Porsche cars of the future may drive itself as fast as Mark Webber on-track



In an interview with Porsche AG Vice President of the Executive Board, Lutz Meschke released by Porsche, Meschke revealed a juicy feature that may find its way to future Porsche sports cars – the Mark-Webber-Function.

Named after racing driver and Porsche Brand ambassador, the Mark-Webber-Function – what Porsche calls it internally – is an autonomous driving feature that enables Porsche cars to autonomously lap around racetracks such as the Nürburgring just like how Webber would. The software will first load up the exact course driven by Webber and autonomously replicate the “ghost”, from racing lines down to the breaking point.

As good as having Mark Webber in the driver seat?

Drivers can then experience the ideal driving lines first-hand thus learning new things and improve over time with Mark Webber as their “coach”. Porsche envisions the system to also come with a virtual coach function which guides the driver to follow Webber’s driving style at their own pace. With the car (and Webber) showing the driver the ideal course, the driver can then improve their skills as a driver via direct feedback from the car.

Porsche explained that autonomous driving and technology has tremendous potential to further enhance the Porsche driving experience like the Mark-Webber-Function. Meschke expressed that many of its customers are track enthusiast and a function like these will cost an additional four-digit amount which makes it a feasible business case. To have an FIA World Endurance Champion drive you around a track and have him as a virtual coach, the four-digit premium sounds like a bargain already!