoping it would be sooner rather than later.

There seems to be surprisingly little info available from the Porsche dealers & documentation.

 

[duegatti]

I'm not qualified to comment on this, because I drive in manual almost exclusively.

I don't believe it.

 

[Skyrider]

Fair enough. It would be good to see some hard evidence in support of this (e.g. some Porsche documentation) or a firm denial from Porsche...

 

[roundtail]

My salesman descibed it as the PDK learns how you drive.

I've also heard that I need artificial intelligence because my real stuff wasn't good enough.

Safe to say then that this is a PDK thing? I’d hate to have to reprogram my own reflexive switchology behavior at start up in my 6M.

 

[JazzCatGab]

Safe to say then that this is a PDK thing? I’d hate to have to reprogram my own reflexive switchology behavior at start up in my 6M.

I don't think it matters. It does adjust suspension and throttle response based on how you are driving it. Before my first DE, I was talking to a dealership mechanic doing my pre-track tech and asked him if I should change my PSM to Sport mode when I change my setup to Sport+. He said it doesn't matter. When the car is driven in track performance conditions, it won't exactly turn the PSM off, but it will automatically go into Sport mode if it senses constant high performance use. I thought this might be a little wacky until I had an opportunity to ride with a Porsche professional driver during the DE weekend. In a long sweeper, he put the car sideways in a drift about half way around the sweeper, and then when he was perfectly aligned with the straight, made the car rocket down the straight. I looked down at the center console and he hadn't done anything to the PSM (the light was still out) and I confirmed this with him. My manual car allowed me to drift gently sideways off the track when I went around a hairpin way too fast. As soon as I was in the grass, I straightened my wheel and was able to drive parrallel with the track until cars passed and I could reenter.

 

[roundtail]

I don't think it matters. It does adjust suspension and throttle response based on how you are driving it. Before my first DE, I was talking to a dealership mechanic doing my pre-track tech and asked him if I should change my PSM to Sport mode when I change my setup to Sport+. He said it doesn't matter. When the car is driven in track performance conditions, it won't exactly turn the PSM off, but it will automatically go into Sport mode if it senses constant high performance use. I thought this might be a little wacky until I had an opportunity to ride with a Porsche professional driver during the DE weekend. In a long sweeper, he put the car sideways in a drift about half way around the sweeper, and then when he was perfectly aligned with the straight, made the car rocket down the straight. I looked down at the center console and he hadn't done anything to the PSM (the light was still out) and I confirmed this with him. My manual car allowed me to drift gently sideways off the track when I went around a hairpin way too fast. As soon as I was in the grass, I straightened my wheel and was able to drive parrallel with the track until cars passed and I could reenter.

I don't have any of the enhancement products, so do you think that it still mentors the throttle and steering behavior, even if that's all there is?

 

[duegatti]

I don't think it matters. It does adjust suspension and throttle response based on how you are driving it. Before my first DE, I was talking to a dealership mechanic doing my pre-track tech and asked him if I should change my PSM to Sport mode when I change my setup to Sport+. He said it doesn't matter. When the car is driven in track performance conditions, it won't exactly turn the PSM off, but it will automatically go into Sport mode if it senses constant high performance use. I thought this might be a little wacky until I had an opportunity to ride with a Porsche professional driver during the DE weekend. In a long sweeper, he put the car sideways in a drift about half way around the sweeper, and then when he was perfectly aligned with the straight, made the car rocket down the straight. I looked down at the center console and he hadn't done anything to the PSM (the light was still out) and I confirmed this with him. My manual car allowed me to drift gently sideways off the track when I went around a hairpin way too fast. As soon as I was in the grass, I straightened my wheel and was able to drive parrallel with the track until cars passed and I could reenter.

So - are you suggesting with PSM full on that the car would not break loose (i.e., "drift")? I'm still not convinced of, or just not getting, the logic.

 

[JazzCatGab]

I don't have any of the enhancement products, so do you think that it still mentors the throttle and steering behavior, even if that's all there is?

I'm thinking it does, however, PASM would have a greater range of options for it, and the same for SC.

So - are you suggesting with PSM full on that the car would not break loose (i.e., "drift")? I'm still not convinced of, or just not getting, the logic.

I'm saying that it doesn't matter how you have PSM set (on, sport, or off) that the car will let you drift if all its prior inputs indicate you are driving in an extremely high performance way, as you would on a track. That said, would it react quicker in some way if it were already set to Sport PSM (or off)? I don't know. I'm thinking that PSM would not have let me drift off the road if I did something stupid in a corner where I was driving normally. I happen to have had a "stupid corner" experience Friday afternoon on a PCA run where I misjudged the negative camber on a hard turn on a country back road. It was a similar "oh sh--" moment I had during an HPDE. My video of the run made the corner look like a well-executed but hard turn. However, in a hairpin turn on a track where I was driving aggressively, it did allow me to drift off the track.

 

[roundtail]

What’s the point of these learning modules anyway? I don’t get it. As far as I know from my ? forty-five years of driving, conditions dictate how one drives, and the vehicle is manipulated by the central processor between the ears accordingly. There is nothing repetitive to the point that the car can learn it for you.

My 2016 Tacoma’s ECT has a learning module. I’ve had the ECT reflashed a couple of times due to some issues with programming, and the “fresh” module performs way better than after it has about 5k miles on it, where it has supposedly “learned” how I drive and begins to frustrate me all over again with preposterously premature upshifts.

I am here to tell you, I do not drive the way my Tacoma ECT brain thinks I do, and the transmission does not behave to the benefit of the vehicle - it merely seeks to be as close to idle as possible...whether under load or not.

There are essentially only two ways anyone drives something: 1) the times you drive when you can do what you want and, 2) everything else, where a mitigating factor dictates otherwise. Where I live, number 1 is in the unfortunate and very small minority. So the learning module isn’t really “learning” how I drive, it’s learning how everyone else does. And therein may lie the plot .

 

[GTS18BGTS]

MT