Lane Keeping Assist - Crude

[msandford]

I just had a test drive of a Macan 4 here in Sydney Australia.
I wanted to test the lane keeping assist, on my current Tesla Y and my previous Q5 Audi this feature keeps you nicely between the lines which is great for motorway driving.
On the Macn4 it only alerts you if you start to cross a line so no control of the steering at all, so you end up just bouncing between the lanes which can't be right !
The salesperson assured me that is the way it is meant to be and he checked to make sure all the assistant options were on.
I called another dealer and he said he wasn't sure how the Macan 4 was meant to behave but said the Taycan had a very good lane assist which followed the lines.

 

[PanameraFrank]

There are two different settings. There is lane keep assist (activated and deactivated on the bottom of the stalk) and automatic lane keep. Automatic lane keep, included with innodrive, is activated by pressing the left most button at the end of the cruise control stalk and then selecting "Lane Assist" on the infotainment screen.

 

[SergeyIndy]

^, this is exactly how it works on a Porsche @msandford, Macan EV, Taycan, whatever...

LKA is sometimes called a ping pong feature and works exactly as you described
ALK only comes with InnoDrive and keeps you in the center of the lane

I know dealers go to very nice training sessions, but they learn close to nothing, if they cannot explain to a customer a simple difference between LKA and ALK.

 

[cottony]

Fwiw I’ve found ALK to be quite good, and my last car was a Tesla with autopilot

 

[krissrock]

yeh, they're both good..

 

[dgkhn]

LKA is sometimes called a ping pong feature and works exactly as you described
ALK only comes with InnoDrive and keeps you in the center of the lane

I know dealers go to very nice training sessions, but they learn close to nothing, if they cannot explain to a customer a simple difference between LKA and ALK.

I certainly cannot disagree. But you must admit, saying the car comes with "LKA", but if you want "ALK" then you have to buy an option called "InnoDrive", a word that appears nowhere in the manual I believe, is a strategy almost guaranteed to confuse.

 

[SergeyIndy]

I certainly cannot disagree. But you must admit, saying the car comes with "LKA", but if you want "ALK" then you have to buy an option called "InnoDrive", a word that appears nowhere in the manual I believe, is a strategy almost guaranteed to confuse.

I agree. This is a very common confusion on both Macan EV and 2025 Taycan. However, this is how it is explained and labeled in the configurator but not in the interface or the manual. No such confusion with pre-facelifted Taycans. I have all these options properly labeled and available for selection in the left tube under Assistance Systems: LKA standard, others are optional ACC, ALK requires InnoDrive, and so on.

My point is that Sales Associates should be trained to explain this, but from my experience they have no interest in learning all this stuff and focused on selling as many cars as possible.

 

[msandford]

I have now spoken with the salesperson again and apparently, cars in Australia aren't allowed to have Innodrive which makes no sense as so many other cars have this feature

 

[W1NGE]

I just had a test drive of a Macan 4 here in Sydney Australia.
I wanted to test the lane keeping assist, on my current Tesla Y and my previous Q5 Audi this feature keeps you nicely between the lines which is great for motorway driving.
On the Macn4 it only alerts you if you start to cross a line so no control of the steering at all, so you end up just bouncing between the lanes which can't be right !
The salesperson assured me that is the way it is meant to be and he checked to make sure all the assistant options were on.
I called another dealer and he said he wasn't sure how the Macan 4 was meant to behave but said the Taycan had a very good lane assist which followed the lines.

Standard system is Lane Keeping Assist which simply tugs the wheel and makes a noise to keep you in lane.

The upgrade is Active Lane Keep Assist along with Adaptive Cruise Control and on top of that Innodrive.

Same across the Porsche range.

Salesperson is 100% correct.

 

[Diego]

LKA is a safety system so it’s not designed to keep the car in the center of the road.

ALK is what you have to chose if you want your car to stay stable in the center. On my side it works fine (as the one from Tesla I had on my m3).

 

[nulled]

Lane Keep Assist sometimes corrects your steering even when it’s not needed. That said, it might’ve saved me once when a BMW driver drifted into my lane, distracted by the scenery. I’m not 100% sure if it was Lane Keep Assist, but the car pulled off an avoidance maneuver similar to what Tesla does.

Active Lane Keep Assist does a decent job of keeping you centered, but sometimes it veers a bit too far to the left or right, which could be an issue with InnoDrive data. I’ve used it on a few long trips, typically for about an hour each time. It’s not quite on Tesla’s level—I used to do at least two hours on Autopilot with no issues. One thing I do like about the Macan is the capacitive steering wheel. You don’t need to nudge it to prove you’re paying attention; as long as your hands are resting on the wheel, it works just fine.

 

[W1NGE]

LKA is a safety system so it’s not designed to keep the car in the center of the road.

ALK is what you have to chose if you want your car to stay stable in the center. On my side it works fine (as the one from Tesla I had on my m3).

I think its mandated these days in EU to have the basic system.

 

[Diego]

I think its mandated these days in EU to have the basic system.

Yes LKA is the basic (safety) system.

 

[Hut49]

Yes LKA is the basic (safety) system.

Which most people switch off on most journeys (after forgetting to do it at start-up) by prodding the screen trying to find the right menu …. while they’re driving! Some safety system!

 

[dgkhn]

Which most people switch off on most journeys (after forgetting to do it at start-up) by prodding the screen trying to find the right menu …. while they’re driving! Some safety system!

In the US we can shut it off using the button at the bottom of the cruise control stalk. Can you not? (I realize in our case the setting survives restarts, but that's a different issue).

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