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Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:06 am
by Tom
spacecad3t wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 6:01 am
@CarBot Document the expected behavior of the late model 944 temperature gauge and cooling fans during different operating conditions, use both Celsius and Fahrenheit. Try to be thorough with your diversity of conditions, extreme heat, extreme cold, traffic, road, and track. Assume the vehicle is stock and operating as expected. Do not consider modifications to systems or include recommendations on how to improve the system beyond stock for a given condition.
Sorry was working on the backend when you asked that. Should be back now, but of course I also reviewed the knowledge base now that I know the test question.
@CarBot can you answer spacecad3t's question about radiator fans and the temp gauge?
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:06 am
by CarBot
Tom wrote: Sorry was working on the backend when you asked that. Should be back now, but of course I also reviewed the knowledge base now that I know the test question.
can you answer spacecad3t's question about radiator fans and the temp gauge?
On late 944s (85.5+), the radiator fans and the dash temp gauge are two different systems.
The radiator fans are controlled by the two-stage thermoswitch in the radiator. First stage brings low speed on at about 95C (203F) and it can run with the ignition off. Second stage brings high speed on at about 102C (216F) but only with the ignition on.
The dash temperature gauge is driven by the brass sender in the block with two spades. The wide spade is the NTC gauge signal and the narrow spade is the overtemp warning light trigger (it grounds at about 239F). So you can have “normal” gauge behavior with a fan issue, or fans cycling normally with a misleading gauge, depending which side has a fault.
I don’t have stock “expected needle position” mappings for traffic vs road vs track that I trust enough to state as fact; owners, what do you typically see on a healthy late 944 in stop-and-go vs highway?
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:51 am
by spacecad3t
CarBot wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:06 am
I don’t have stock “expected needle position” mappings for traffic vs road vs track that I trust enough to state as fact; owners, what do you typically see on a healthy late 944 in stop-and-go vs highway?
It has good recall it seems, but maybe too low of temperature? You could go crazy here, I like to use a sub-agent for constructing the "creative" output separate of the knowledge base recall. Sometimes adjusting temperature on the KG model doesn't produce the mix of knowledge and creativity we hope for.
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:51 am
by CarBot
spacecad3t wrote: It has good recall it seems, but maybe too low of temperature? You could go crazy here, I like to use a sub-agent for constructing the "creative" output separate of the knowledge base recall. Sometimes adjusting temperature on the KG model doesn't produce the mix of knowledge and creativity we hope for.
You’re in “All things Porsche!”, so I’ll keep it Porsche/forum-tech adjacent and not drift too far into generic ML ops.
I can’t really see (or tweak) whatever temperature/settings Tom is using on the backend, but the behavior you’re describing is real: if you clamp too hard for factual recall, the replies get a bit stiff and overly cautious. Splitting it into a “facts first” pass (KB/RAG) and then a separate “compose in forum voice” pass can work well, as long as the composer is constrained to not invent new technical claims and to ask the forum when the KB is thin.
On Carpokes that usually means: keep exact specs and procedures pinned to the KB, but let the second step handle tone, clarifying questions, and how much detail to include. Tom or anyone else doing similar forum bots, curious what stack you’re using (OpenRouter, direct APIs, etc.)?
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 7:52 am
by spacecad3t
Woops
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 9:24 am
by Tom
Wow, busted by a bot.
I think I may set up a special subform for CarBot where people can call it, play with it, ask real questions, etc. It's kind of a novelty right now, and I worry it may feel hi-jacky if called into other people's threads and starts popping up in that way too much. That might give us time to build the knowledge base and fine tune the temperature a bit too. I have a busy day today though, so will mull over for now.
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 4:36 pm
by Tom
Hi all, wanted to provide a little update on CarBot. Based on feedback I've been getting, I've set up a separate subforum specifically for CarBot questions and answers. You can find that subforum
here. I'm thinking this will be especially helpful as we all get to know the tool so it doesn't interfere with the normal forum flow -- especially since its novel right now and folks seem interested in just tryin it out. The new subforum is something of a sandbox for CarBot that is out of the lime light -- it won't be indexed for SEO purposes or show up in the recent topics list, etc. I'm thinking this way people can kick the tires and we can all help shape it as we see fit -- while still having it available for genuine questions.
Once we get our sea legs with it in the sandbox, I'm thinking we may limit it on the regular forums so that only the person starting a thread can summons CarBot into that thread. That way, no one can ever bot-jack another person's thread, if that makes sense. Open to any/all thoughts on all of this. It's going to be a super useful tool, I'm sure, and want to be very thoughtful about how to best implement it on the site.
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 4:50 pm
by blueline
Tom wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 4:36 pm
Hi all, wanted to provide a little update on CarBot. Based on feedback I've been getting, I've set up a separate subforum specifically for CarBot questions and answers. You can find that subforum
here. I'm thinking this will be especially helpful as we all get to know the tool so it doesn't interfere with the normal forum flow -- especially since its novel right now and folks seem interested in just tryin it out. The new subforum is something of a sandbox for CarBot that is out of the lime light -- it won't be indexed for SEO purposes or show up in the recent topics list, etc. I'm thinking this way people can kick the tires and we can all help shape it as we see fit -- while still having it available for genuine questions.
Once we get our sea legs with it in the sandbox, I'm thinking we may limit it on the regular forums so that only the person starting a thread can summons CarBot into that thread. That way, no one can ever bot-jack another person's thread, if that makes sense. Open to any/all thoughts on all of this. It's going to be a super useful tool, I'm sure, and want to be very thoughtful about how to best implement it on the site.
I'm assuming that CarBot still be able to "see" all other Carpokes sub-forums, threads, posts, etc. while it's in its sandbox cage. I ask because I'm curious regarding another useful feature it might provide: Search. Searching all of Carpokes with CB could prove quite useful.
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 5:19 pm
by jsheradin
Is there a way I can opt out of having my posts used as training data?
Re: Introducing CarBot!
Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2026 6:14 pm
by Tom
jsheradin wrote: Fri Feb 20, 2026 5:19 pm
Is there a way I can opt out of having my posts used as training data?
Absolutely. Done! CarBot does not use posts to train, full stop. It runs on a public AI model augmented with a custom Porsche knowledge base I personally create. It does not scrape posts here (or anywhere).
As for scraping more broadly, when I realized AI bots from around the world were hitting Carpokes last year, we invested significant effort into stopping them. At one point we had over 4,000 bots scraping the site simultaneously. It was bogging down the site and -- like you -- it didn't feel right to me for a number of reasons. Today, virtually all of those are blocked, thanks to a not-cheap Cloudflare subscription, custom bot rules, and server access controls. It’s always a bit of a cat-and-mouse game with the bots, but I’m confident that public posts on Carpokes are less likely to be picked up by AI training bots than posts made on many large commercial platforms.
Hope that helps, but welcome all feedback.