Porsche has always been an enthusiast favorite for the simple fact that they’ve always delivered driver-centric cars. And now, Porsche says it will never have Level 5 Autonomy in its cars. According to the automaker, when it comes to self-driving cars Porsche drivers want to hand off the driving when it's tedious and take it back when it's fun. We agree.

Porsche is Keeping Drivers in Mind

Speaking to Motor Authority at the Rennsport Reunion VI, Porsche’s North America CEO, Klaus Zellmer said, "All these assistance systems help you in certain traffic situations to give away some of the burden of driving, and there are certain traffic situations where it’s just not enjoyable. Our take rates for (adaptive) cruise control are just as high as any other car brand, and that’s why in certain traffic situations, our customers will want that car to take them home without engaging personally,"

But, our customers always want it all. They want the possibility to use autonomous drive mode, but they want to really engage with the car as well," Zellmer said.

The Car Will Never Be Its Own Master

In other words, Porsche will not offer a fully autonomous, Level 5 car that will do all the driving by itself without steering wheels and pedals, like the Audi Aicon. Instead, Porsche will let the car take over when you don’t want to drive it, like in traffic, but the driver will always have the option to pilot the car. For now, Porsche has access to the work Audi has been doing on self-driving cars, which includes a Level 3 system.

The least engaging thing Porsche has done for drivers, is offering Innodrive. It uses GPS data and vehicle sensors to determine the appropriate speed for a corner and slow the car to that speed while the driver controls the steering. It takes out the fun of cornering the car hard, but fortunately, it’s not offered on fast cars like the 911.

Our Take

When other automakers were moving from manual transmissions to autos, Porsche made sure to stick to the manuals. When other manufacturers were moving to electrify the whole range, Porsche said it’ll continue providing internal combustion engines. So, indeed, Porsche is committed to serving the ‘drive-self’, and not the ‘self-drive’ community. What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section below.