chassis

Interesting experience with Night View Assist last night.

I was driving approx. 35mph in rush hour in a populated metro area. The Night View Assist displayed a deer warning icon and sounded an audible warning chime, then activated the thermal imaging display in the right MFD.

A deer was highlighted in the thermal imaging display, with a target acquisition rectangle, as it walked across my path and onto the side of the road. I looked up and there was a large buck standing on the side of the road, watching me drive by.

The technology worked. It took me by surprise because the traffic was relatively heavy and the area was fairly developed, therefore I was not expecting to encounter a deer. I was focused on the oncoming traffic, and the traffic in front of me, so it took a second or two to understand what the system was telling me. I will remember that experience.

10 years ago I hit a deer while driving a Touareg at 55mph at night. It caused alot of damage (no human injuries, the deer died) and required 2 months to repair. If the Touareg at that time had NVA, it probably would have meant an avoided collision.

TacoBuddy

I am in the process of ordering a MY24 and I love the idea of NVA. We have a lot of errant sheep here and this makes me wonder....

icemang

I would probably never buy another car without it. It has warned me of multiple deer. I'm told that it always remains active but I've only ever received warnings when the system is actually selected and one. OP i gather you didn't have the system on?

There seems to be a speed-related field of vision adjustment in the system. At speed the field of vision is narrower it seems. Maybe it's narrower but looking further down the road because of the speed? Kinda makes sense I guess. I went by a couple of deer browsing the grass near the trees, maybe 45' off the roadway, at about 70 mph the other day, I saw them as I passed them, NVA never saw them.

Also, at very slow speeds the system seems to have o "peripheral vison" at all, only alerting to things actually in the vehicle's path. In my experience. I've driven the car about 25,000 miles in a deer-infested area and haven't hit any, and I don't drive slowly, The system has quirks but i still really like it.

E'TLS

Does the Porsche Collision Avoidance function works on an imminent deer strike ?

Electric Lizard

I’m thinking of adding NVA to my base hybrid and this is helpful info. We have lots of deer and big turkeys out here. Have you experienced any downside such as false signals or other glitches with the system? I’m concerned about watching the dashboard and not picking my eyes up, but it sounds like the warning system might keep that from happening. Thoughts?

justabout

It’s a helpful tool but there is no way I would expect it to save me from deer collisions, unless the deer isn’t moving. There are too many variables.

matthewr87

We recently drove up to Toronto from DC (and back) during the evenings and night and I had the FLIR on the screen the whole time. Most of the driving is through backwoods MD, PA, and NY, so plenty of dark and windy roads. I didn't notice any deer or pedestrians BUT it did help me see cop cars pulled over to the side of the road in the distance; all of their lights were off but they still had the engine on. So that was helpful.

chassis

I have not experienced false activations.

chassis

I did nothing to activate the system. It activated automatically. To my understanding it is always on, same as the radar sensor.

Collision avoidance braking did not engage.

retom

I've had NVA in my last 2 Audis. Personally, I think this is an unnecessary option and I gave it up in Cayenne. The system works to a limited extent and its screen is too small. If you look at the NVA screen, you don't look at the road through the windshield and vice versa. Yes, it detects people and larger animals, but it is useless when dealing with fast-moving objects. Additionally, in bad weather conditions, i.e. when this system is needed most, its quality and ability to detect objects deteriorate significantly due to moisture and dirt accumulating on the radar. The sprinkler system in NVA is not enough effective. At high temperatures, its sensitivity is also limited due to the smaller temperature difference between the detected objects and the air temperature.
I think NV would be more useful if the objects it detected were displayed on the head-up screen (I don't mean warnings).

chassis

Another NVA activation tonight under similar conditions. One hour after sunset (dark), moderate traffic, built up suburban area with interspersed woods. Very common in most of the eastern half of the U.S.

Driving 40mph in moderate traffic, I heard the triple warning chime, the IR display appeared in the right MFD, and I saw a deer standing motionless about 15 feet away from the road on the right. This time no yellow target rectangle was displayed because the deer was not directly in front of the vehicle, but rather off to one side. And within the IR camera's field of view.

The technology works without question as an effective warning system. I do not know what its limits are (advanced warning time vs vehicle speed and deer distance) , and don't care to find out.

The challenge from the user's point of view is to recognize what type of warning is being delivered (the triple chime is used for several warnings) and to acquire the target (the deer) in front of the vehicle.

I will dig through the manual and PCM to see if audible chimes can be customized.

cometguy

Interesting about deer and NVA. I have had two criticisms of NVA, which appear still valid in the new 2023 and 2024 Porsches that have it:

(1) the infrared-camera image/field is very, very narrow -- in fact, equivalent roughly to what you get with a short-telephoto lens (focal length perhaps 120 mm) on a full-frame (35-mm) camera. That's absurd. It should instead have a wide-angle lens giving an equivalent focal length of 20-35 mm on a full-frame camera, at minimum. The angle hasn't changed (from what I can see) from 2018 Porsches to 2024 Porsches. Not sure what the design team at Porsche HQ is thinking here. When I'm at a stop sign or traffic light, I can't see pedestrians or bicyclists immediately to my right and six feet ahead of me in the infrared (NVA) display in the instrument panel.

(2) The camera needs to be mounted high on the car windshield, logically behind the center rear-view mirror -- rather than low by the front bumper. And, yes, there needs to be a way to clean the camera lens as the car is moving.

Below are two photos taken from a 2024 Cayenne with NVA: one showing the screen field-of-view of a Panamera in front of the Cayenne, and the other one showing the actual view out the front windshield of that same Panamera at the same time.

chassis

All of that being said, what examples can you share when you were driving and NVA activated?

Woofman

The Night Vision Assist camera has it's own washer as I found out recently when the tube leading to it failed on my 2022 Cayenne. I then saw in the specifications that the washer fluid tank is of much higher capacity when Night Vision Assist option is present.

chassis

Correct. The NVA camera washer sprays once for every so many windscreen wash activations. I think it’s 1 NVA washer activation for every 6 windscreen washer activations. You can hear the separate NVA washer pump in the left fender somewhere.