I've got a 2014 Base Boxster that I've had for 3 months and about 4,000 miles. Most of my driving is in the city or on freeways, so the car is usually shifting up early into high gears. This weekend, I came down to SoCal and took Rt 33.

America's Greatest Driving Road Is A Giant Secret

I had a hard time keeping the car in the powerband while the PDK was in auto. I think it's adapted too well. As a consequence, I was manually shifting, which is fine, but I was learning a new road and ideally the PDK would have shifted at higher revs and allowed me to concentrate better.

Is there a way to train the PDK for two styles if driving? How much does the PDK actually "learn"?

Thanks

Larry

Sport or Sport Plus mode

 

No Sport plus, but I did have it in Sport.

 

Just do it manually, then you don't have to worry about it doing the wrong thing.

 

actually, as I understand it, just keep driving it and it will "learn" your new driving style ....

 

The problem is that 90 percent of my driving is low intensity and it's learned that style. For the 10 percent of driving that's high intensity, I want the PDK to hold the gears longer. I guess I just have to shift manually.

 

I don't believe the PDK 'learns' at all.It performs the way Porsche wants it to perform!-Richard

 

Can someone point me to Porsche literature that says a PDK equipped car "learns" your driving style? I'm not saying that the literature doesn't exist. I'm saying that I can't find it.

The drivers manual does hint that a PDK equipped car adapts or reacts to your driving style and that is totally different from learning. Read the extract from page 158 below -

D - Automatic Selection Mode The gears are selected automatically according to accelerator position and speed. Depending on the way the vehicle is driven (economical, comfortable, or sporty driving style) and on the resistance (e.g. going uphill), the gear-changing points are shifted towards higher or lower engine-speed ranges.
The accelerator position, driving speed, engine speed, longitudinal and lateral acceleration and the road profile all have an influence on the gear-changing characteristic.
Unwanted upshifts, e.g. when entering bends, are prevented by swiftly releasing the accelerator pedal.
With a sporty driving style, downshifts are already initiated when the brake pedal is touched lightly.

Everything that I read hints at adapting.

There is much more to read in the manual - the above paragraphs don't even get into Sport and Sport Plus - but nowhere that I can see does the manual say anything about "learning".

The bottom line is that if you want your PDK equipped car to behave in a more sporty manner step on the accelerator. :burnout:

 

I am sure it does adapt. I have had my PDK's memory wiped and it became docile. In non-sport mode, start on freeway on-ramp and floor it a few times. Make sure the throttle is depressed all the way to engage the 'give me a bit more!' mode. You will see after 10 times the car wants to hold gears a lot longer with half throttle or more. However, it takes a lot of driving before it adapts away from the sporty shifting mode.

 

I agree pdk wants to shift up much too soon, even in sport. I've been a lot happier since I got in the habit of going to paddle shifting as soon as my belt is on and the top is down!

 

"The bottom line is that if you want your PDK equipped car to behave in a more sporty manner step on the accelerator. "

I also need to learn to release the gas pedal more quickly.


That and the suggestion to floor 10 times and see what happens is also useful. Sorry, I don't know how to do multiple quotes.

 

"The bottom line is that if you want your PDK equipped car to behave in a more sporty manner step on the accelerator. "I also need to learn to release the gas pedal more quickly. That and the suggestion to floor 10 times and see what happens is also useful. Sorry, I don't know how to do multiple quotes.

Just type

and [SlashQuote] as many times as you want. Replace "Slash" with / and add whatever text you want within those two boxes.Also, ECU/TCU adapting based on your driving style is not new. Like others said, either you drive long enough or use the paddles. Or you get a manual transmission and shift the way you want it.

 

If you have the voice command option, what you need to do is put in it auto, shift with the stick or buttons, and shout Achtung! on every shift. If it upshifts too soon, say Nein!

 

I was a dumkoff and did not get the voice command because I didn't think it was performance related. Besides, I have enough trouble with Siri.

 

In my experience, PDK in Sport mode learns pretty quickly after one or two full-throttle passes. There's no noticeable long-term lag.

 

To me, it seems there is short term learning logic as well. If you start driving more spirited, it will pick up on that and continue.Personally, I find the best solution is to shift manually. Of course, it's not rocket science with only 1-3 gears useful to maintain legal speeds. On low mph mountain twisty roads, you are in gear 1 and 2 100% of the time...maybe gear 3 if you are feeling frugal on gasoline.I seriously hate the tall "for race track" gearing on this car honestly. You have 7 gears, but only 1/2 are for accelerating and 6/7 are for cruising 40-75 mph.

 

I should have been more specific.
The PDK will change short term(about 6 sec by my count) depending on your throttle and G sensor input.
That cute little display in TFT is not there just for your visual enjoyment but is really just a visual use of the information from G sensors measuring acceleration in the horizontal plane. Go around a corner and the PDK may decide to hold the gear rather than upshift. Floor the pedal, the PDK downshifts and I believe selects Sport Plus Mode but if no further input after 6 sec, reverts to the previous Mode.
So I don't think the PDK 'learns ' anything but changes Mode on a short term basis depending on your driving.-Richard
BTW, the PDK gearing is not meant for 'street racing' but there is a 'Launch Mode' available with the Sport Chrono for max acceleration from a stop.
I drive around in Auto, Start/Stop engaged, perfectly fine for public roads, when on Track, Sport Plus performs beautifully.
I never use the paddles.
When using these semi-autonomous systems, you have to change your thinking and rather than be upset when the system doesn't do exactly what you want, exactly when you want, learn how it performs tasks and let the system do it in AUTO to relieve you of decision making and physical input.

 

Thank you. I was hoping to learn more about this system from this thread.

This is a lot to consider, especially for an MT driver, where "muscle memory" (including input from eyes and ears) for a car means the driver is in control. And keeping the decision making and physical input.

With this system, it seems the trade off for control can include having to think about what the system has learned from the past X time period and how to communicate input on this basis. Are the paddles the only way to avoid this "thinking about what the machine is thinking?" Is this a case of drivers having to adapt to the car?

 

Isn't there a sequence where, with the ignition on, but the car not running, you held the gas pedal down for 10 secs, then turn the ignition off, then start normally. This would "reset" the "learning of the PDK"?
I could be blowing smoke, but that is what I remember reading.

 

If such exists it's not in the owners manual anywhere that I've seen. (I've read it all, more than once!)

 

Recall dealer saying something about holding down the traction control and do other stuff to reset the learning. Disconnecting the battery for 30 minutes doesn't do it. Think you just need to drive as you want for it to learn. There is a problem if you do 90% cruise and then want to go crazy 10% of the time. Just shift manually...

 

Yes, it adapts. PDK is just a tool so we have to learn how to use the tool.

I rode with a PCNA/Grand Am driver when PDK first came out. He suggested downshifting manually when entering a corner to control downshift points and put it in auto/manual mode, mashing the throttle on corner exit for flawless auto-shifts at redline all the way to the next corner. This is my most often used race track strategy.

For spirited canyon carving I choose manual mode and just flip between 3rd and 4th as desired to spice up the revs with the benefit of engine braking.

For hauling the dog or getting groceries, I leave it in auto mode and just slog around town in 7th gear. If I want to get sporty... tap down 2 gears and off we go!

 

I've never driven a PDK. Most all my cars have been manual shift VWs and Porches. The closest thing I've driven was my Cayenne GTS Tiptronic and my wife's RX350s. In those cars I just shift them manually. But those transmissions are pigs. Very sluggish to shift on command! So I'm really looking forward to the PDK on my new Macan Turbo when I get it in the next few weeks. I'll just shift it manually, unless I find some combo of Sport, Sport+ or Sport Chrono settings that keeps the revs up for me and provides early downshifts at high rpm with plenty of engine braking. That's how I like to drive. If not, I'm just going to shift it manually on the steering wheel.

 

I can't say what the PDK on a Macan will do, but on my BGTS, Sport Plus does just that very well.

 

This is one of the reasons why I think car software has cross the line from being awesome to me to getting in my way. Any kind of adaptive anything where I have no control doesn't count. This is not OK. There should always be a direct, documented way to do some basic "tuning" at least to turn it off.

I hope you find the correct procedure. In the BMW world this is a big deal, too. People are stuck with bad traffic or hectic commute for a while and then the car behaves like a turd when they can finally have a free ride again.

I hope the DMCA debate ends up clearly allowing us to mess with the software future forward.