Does the car learn/adapt to driving style/throttle response

[TeamG]

So if you buy one secondhand from a particularly elderly gentleman, a couple of hard track days should sort it out?

[Sotosound]

Originally Posted by TeamG

So if you buy one secondhand from a particularly elderly gentleman, a couple of hard track days should sort it out?

Now... that’s making an assumption about how elderly gentlemen drive.

[Yelper85]

Originally Posted by BlueDevil

AFAIK, the learning process is a continuous process. It's not like it learns from the 50 times you drive it and then it gets written in the stone and that's it. No, au contraire, it keeps adapting and learning.

To simplify it, it's similar to this:
From "blank" it has some factory settings, with some parameters that are fixed and some parameters that can be changed. All of those are preset at the factory. As you drive, the parameters that can be changed get changed. From the 1st km of driving, as the variables get changed, so does the gearbox behaviour. It is never "done", it keeps learning and adapting as you drive. Say - for example only - that it keeps last 100 "behaviours" related to your start from the light. So it knows how you started from the red light/standstil for the last 100 times. And it behaves accordingly. And then you once floor it, just for fun. That one time is just 1% of the total, just one time of the 100, and it changes nothing.
If you do it 10 times, it starts to make a statement, it's now 10%. And so on. It will continue to adapt.

So if you do floor it to avoid that truck, or you floor it today because you were very very late to a very very important meeting - nothing will happen. Not suddenly, not immidiately. If oyu continue to do it, it will change in time.

Even when they reset it in garage after changing gearbox oil, which is probably the best example, you will probably notice different behaviour. It's because it doesn't drive like it learned from you but the way they've set it up in factrory.IT will relearn, however, and will become as it was before in no time.

I can tell you my xc60 was changing gears very differently than it does now - I got it used and it had learned. Then it learned from me. I drive like a granny, very defensive, slow, I'm what you might call an eco-driver. When I got xc60 and it was driving as the PO did, when I hit the ECO button on console the change in tranny behaviour was very apparent, even to the passenger. With time, as it relearned from me, it came to the very subtle to no difference if ECO is on or off: yes it does stop (As in start/stop) sooner, while still rolling, and it does disengage the AC, but that's it, that's the only "visible" stuff. It rides the same, because it learned from me and I drive like that.

Then I went and changet my gearbox oil, and the garage did a reset They didn't tell me they did a reset, I felt it. IT was shifting differently. And again, after a month (give or take a week) it's back to way it was with me before (granny-mode).

And if my wife drives it for a month, it changes and is different again for me when I sit in it (was with broken leg for 6 weeks so she drove). And after another month it's back to my granny-style again.

TLDR; it's the continuous learning process that goes out-with-the-old and in-with-the-new behaviour every time you ride it.

Very interesting, so both the engine and transmission are learning in tandem.

Do you happen to know if the gear changes become sharper and faster (almost like a mini-Polestar upgrade ) if you keep planting it or will it just learn to rev higher before changing and the engine will just drink more fuel? If I could get the gear changes smoother and sharper on mine it would make such a difference (without shelling out >£650!)

I need to read up on the ECO button on mine as it doesn't seem to make any difference to start/stop, climate or power. If it's on and I floor it, it lights up the tyres. If on and I press AC, it stays on. If off and start/stop active, it still coasts.

Originally Posted by Tannaton

The earlier AW-55 5-speed boxes did have a "self learning" program which was quite good, it also had a sport mode triggered by how quickly you planted the accelerator. If you towed a heavy trailer or caravan through town or up and down hills for a while it felt a different car when you unhitched it.

However I think that was largely dropped on the later TF-80 6 speed and with better use of torque converter management and more gears it wasn't really needed. There are several different software versions for the TF80 as well - later models have the Sport model when you shift the gear lever over to the left, earlier models relied on you planting the loud pedal very quickly to initiate sport model. Models with 4C suspension also had a sport model when sport and advanced suspension settings were selected.

On another point - there is no part of modern Volvo's that is reset by leaving the battery disconnected or removing the battery positive lead and shorting it to earth or other such tinkering - with occasional exception of the battery monitoring system itself in some circumstances. (Or the clock in a P2 car, the one-touch windows on the P3 platform). On a 1989 440 however you will lose the radio presets...

Yeah mine has the Sport mode when knocked to the left. On the 4C you have Comfort, Sport and Advanced. Do you know if selecting Sport with the Shifter like mine auto selected Advanced suspension in the 4C? What about when you go back to full Auto, did the 4C go back to the original setting?

Same if you selected say Sport or Advanced on the 4C, did this automatically slam the gearbox into Sport mode?

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by Yelper85

Yeah mine has the Sport mode when knocked to the left. On the 4C you have Comfort, Performance and Advanced. Do you know if selecting Sport with the Shifter like mine auto selected Advanced suspension in the 4C? What about when you go back to full Auto, did the 4C go back to the original setting?

Same if you selected say Performance or Advanced on the 4C, did this automatically slam the engine into Sport mode?

Nope - selecting Sport mode on the gearbox does not alter the suspension.

I've just been thinking about my last post - the behavoir where selecting the sport or advanced suspension tweaked the gearbox was certainly the case on at 2008 XC70 Sport I once had - I'm not 100% certain if that is the case on more modern cars.

[Yelper85]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

Nope - selecting Sport mode on the gearbox does not alter the suspension.

I've just been thinking about my last post - the behavoir where selecting the sport or advanced suspension tweaked the gearbox was certainly the case on at 2008 XC70 Sport I once had - I'm not 100% certain if that is the case on more modern cars.

Interesting, so the 4C tweaked the gearbox when selecting Sport or Advanced mode but selecting Sport on teh gearbox did nothing to the 4C. What if you selected Sport or Advanced on the 4C and then selected Sport mode on the gearbox, did it tweak it even more?

This is one of the reasons why I thought the Adjustable steering force option was part of the 4C as Sport and Advanced adds the changes in steering response as stated by the manual (screenshot attached).