Porsche’s CEO has no plans to build a self-driving car.
“One wants to drive a Porsche by oneself,” says Oliver Blume, CEO of the performance car company.
All of this is according to BGR, by the way.
There’s a certain amount of logic to this. People get excited about driving a Porsche because of how fun it is to drive a Porsche, not how fun it is to ride in one. Or at least that is what I’m told (I’ve never driven a Porsche, although I’ve ridden in one).
I’m trying to think of analogies, and coming up a little bit blank.
People still go camping, even though hotels exist? People cook their own food, even though restaurants exist?
The best analogy I can find comes out of the auto industry, appropriately enough.
People still drive manual transmissions, even though automatic transmissions exist. I really like manual transmissions, in fact.
Porsche is only a moderate-volume car maker to begin with, but I will be interested to see whether they can maintain that position in the face of self-driving cars, or whether they will become more a luxury niche brand, more akin to Lamborghini or Rolls-Royce.
Originally published at www.davidincalifornia.com on February 3, 2016.
David Silver 