Porsche Gets Serious About Digitization

Porsche Mission E concept interior (Credit: Porsche)

Like it or not, cars are becoming more digitized. Instead of fighting the inevitable trend, Porsche is looking to proactively manage it. The automaker recently announced the launch of Porsche Digital GmbH, a separate company that will have offices in Silicon Valley, China and Berlin. The main office will be nearby Stuttgart.

Already, Porsche Digital has been gathering up people with experience in the auto and tech industries. It will be working with “innovators” all over the world. In other words, instead of waiting for Google, Apple or someone else to decide what goes in cars, Porsche’s going to roll up its sleeves and do the work.

Not too long ago, Porsche was talking about leveraging digitization to make it possible for cars to go through turns on a highway without having to slow down. The automaker has said before that it doesn’t want to cut drivers out of the car experience.

Porsche Digital, on the other hand, is going to be working on smart mobility and autonomous vehicles. Who knows what that really means, but hopefully a Cayman won’t just take a guy around Laguna Seca while he’s tweeting about it in the future. There are different levels of autonomous drive, so the company could be thinking about some of the less-intrusive measures, or not.

Historically, Porsche has been all about pushing boundaries. The 959 is perhaps the greatest example of this, because it was a supercar that pretty much nailed where cars were headed.