As our sister-site Electrek covers so well, the automobile landscape is clearly changing with electric vehicles replacing gas-powered cars, autonomous features potentially replacing drivers, and Apple even developing an EV of its own. But Porsche wants no part in that future, says CEO Oliver Blume. Reuters reports that Blume told German media this week essentially that a Porsche is meant to be driven, and that an iPhone is meant for your pocket, not the road:
“One wants to drive a Porsche by oneself,” Blume said in an interview with regional newspaper Westfalen-Blatt published on Monday.
“An iPhone belongs in your pocket, not on the road,” Blume added, saying that Porsche did not need to team up with any big technology companies.
While Blume was using the iPhone line largely to explain away the need for computerized vehicles and embrace the nature of high-performance cars like Porsches, it’s a curious one as the new 911 features Apple’s CarPlay …
There’s also a mild dash of the classic Ed Colligan line in there with Blume clearly defining the place for real cars and the place for iPhones in a dismissive way. Frankly, if given the choice between a Porsche as-is or a Porsche with autonomous driving capabilities, I’d choose the latter hands-down (although, for the record, I am not declining the traditional Porsche if offered!).
And smarter, iPhone-like cars certainly seem to be the way of the future.
While ‘autonomous features’ can be loosely defined to include any feature that assists the driver and not just full-on self-driving cars, Reuters points out that research by Boston Consulting Group shows market penetration for these features will reach 13% and make up an estimated $42 billion market by 2025.
While the project has already had its fair share of expected turbulence, the rumored Apple Car could debut around that time with one reported target for introduction set for 2020.
And evidence shows autonomous vehicles are safer than human drivers (which isn’t hard to believe for me) with Tesla and Google leading the way forward in that arena for the time being.
What do you think? Is a Porsche not a Porsche unless you’re fully in control behind the wheel, or are autonomous features going to be a part of every car in the future?
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Some cars are made for driving, others are just means of transportation. It is a bit like the discussion of manual vs auto gearbox. And most of the automatic gearboxes can also be shifted manually. So maybe the future lies there…. in case the Porsche driver is tired after a long day at the track :-0 / work, the car can drive the driver home.
Which is why it’s funny that you can buy a 911 with an automatic.
umm.. no you can’t, 911 either has a 7 speed manual, or a 7 speed PDK. The PDK is a dual clutch transmission, it’s not a slush box, it actually offers more performance (faster shifts) than the single clutch gearbox.
PDK rocks.. Bigtime.
But porsches philosopy about carplay is stupid.. No one is racing all the time… And a more user-friendly access to info is better and safer regardless .
Ooops…
oops… I admit I don’t own a Porsche :-D
Fair enough. In my defence though I checked online and found several articles that referred to it as an automatic.
caranddriver.com/reviews/porsche-911-turbo-tiptronic-s-road-test
If you can’t trust Car and Driver to get it right…
Wonder what the Cayenne buyer demographic is and what they might think.
Well played….
I guess Nokia’s CEO has made a similar speech when they first ask me about the iPhone: “Mac belongs to your desk not to your pocket” …. YET? Ego, Ego, Ego :)
That’s pretty much what I was thinking. Incumbents often dismiss disruptors as niche, I’ll-conceived products, till the market s turned on its head and it is too late.
I would rather have an iPhone than anything made by a Volkswagen subsidiary. Fuck VW!
Lamborghini? Bugatti?
Liars and cheats with zero customer service.
Porsche, and cars within its class, are all about the driving experience. So in that respect, I agree with the Porsche CEO. Autonomous cars are for people who don’t care for car ownership or driving.
I think tis is true if your Porsche is your 2nd/nth car, but if you only have one car then glorified cruise control I would have thought would be of interest because your not going to be driving at 10/10th all the time
I’m pretty sure the Porsche sports cars are usually people’s 2nd to Nth car. I’ve known two guys who had ones as their only car in the city, but it was for short periods of time. They really aren’t practical. And you basically have to be single. You certainly aren’t having one of these as your only car with a family of four. So I think Porsche will be fine.
That said, I know folks who would like to drive their Porsche to the bar or party, and then have it drive them home after they’ve had a bunch of drinks. So maybe Porsche will need to get on this to have the dual experience. But Porsche will never sell a car that isn’t driven. It would defeat the purpose of their brand.
VW group is the worst company in the world. Hitler managed to leave a legacy of misery with this company!
K lol
As they are owned by VW maybe they will be one of the first with wireless carplay ….
Or at least they will SAY they are, but really … :lol:
Yes that was a brilliant almost takeover story
I guess I’m just old-fashioned, but I’m not interested in self-driving capabilities in ANY vehicle, Porsche or otherwise.
While I think this guy is a bit biased in his opinion, I think the concept of self driving cars is really much farther off than people realize.
1) Motorcycles, remember those?
2) US has the worlds crappiest roads (outside of the Bay Area apparently) and faded road markers.
3) US is the most litigious country in the world
4) One story….ONE story of an autonomous vehicle killing a child on the street to save its owners hide in a tragic no-win scenario and the inter webs will blow up with outrage.
5) People with manual driven cars will cut off and completely ignore auto cars because they KNOW they will yield to them. Auto cars become wimpy and for losers. Reptilian Brain 1; Engineer 0.
Item #5 is a great point.
Items 3 and 4 will doom this idea, at least in the US.
I might be the only one but I really don’t like building tech into cars relating to direct interaction. Just give me a location to mount a ram ball and allow me to pair my phone to a bluetooth car deck. Just create the app that allows me to control the cars system from my iOS, Android or whatever device that is popular 10 years from now.
Just look on YouTube at the Elio car. They have a iPad mini mounted that controls most of those functions. I personally would use a iPhone plus model that is big to use in the car (while stopped of course) but can be dismounted quickly. You can even use Touch ID with NFC to unlock the cars doors.
Also what if Apple/Google hit’s rock bottom in 15 years while the vehicle is still on the road? Cars always out lasts the tech that we use in our pockets today. I got my Nissan Titan back in 2004 and the iPhone didn’t even exist. I was using a dumb phone with a palm pilot Tx for navigation and that was in 2006. No telling what I will be using in 2030.
WTF are you talking about?
Well technically he’s wrong. Saying an iPhone belongs in your pocket is like saying you shouldn’t play music from your phone in your car. I know it’s not related to autonomous driving, but still.
It seems to me an incredibly stupid statement to have made.
So much of any modern car, even a Porsche 911, and I have been driving them for many years, is already remarkably ‘autonomous’ from anti-lock braking to traction control (especially in AWD) to PDK (autonomous gear selection) and you may be sure that every new, increasingly autonomous function developed by VW will find its way into Porsche’s never ending list of outrageously overpriced options over time. Will Porsche really refuse to list smart cruise control, crash avoidance, autonomous parking and other such options on their new models? Full autonomy override when it arrives?
And to make a glib contrasting reference to the iPhone? When Apple CarPlay is now integrated into their 2017 911 ‘face lift’ as an effective replacement of much of the functionality of their piss-awful PMS infotainment system?
True autonomy will be existential to the global automobile industry, potentially driving the entire market from ownership to more of a metered use, recurring revenue model over time. Every major manufacturer is planning for this. MB and BMW have both recently discussed this in public, best I remember. GM just invested $0.5 billion in Lyft. Uber can’t wait to remove those pesky drivers from the equation. Starting in more urban areas and more regulated European markets but will it stop at suburbia? Not a chance. Deeply impacting the automotive manufacturing, retailing, servicing, financing, rental and taxi markets.
I’m sure the status driven ultra-performance, ultra-premium end of the market will be the last/least affected, but inexorable change is in the wind, despite the utterances of Herr Oliver Blume!
I must admit, buying a self-driving Porsche would be pretty idiotic.
Here we go again. Another tired and un-innovative ceo whining about progress. Gee, where have we heard this before? Watch ceo’s, phone ceo’s, portable music ceo’s…
Lol, goodbye porche.
Good God. Check your medications.
If I were going to buy a 911 it’d probably either be a used 993 (good luck with that) or a new GT3 that has as little electronic driver aids that I can get away with. The 918 though it makes sense to have this as it’s more computerized than a Tesla…
CEO Oliver Blume what an idiot you are. You probably inherited your position with no real merit or distinction. It doesn’t matter whether its Apple or Samsung, people want their phones to do more in the car. They don’t want to use restrictive, poorly designed Porsche entertainment systems. People’s business and personal lives are stored in maps, iTunes, Spotify, messaging, emails and phonebook. Porsche need to understand that when people get into their car, they want the car to become an extension of their phone and everything in it. Consumers have been putting up with poorly designed car manufacture entertainment and connectivity systems for years. People don’t want to learn a new system or a new operating console when they get into a car, because it can never be as good, and when you’re paying over £100k for a decent car it needs to be good.
I gotta agree with the Porsche CEO. There will be plenty of cars on the road that will be well suited for having a computer pilot, but a Porsche? Nah. I want to be the one steering the car and changing gears and making it happen.
He’s not wrong. The blogosphere seems to have this strangely delusional perspective about autonomous driving and whether or not is matters how the tech is coming along. People, generally, have no interest in it.
I agree with him. Have it as an option and everyone won’t have anything to bitch about. I’m still pissed off that they are not offering a full-on manual on the GT3 RS. Pretty much eliminated the option of choice because flappy paddle is faster. Bullcrap! I don’t want a paddle shifter, not going for the fastest time lapse on the streets. I want to engage my Porsche’s and drive my wife crazy with the shifting jerks. Grrrrrr!