Porsche claims its cars will be the last sold with steering wheels

PORSCHE is committed to building sportscars you can drive on your own, even in the face of an increasingly autonomous future.

Speaking to Porsche’s in-house newsroom, the brand’s Vice President of the Executive Board and Member of the Executive Board, Finance and IT, Lutz Meschke detailed how autonomous tech will be implemented in future products.

The major takeaway is that even once fully-autonomous technology has been put into production, Porsche is committed to providing cars tailored towards the driver.

“Driving yourself will hopefully remain the most important thing at Porsche for a very long time,” Meschke explained.

“The Porsche sports car will be one of the last automobiles with a steering wheel. But autonomous driving will dramatically change the efficiency of using vehicles.”

Porsche isn’t shying away from autonomous tech, but instead of using it to replace the driver, the company intends to implement it to help the driver.

For example, techniques from Porsche factory driver, ex-Formula 1 race winner and World Endurance Champion Mark Webber, will be programmed into the car to teach drivers how to get the most out of Stuttgart’s best on the racetrack.

“A Porsche will always be a car that you will want and be able to drive yourself,” Meschke added.

“Nevertheless, there are of course aspects of autonomous driving that are interesting for us: Traffic jam assistants or automated parking, for example. It’s attractive to be able to use the drive into the office during rush hour for my first virtual meeting.

“Or imagine you have dinner plans and are running late – and you can let the car park itself automatically. That’s really useful. In traffic jams and when it comes to parking, the functions of automated driving will soon be “must haves”.