AviBen

Google Earth was failing to load in my 2018 911, so I contacted the Porsche Connect folks for help. I received the following email in response (emphasis supplied):
"Thank you for contacting Porsche with your inquiry.
While we appreciate the time you took to contact us, we would be unable to provide the information you are seeking. We were just informed that google earth will be discontinued for 2017-2018 vehicles across the board. It is no longer available for these vehicles.
For further assistance, we would encourage you to contact your local Porsche dealership. To find a dealership near you, please feel free to use the dealer locator tool by clicking this ​link.
We thank you for your time and hope you have a great day."
Does anyone have any further information?

911-TOUR

I don't know about the "just informed" part - I had the same problem in Feb and decided against re-upping after learning that there would be no more GE. iPhone + Carplay is it for me now.

cheers!

Hurricane

Are they going to refund Porsche Connect subscriptions now? I liked having Google earth. Oh well. Guess I'll be embracing Apple Car Play instead...

911 Flavors

I just came back from my dealer -- they couldn't fix the Google Earth functionality on my wife's Macan. They suggested that I call Porsche Connect. Porsche Connect confirmed that the 2018 Macan and 2018 GT3 have lost the Google Earth functionality. They also said that "Porsche is working on some financial accommodation to be provided by the end of January". Not sure what that means. Audi has the same issue with Google Earth but for some cars they have been able to upgrade the mapping software to Maxxar technologies and it works just like Google Earth (although I am not so lucky - my 2019 RS5 is not eligible for that upgrade). At least Audi has been warning everyone about this for a while -- I guess Porsche decided to stick their head in the sand. Apple Car Play is the answer.

DHL

So is Google Earth separate from the NAV software or should I expect my NAV to stop working in my 2017 991.2?

911 Flavors

The NAV will continue to work - it is the Google Earth overlay that will no longer be operative.

CSK 911 C4S

It might be time to go back in time.

911 Flavors

I just heard from the dealership -- apparently Porsche is working on a software update to restore Goggle Earth functionality (the ETA is February). Let's see what they come up with.

Old Guy

Hey, I had the same problem...no maps loading. Problem started 2-3 weeks ago. I called Porsche Connect and was told I needed to take the car to the dealer for an SD card update. My dealer service rep didn't know what I was talking about. Nevertheless my 911 is going to the dealer the 12th for a fix. Or...???

gougoul

I had the car at the dealership a week ago for the same reason.
They contacted Porsche connect, I contacted them as well and apparently they're working on a solution...Seems MB, Audi etc. are concerned as well... Still can't believe this is true given the little coverage it got.

But as others mentioned, if they aren't fixing it, they should offer a compensation reaching beyond the cost of Connect services as it will clearly impact residuals.

gougoul

...And on a side note am I the only one thinking it's pretty cheap from Porsche/connect not to display a warning when you renew the service quoting that "Google Earth could not work for some time on your car" given its VIN etc... So at least you'd renew in full knowledge of what's going on...

asellus

This explains why my 2020 Cayenne loaner couldn't display anything but roadmaps.

Driveby

Seems like a bad software architecture. Shouldn't need to update the client to make use of a different back-end service: Google Maps to BillyBob Maps.

asellus

Sounds pretty normal to me. How else would it know to hit "maps.google.com" versus "the_new_maps.google.com" without an update to, at the very least, a config file on your PCM?

If you can solve that issue then I have a very, very lucrative business proposal for you.

darylbowden

With a remote config file like is used in virtually any other piece of software/hardware that needs to accomplish similar things. All you are doing is swapping out an endpoint, if the data contract is the same that in no way should need an update to the firmware on the PCM.