“Porsche does not plan to join luxury carmakers who are trying to develop self-driving vehicles, its chief executive told a German newspaper, indicating differences between large premium brands and sports car companies,” Maria Sheahan, Andreas Cremer and Edward Taylor report for Reuters.
“The comments from Porsche Chief Executive Oliver Blume show that some car makers believe their drivers want to remain firmly in control at the wheel,” Sheahan, Andreas, and Taylor report. “‘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.”
MacDailyNews Take: Dude, you’ve already teamed up with Apple:
Sheahan, Andreas, and Taylor report, “Stuttgart-based Porsche, which stresses the performance and feel of its cars in its marketing, does plan to offer hybrid versions of all its models in the foreseeable future as it struggles to lower emissions across the fleet.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds vaguely familiar.
We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in. – Palm CEO Ed Colligan, commenting on then-rumored Apple iPhone, Nov. 16, 2006
Ed is currently spending more time with his family.
SEE ALSO:
Porsche chooses Apple Car Play over Android Auto because of Google’s rampant data collection demands – October 6, 2015
Here’s the stupid thing: just because Apple MAY be developing a self-driving car, doesn’t mean it’s ONLY developing a self-driving car. I agree that a finely tuned piece of engineering is a joy to drive. But even that might not be so much fun in rush hour. Seems to me you could “eat your cake and have it too” by being able to turn off the self-driving part. I think he’s being quite myopic…
Yep, shades of ex-Palm CEO Ed Colligan and that special clueless class of CEO (who will be eating their words, assuming they last long enough to see their error).
What do you want to do, sit in traffic and stare at your iPhone?
To be fair, I think Oliver Blume does have a point. The type of person who buys a Porsche is more likely to be the type of person who enjoys driving and those drivers would be interested in self-driving Porsches.
Just as Apple knows it’s customers and what they want, I think we should also give Porsche the credit for knowing what their customers want.
There may be areas where Apple and Porsche can find common ground ( in car entertainment, navigation and communication ), but any forthcoming Apple car will be nothing like a Porsche and Porsche will not be making anything like the Apple car.
Totally agree with that his sort of cares need to be driven or what is the point when the posing element comes the only aspect of owning one. However the remark about an iPhone staying in your pock was ill considered as in Porsches it is anything but.
“One wants to drive a Porsche by oneself.”
And along those lines, a self-driving twist on BMW’s slogan” “The Ultimate Being Driven Machine.” A self-driven M Series just seems so wrong 😭😱😳
Why would you want a self-driving Porsche?
I completely get what he is saying.
There is a class of car that people want to drive.
VW makes great cars and engines but the phone, radio, map interface in my Jetta sucks
And that’s why there is CarPlay.
There are Porsches bought to be driven and there Porsches bought as penis extensions. I think Herr Blume would be astonished to know the ratio between them.
I think Herr Blume banks on the latter….
I can foresee a world where most of us are restricted by convenience and safety to using only self driving cars, owned by the state. Meanwhile in parts of the world, there will be roads where wealthy people still experience manually driving automobiles, as opposed to being driven by droids with wheels. Like old European roads where the guy who wears the non-smart watch drives his Porsche, or Lamborghini, etc.
On urban roads and highways though, smart cars will be far better, far safer, drivers than we ever were.
Except in California where they are already trying to pass laws where an autonomous vehicle must have a driver. (We always miss the point in California.)
California’s proposed regulations would require consumers to get a special state-issued driver’s certificate after receiving training from a car company on how to use a driverless vehicle. Autonomous cars also would have to pass a test administered by a third party before being sold. Auto makers would only be allowed to lease driverless cars, as opposed to selling them outright.
The proposed rules hold motorists responsible for obeying traffic laws, regardless of whether they are at the wheel. Deciding if the car or its occupant is responsible for accidents and other mishaps has been at the center of debates over how to regulate driverless cars.
🙂
Britain’s Red Flag Act
In 1865 Britain introduced the ‘Locomotives on Highways Act’. Better known as the ‘Red Flag Act’.
The act stipulated that all mechanically powered road vehicles must:
-Have three drivers.
-Not exceed 4 mph (6.4 kph) on the open road and 2 mph (3.2 kph) in towns.
-Be preceded by a man on foot waving a red flag to warn the public.
http://www.carhistory4u.com/the-early-history/general-information/britains-red-flag-act
.. he said it used to be a farm, before the motor law..
I strip away the old debris, that hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta from a better banished time
Fire up the willing engines, responding with a roar.
Tires spitting gravel, I commit my weekly crime.
Sunlight on chrome, the blur of the landscape, every nerve aware…
“As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t want to drive a car then, that’s what chauffeurs are for. A self-driving car?
No effing thanks!!”
That’s what my uncle said to me while we were drinking at the fireside.
Porsche: A bad idea, but beautifully engineered.
Huh? You don’t know what you’re talking about. My Cayman S was hand down the best sports car I’ve ever driven. My Macan S is far and away the only truly SPORT Utility Vehicle on the road. Beautifully engineered – yes. But once you drive one, you’ll never be satisfied again.
Rear-engined cars are inherently unstable in turns. Witness the 1974 International Race of Champions for example.
Mr. Nader’ back.
Too simplistic in your thinking. First, oversteer is a lot of fun when it is predictable and controllable. That takes pilot training, but it’s effective when used correctly. See the 1984 Paris-Dakar Rally (or any rally, for that matter).
What I believe you mean to say is that a car with too much rear-biased weight (from engine or otherwise) combined with worn (or inadequate) tires combined with poor road surface can lead to sudden oversteer that is difficult or impossible for a driver to correct. That would be a true statement.
Porsche hasn’t had a real oversteer “problem” with the 911 models since the 996. The excellent engineers in Stuttgart dial in exceptionally balanced handling into their sports cars — including the 911, with its engine mass slightly behind the rear axle. Oversteer is possible (as it should be!) but it is much better controlled than ever.
As Porsche and Ferrari and others continue to demonstrate year after year, the best overall dynamic performance is achieved when a car’s static weight balance is about 45% front, 55% rear. The tires are sized accordingly. The expert driver can then tune or drive the car at understeer or oversteer to suit his track and style with minimal effort – just tire changes, really.
For city and touring cars sold to the public, almost all are designed for small to massive amounts of understeer. That is considered much safer in the hands of drivers with poor training. And since most car buyers are not highly skilled, that’s what formerly great companies tend to offer exclusively today. Over the last 3 generations, BMW has taken its formerly brilliant M3 from a light, fun, neutral, balanced sports car to a fat understeering but highly powered car that is faster around a track (thanks electronic nannies!) but by almost all accounts less fun to drive and more costly than ever before. Same with Nissan, Merc, Lexus, and so forth. Too much technology, not enough grace.
Cars from Lotus, Corvette and Porsche tend to deliver a much more driver focus, sometimes even at the expense of absolute speed (example: manual transmissions are offered in those cars because they are more fun, more economical, and lighter — not because they are guaranteed to be faster).
What I fear is that companies like Apple will be too full of themselves to listen to the analog inputs from people who know how to drive. Instead of offering user joy, the digital whiz kids will (much like all their recent software!) assume that every problem deserves an electronic answer and an app to manage and a password to enter. Driving satisfaction will be thrown out the window in favor of more room for more apps and distractions.
When that day comes then Porsche drivers will indeed be stuck behind CarPlay-enabled semi-automated rolling living rooms with inattentive and inconsiderate drivers who are having problems locating their Maps destination because they went through a dead zone and their computers hiccuped. Oh, wait, that day has already come, and it doesn’t matter where your iPhone is tucked.
Those who know the pleasure of driving and owning a Porsche, any Porsche, hope that these magnificent machines will be available to us for years and years to come. Technology has always been critical to its success. Quiet and self-driving are anathema to the experience. I welcome every sound and every connection between me and my 996 Turbo.