Porsche Sports Car Mobility in a Future heading towards Automation

Abstract

This report contains a design proposal for a 2035 Porsche sports car vision. The vision is a reaction on a future mobility paradigm shift towards fully automated transportation (Autonomous level 5). The majority of today’s car owners are convenience driven. These type of drivers have what is referred to as a ‘rational’ way of thinking about mobility. Subsequently, their vehicle is perceived as a tool, offering flexibility and freedom. Full automation of vehicles is leading to the ultimate convenience of being transported from door to door, while maintaining time to focus on other things than driving. Therefore it can be expected to be a warm welcome to the average car user. This shift in they way people think about mobility as the result of an increase in convenience due to automation runs contrary to the way Porsche approaches this matter. Being a brand that mainly focusses on offering the most sportive option in every car segment, it creates questions about how they should answer to a situation like this without neglecting their brand identity. Approaching the mobility paradigm shift from a generational standpoint the conducted research shows that the end of a timeframe where the vast majority of sports car buyers are from a category called ‘The babyboomers’ is coming to an end. By setting the timeframe for this project to 2035, the targeted group of potential future buyers are nowadays referred to as millennials. In this project, the substantial differences between these two groups, together with the knowledge gained about important brand values and design principles are used as a base for a future concept. Consulted by Porsche’s design studio in Weissach (Germany), the design proposal in this thesis shows a vision on how Porsche as a brand can position themselves in an automated and convenience-driven future. The concept focusses on offering future sports car drivers a unique, emotional and foremost, a Porsche typical driving experience, allowing the user to focus on the road and forget about the interior as an object. Instead, the vehicle is approached from a holistic point of view. By integrating as many functions as possible into a steering module, a highly simplified new interpretation of sportive driving was design.