Taycan Wifi - can only connect our phones, not our laptops

[Raphie]

Vodafone “inthecar” is plain extortion imho. Crazy last century rates. Just hotspot your iphone. Within the EU the rate is the same being domestic or abroad.

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[W1NGE]

Vodafone “inthecar” is plain extortion imho. Crazy last century rates. Just hotspot your iphone. Within the EU the rate is the same being domestic or abroad.

Hotspot doesn't work for these use cases otherwise we'd all be doing it.

 

[Raphie]

Not sure what you mean? Just let your kids share your iphone connection and they can stream netflix on their ipad? It’s the easiest and most cost efficient way imho.

 

[W1NGE]

Not sure what you mean? Just let your kids share your iphone connection and they can stream netflix on their ipad? It’s the easiest and most cost efficient way imho.

Yeah but folk with PVRSE (rear seat entertainment) can't do that to the screens.

 

[whitex]

So basically Porsche have sold a PRSE that can only run Netflix for 10 hours a month (5hours x2 screens). I am incandescent to put it mildly. What a pathetic amateurish self inflicted f up!

Basically, yes. Video is one of the largest consumers of data. If you want to stream to 4K screens, your plan would run out after ~2hrs. I'm sorry you didn't know that. That is why cellular providers sell plans by the data usage.

As a side note, I think you can setup your iPads to monitor data used if you are interested. You can also lookup streaming rates and do the math. As a rough estimate, HD video will use approximately 0.012GB per minute or 0.72GB per hour. 4K stream is about 5x that, so 3.6GB per hour. Some old SD content can use less, maybe half the HD rate.

It sounds like Porsche should implement an on-screen indicator of how much data you have used, so anyone using it would quickly realize that video is chewing up the allotted data very quickly.

 

[Raphie]

Isn’t the rear seat entertainment is just a wifi hotspot? This means you connect your device as a client? How that device gets content then should not matter? Also downloading the movies at home and watch them in the car should work tethered, no connection needed at all?

 

[Poshfpg]

Isn’t the rear seat entertainment is just a wifi hotspot? This means you connect your device as a client? How that device gets content then should not matter? Also downloading the movies at home and watch them in the car should work tethered, no connection needed at all?

It seems to be an iPad per se with no storage, just a wifi enabled screen. If I wanted to use my phone as the driver/tether then I can't use Carplay.

6 years with the Cayenne PRSE from 2010 and it was great, DVDs, TV reception for sport, crosslink so they could watch stuff in sync etc. Endless hours of quiet children on long trips not bent over looking at an ipad but sitting up straight.

It doesn't seem unreasonable when you buy the PRSE in your new car that it will work out of the box whenever you drive the car as the old one did. If they have changed it to only streaming then it should be able to stream all the time. I don't want the hassle of connecting phones every trip or planning movie downloads in advance, and it really doesn't seem to like tethering phones, just won't pick them up. If it even had Crosslink we could have doubled the length of time as only one screen downloading would be required.

I got it for hassle free child silencing and it has failed miserably at both. I also hate leads and cables around the car as well as kids straining their necks so there are lots of good reasons for me to get it. When you pay that amount for the PRSE and then the supplement for data I think it should work all the time.

 

[Poshfpg]

Basically, yes. Video is one of the largest consumers of data. If you want to stream to 4K screens, your plan would run out after ~2hrs. I'm sorry you didn't know that. That is why cellular providers sell plans by the data usage.

As a side note, I think you can setup your iPads to monitor data used if you are interested. You can also lookup streaming rates and do the math. As a rough estimate, HD video will use approximately 0.012GB per minute or 0.72GB per hour. 4K stream is about 5x that, so 3.6GB per hour. Some old SD content can use less, maybe half the HD rate.

It sounds like Porsche should implement an on-screen indicator of how much data you have used, so anyone using it would quickly realize that video is chewing up the allotted data very quickly.

I'm fully aware that video uses data thanks. I have unlimited data for exactly that reason.

My point is that Porsche shouldn't sell you a PRSE that cannot work because of their errors. If they set it up to stream only then they should provide the necessary data to allow it to work It wouldn't' have taken their engineers very long to realise this if they'd gone for a spin in the back. It's a very easy fix, just allow top up data.

 

[whitex]

I'm fully aware that video uses data thanks. I have unlimited data for exactly that reason.

My point is that Porsche shouldn't sell you a PRSE that cannot work because of their errors. If they set it up to stream only then they should provide the necessary data to allow it to work It wouldn't' have taken their engineers very long to realise this if they'd gone for a spin in the back. It's a very easy fix, just allow top up data.

Engineers who designed the infotainment don't decide on what data plans are sold in what country. No different than Apple engineers who work on iPhones. You could argue how could Apple engineers allow you to stream Netflix on your phone if you only put a SIM car into it with a 5GB data plan, the answer is they don't know what plan choices you have.

It's marketing and product definers who dropped the ball here. I do like your suggested solution of prompting the user to buy additional data allotment. Most plans either cut you off, slow you way down, or charge you overage for the extra bandwidth used. An explicit prompt to buy extra bandwidth sounds a lot more customer friendly. Personally I would also like to see an indicator of how much bandwidth is left and perhaps a warning before reaching the limit. Of course allowing the car to use WiFi as the internet source would be most customer friendly solution, but I suppose that cuts into Porsche revenues.

 

[Poshfpg]

Engineers who designed the infotainment don't decide on what data plans are sold in what country. No different than Apple engineers who work on iPhones. You could argue how could Apple engineers allow you to stream Netflix on your phone if you only put a SIM car into it with a 5GB data plan, the answer is they don't know what plan choices you have.

It's marketing and product definers who dropped the ball here. I do like your suggested solution of prompting the user to buy additional data allotment. Most plans either cut you off, slow you way down, or charge you overage for the extra bandwidth used. An explicit prompt to buy extra bandwidth sounds a lot more customer friendly. Personally I would also like to see an indicator of how much bandwidth is left and perhaps a warning before reaching the limit. Of course allowing the car to use WiFi as the internet source would be most customer friendly solution, but I suppose that cuts into Porsche revenues.

I get the sense data is much more regulated or limited in the US than in Europe. I've certainly been used to unlimited Europe wide data for at least a decade now so I never have to think about it I just use it so this is extremely incongruous and should be a very simple solution. In fact the previous data contracts for the Panamera and Cayenne did allow top ups so this changed for the Taycan.

 

[Raphie]

I fully understand you’re completely underwhelmed.
I got burned once with hotspot expectations in my E class, since then I’ve got no more illusions that they will fix that money milking quota scheme.

It seems to be an iPad per se with no storage, just a wifi enabled screen. If I wanted to use my phone as the driver/tether then I can't use Carplay.

6 years with the Cayenne PRSE from 2010 and it was great, DVDs, TV reception for sport, crosslink so they could watch stuff in sync etc. Endless hours of quiet children on long trips not bent over looking at an ipad but sitting up straight.

It doesn't seem unreasonable when you buy the PRSE in your new car that it will work out of the box whenever you drive the car as the old one did. If they have changed it to only streaming then it should be able to stream all the time. I don't want the hassle of connecting phones every trip or planning movie downloads in advance, and it really doesn't seem to like tethering phones, just won't pick them up. If it even had Crosslink we could have doubled the length of time as only one screen downloading would be required.

I got it for hassle free child silencing and it has failed miserably at both. I also hate leads and cables around the car as well as kids straining their necks so there are lots of good reasons for me to get it. When you pay that amount for the PRSE and then the supplement for data I think it should work all the time.

 

[whitex]

I get the sense data is much more regulated or limited in the US than in Europe. I've certainly been used to unlimited Europe wide data for at least a decade now so I never have to think about it I just use it so this is extremely incongruous and should be a very simple solution.

It depends on what plan you buy in the USA. Pre-paid plans have hard limits. A lot of people on monthly plans have "unlimited" plans though. They are kind-of unlimited, for example my plan will slow me down to 3G speeds after 50GB of phone usage in a month or 25GB of tethering (hot spot) usage - they are metered and throttled independently. My Teslas all have had unlimited plans, and free too since they are older (youngest is 4 years old) since before Model 3/Y flood data plans were included in the purchase price of the car, as was lifetime DC charging. I might miss not having to pay monthly for car connectivity and unlimited free DC charging with the Taycan, not enough to not switch though.

In fact the previous data contracts for the Panamera and Cayenne did allow top ups so this changed for the Taycan.

That sounds like a bad decision on Porsche's end. Not only is it inconveniencing customers, but it actually limits their own revenue. They obviously already know how to do this and have infrastructure to handle it.

The other bad decision IMO on Porsche's end is not metering car connectivity separately from entertainment system usage, so even if you run your data allocation down to 0 with streaming, navigation, app access, and other car connectivity should still continue to work. Essentially they should have had a separate data plan for WiFi usage (kind of like tethering is metered/ throttled/limited separately on the cell phones in the US).

 

[Poshfpg]

I know a little bit about this as a friend is the CTO of the company. In Europe, Porsche is using an Irish company called Cubic Telecom (https://www.cubictelecom.com/) for connectivity. Which is a SIM that has favourable roaming agreements across Europe.

Cubic SIM's tend to connect to the "major" (usually former state telco) mobile operator in each country. So Vodafone in UK and Ireland, SFR in France, etc.

This way they don't have to do SIM deals with each country they sell cars in.

Just had an email back from Smart Mobility in the UK suggesting I ask my OPC if they can swap out the Porsche hotspot for my own SIM/eSim to solve the issue. As many on here have more knowledge than Porsche do we think that's feasible? Would be great if it was.

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