An iPhone Belongs in Your Pocket, Not on the Road Says Porsche

By Arison Knapp - February 2, 2016

porsche_mission_e_sedan_6speedonline

Carscoops caught up with Porsche chief executive Oliver Blume recently and got the down low on the autonomous vehicle uptake at Porsche, it’s a “flat” no. Carscoops and Blume tried to sugar coat Porsche’s feelings about autonomous cars and I am in the same speed boat. I respect the tech but give me all the control I can get. Just say no to robot chauffeurs for now.

“One wants to drive a Porsche by oneself. An iPhone belongs in your pocket, not on the road,” Blume said in the interview.

The real thrill of driving, sports racing and all other personal transportation is that one of the passengers or riders is in control, full control. At the very heart of Porsche and other racing campaigning companies the experience of operating such a machine is worth saving and passing down through generations.

The Carscoops reporter made a good case citing the big German three are designing autonomous vehicles and why shouldn’t Porsche? This reporter isn’t seeing the large scale picture. Those automakers are targeting a diverse lineup with a multitude of energy technologies to cater to their huge buying demographic.

Projected sales numbers sky high coupled with their large production numbers are not in Porsches sights, more interesting cars are. Porsche builds machines that are directed at a certain type of person, not for the masses like the big three German company cars.

porsche_mission_e_sedan_interior_6speedonline

Porsche wants to maintain a somewhat small batch manufacturer brand image compared to the other three. It’s natural for large companies to uptake all new technologies. Porsche however being an icon company needs to choose wisely how they incorporate new tech into their vehicles with class not speed for sales.

Autonomous everything is inevitable with our population increase, automobile injury numbers, fuel efficiency maximization laws and the need to speed up the flow on our roads. For now Porsche says they’ll attack fuel efficiency with hybrid and electric variants. The steering wheel replacement is being developed as we speak.