Software updates - why is Porsche so far behind.......?

[petejigsaw]

I had to book my month old Macan in for the WSJ0 software update. It was done yesterday and took, wait for it, over 6 hours!!!!!!

How on earth is a company of Porsche's supposed expertise and brand value so far behind other companies? Porsche don't even offer simple OTA updates, yet my last 3 BMWs all had regular (3-6 monthly) OTA updates that were downloaded to my phone in a few minutes then transferred to the car, and took at most 20-30 minutes to complete once I parked up at the end of the day.

What's worse is that one of the main 'benefits' of the update was 'optimised display and warning concept' to reduce white warning messages, yet on the 50 mile drive home after spending all day at the dealership, I had 4 such warnings that were all eroneous........ And the boot shelf still rattles, as does the passenger seatbelt.

And before Porsche acolytes start slating me for 'not checking this' or 'expecting too much', this is my first Porsche after deciding to give the brand a try after years of looking longingly at them. However, on the evidence of the first 7 months of use, I must say I am far from impressed.........

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[MatC21]

I agree, it is embarrasing.
I absolutely enjoy the car and driving is a pleasure but the update process is abysmal.
I am also coming from BMW and even my almost 6 year old 1 series has a better update process, let alone Apples Car Key from the very start.

I really hope they at least give us some of the updates they released for the MY26.

 

[petejigsaw]

I agree, it is embarrasing.
I absolutely enjoy the car and driving is a pleasure but the update process is abysmal.
I am also coming from BMW and even my almost 6 year old 1 series has a better update process, let alone Apples Car Key from the very start.

I really hope they at least give us some of the updates they released for the MY26.

I'm glad its not just me! I love driving the car, but the tech is so practically steam age by comparison. The lack of PaaK is one of the most glaring omissions of all.

I'm currently seriously considering changing back to BMW and the new iX3, which from reviews appears to be light years ahead in almost every way, save perhaps a small percentage of the driving pleasure. That it beats the Macan hands down head to head is embarrasing, considering fully loaded with every single option it is nearly 25% cheaper and goes a good 6-90 miles further on a charge..........

 

[dbsb3233]

Agreed, frustrating.

Granted, sucking at software and updates is more the norm than the exception for many EVs and manufacturers. But it's like Porsche isn't even trying. I could accept that more if it were a budget brand, but they're just the opposite. If anything, Porsche's are over-priced. It's freaking a $100k car.

 

[Innuendo]

This is all related to the architecture. This is not a SDV and therefore they do not really patch in many cases. They really flash and run a new software on the vehicle, which is related to the very specific configuration on each car. That's also the reason, why some cars, with the same update release, could run into troubles afterwards. Also the CPU/GPU is not comparable to state of the art components.

The industry is more and more adopting a full SDV with central units and standard hardware, where features are just switched on/off based on your subscription. My Tesla took 30 min max. via OTA, for a bigger update. Porsche is not there. Also not with the new Cayenne EV. BMW now coming with the "Neue Klasse".

 

[Cozzer]

My relative had an x1 OTA update and it bricked the car. Had to be towed to a repair centre and a rental car provided to them whilst it was being reflashed.

But still, given the direction the industry is going, they need to invest more into their own software. Imagine if porsche could do software engineering as well as their mechanical stuff, they would be unstoppable!!

 

[MatC21]

Well, to be fair the combustion engine X3 was also light years ahead of the ICE Macan in tech. Tech is not why people are buying a Porsche. And for me, while I like to complain here, what matters is the driving dynamics. And I'm quite sure the Macan will beat the iX3 hands-down. I was never a fan of how the X-series BMW's drove. Software updates are nice but we shouldn't overestimate them as well.

But personally, I said it before, if the iX3 would have been available a year ago when I bought the Macan, I probably would have gotten the iX3. The value proposition is great, especially considering it's a ton cheaper than the Macan here.
Switching is not an option for me, a car is not a smartphone, I don’t mind keeping it for 6-10 years.
I might eye the "Neue Klasse" i3 to replace my 1 series though.

The iX3 is pretty sold out for almost all 2026, BMW is definitely nailing this car.

I understand the comment regarding SDV, but the 1 series isn’t a SDV either. That is not an excuse for the poor update experience

 

[Innuendo]

That's the whole point. I know that the PCM will not work like I'm used to in a Tesla. But still, it's a Porsche. Having annoying bugs is something different, but I hope my upcoming GTS will be stable.

Like my flat 6 981. The PCM more or less decades behind, but who care's? It drives fantastic...

 

[johankUK]

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve got mine booked in for early Jan.

I’ve been tempted to get the cayenne but I’m not so sure anymore to be honest. The climate panel got stuck the other day so I can’t change temperature or turn on or off the heated seats. My car is 5 months old and quality is a joke in my opinion.

 

[TomekGnomek]

And before Porsche acolytes start slating me for 'not checking this' or 'expecting too much', this is my first Porsche after deciding to give the brand a try after years of looking longingly at them. However, on the evidence of the first 7 months of use, I must say I am far from impressed.........

This is the most common impression for first time Porsche buyers, especially in case of EVs - disappointment given brand expectations and price point. In case of ICE cars I would say this is not the case, these platforms are much more refined and it's mostly about driving experience. In case of EVs the software aspect of the car is equally important as driving experience, it's hard to be satisfied with EV when your app lags in showing current SoC and is not reliable in remote control.

On the other hand once you appreciate how these cars drive it's really hard to go back to any other brand due to a number of reasons (go drive a Tesla and you'll se this is a refrigerator on wheels).

So after a while this starts to resemble a toxic/abuse relationship

 

[petejigsaw]

This is the most common impression for first time Porsche buyers, especially in case of EVs - disappointment given brand expectations and price point. In case of ICE cars I would say this is not the case, these platforms are much more refined and it's mostly about driving experience. In case of EVs the software aspect of the car is equally important as driving experience, it's hard to be satisfied with EV when your app lags in showing current SoC and is not reliable in remote control.

On the other hand once you appreciate how these cars drive it's really hard to go back to any other brand due to a number of reasons (go drive a Tesla and you'll se this is a refrigerator on wheels).

So after a while this starts to resemble a toxic/abuse relationship

My previous car, a BMW i4, drove almost as well as the Macan and yet the tech was light years ahead. You're right about a toxic/abuse relationship, and that's sad, as companies need to understand what drives people to choose one vehicle/manufacturer over another.

Interestingly, my colleague at work has an ID7 GTX and has almost identical tech issues to my Macan. Clearly Porsche do tech on the cheap but everything else on the fanciful end of affordable! The sooner they realise that the 'whole package' is what is important to most people (granted some like the driving alone and would put up with a Nokia 1990s style tech interface!), they might start building properly decent EVs.

As it stands, they're driving people like me to look as ghoing back to more reliable 'all encompassing' manufacturers.........which makes me sad as I like the driving experience it gives me.

 

[QuiteBig]

Up until now I have been prepared to give them benefit of the doubt. Like many, this is my first Porsche, and I have also come from BMW. Unfortunately all my bad experiences are adding up, and when reading the above I am starting to think a Neue Klasse would be preferable which makes me very sad having aspired to a Porsche.

The very quick potted history:

I had to email the MD of Porsche UK just to get a test drive (I went in person and then called a dealership and was ignored)

From then on, delivery was great, and I have enjoyed driving the car. There have been too many glitches (windows wouldn’t work once, erroneous error messages, many apparently software related issues such as headlight delay, rattles etc) but I was prepared to overlook them if they got dealt with when I finally got booked in.

Prompted by the letter we have all had in the UK, called to book in. Was offered an appointment in two weeks with a loan A5, I was very happy. Told the work should take a couple of days. All good.

Basically the service has been shoddy. Cancelled bookings (the first one due to the loaner not coming back, not their fault, but comms was poor), then re-booked but nearly cancelled by them due to a lack of communication on their side.

The car went in on Monday for the 2 days of work. I can see it was in the workshop on Tuesday, but as far as I can see on the app it hasn’t moved from the car park since yesterday morning. I asked when I would have it back this afternoon (all on WhatsApp), to be told (without so much as any form of apology) “oh, it won’t be until next week”. I immediately called to speak to the person who I was told is the main man, was told he would call back. That was over 2 hours ago. They never call back. This is going sour, fast.

I won’t be using this service-only place again, and will try one that is further away next time, but that is where I couldn’t get a test-drive, so running out of options.

 

[TomekGnomek]

I get what you are coming from but I think you are missing a much bigger point.

You don't go to premium brands for latest tech. Look at Apple - there are other brands that are far ahead in terms of tech, parameters, battery, camera. You should also accept Porsche is not the brand if this is what you are looking for.

You go to premium brands for refinement. It's not the latest and brightest but what you get should be of better build quality, sophistication, durability, design, residual value, reliability, thoughtful user experience and personalised customer care. These things should be timeless, have a much longer use span and hence don't have to be cutting edge. All this is why people buy Apple products, not the biggest battery or fastest charging speeds. This is why people buy Porsche products.

This brings us to the bigger (and tragic) point - Porsche fails to deliver on the refinement front. EVs are not reliable, early customers are in fact beta testers, a lot of features are not the result of careful design and years of testing, everything seems rushed to the market and customer care is substandard. And all this if you are lucky and don't get a lemon...

 

[daveo4EV]

Software updates - why is Porsche so far behind.......?

because it's not a priority and the entire industry supply chain is _NOT_ architected to support such a thing - Tesla/Rivian/Chinese all had to reengineer their supply chains from scratch in order to accomplish this and hire hordes of software engineers … initial all the industry players laughed into Tesla's face about not using the existing supply chain … and now we're here.

simple answer: it's not what Porsche does or values - they are a superior mechanical engineering company…digital is alien to them - it's been a hard road and it's going to continue.

Just _ONE_ example of the challenges from the legacy supply chain:

Software is considered Intellectual Property (IP) - to modify it you have to own the rights to "said IP" - when you buy a brake controller from say Bosch - you as the client do NOT own the software IP embedded in that Brake Controller - Bosch owns the IP - so Porsche does NOT own >90% of the software running their vehicle's - nor has IP rights to modify it - they have to negotiate/beg/trick their supply chain partners into providing an update - many times on a product that was not designed to be updated after it was manufactured and having the update done in the field - not only is this difficult and time consuming - you have to really really really _WANT_ to do and push hard to make it happen - it's just easier to leave it alone - cause it really really hard/expensive to deploy the update - and it's certainly not quick.

you can't update software if you do not own the IP of the component you're updating…now multiple this problem by 100's/1000's of components that go into assembly for a modern vehicle - and you might begin to understand the problem - add in a lack of skill set/staff - or a mandate to do so and you have a difficult problem…unless you start from scratch…

VW tried that - it was called CARID - it didn't go so well - https://www.macanevowners.com/forum/threads/software-maybe-there-is-a-reason-the-macan-software-is-so-glitchy….23305/ - and they eventually sunk billions into partnering with Rivian… https://rivianvw.tech/ https://insideevs.com/news/778750/rivian-volkswagen-joint-venture-strong-progress-evs/.

this video will also help…

https://www.thedrive.com/news/ford-...-automakers-take-forever-to-issue-ota-updates

 

[TomekGnomek]

they are a superior mechanical engineering company

All I can think when reading this is the passengers seat belt issue and the "superior german engineering" solution to this problem

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