Porsche Builds Photovoltaic Pylon, Offsetting Luddite Position On Self-Drive (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Porsche has just completed an impressive 25-meter high photovoltaic pylon. The construction, lonely in its current position and strongly resembling the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey, comprises 7,776 solar cells and is capable of generating up to 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. From 2017 it will power the elite car manufacturer's new Berlin-Adlershof Porsche center. Porsche is keen to show a progressive stance on its new range of electric vehicles, considering that it has no intention of joining the movement towards self-driving.

Comments

APorsche Self-Drive?

[NicBenjamin]

Why would any poor benighted fool pay money for a Porsche that didn't need to be driven? The entire point of their ridiculously inflated price tags is they're a joy to drive.

Re:APorsche Self-Drive?

[SNRatio]

Why would any poor benighted fool pay money for a Porsche that didn't need to be driven? The entire point of their ridiculously inflated price tags is they're a joy to drive.

er, no. The point for most buyers is to own it, talk about owning it, talk about how much better it is than brand-X, and be seen in it. The actual driving is done in stop and go urban traffic where the only joy would be a self-driving car.

Re:APorsche Self-Drive?

[Anonymous Coward]

Although I once thought as you did, this is untrue. Strangely, Porsche has few posers among their owners. Sure, there are some, but they really are few and far between. Most Porsche models don't actually cost enough to be "in" with the true poser crowd. Rather, they are usually owned by people who love to drive and love to drive a good car. My daily-driver Porsche just turned 40 and has well of 220k on it. It is used in amateur motorsports and as my daily 4-season driver. It drives better than any brand-new car I've ever driven from other manufactures. It is rattle-free after all this time and all this use. I agree, occasionally you do indeed find a prick driving a Porsche. When I bought mine I fully expected to meet a lot of jerks. But I was pleasantly surprised that most Porsche owners are simply people who love motorsports and genuinely love driving a proper driver's car. Live and learn I guess.

Re:APorsche Self-Drive?

[Guillermito]

Even if you enjoy driving most of the time, there are moments in which driving can be a hassle and self driving capabilities still make sense, even for a Porsche. For example: you might want to have an enjoyable ride driving your Porsche to your destination's door, and then let the car self drive to a parking spot and pick you up afterwards when you're done. Or perhaps you enjoy driving your Porsche on a rural winding road with no traffic, but you'd rather be working or reading when stuck in city traffic.

Re:APorsche Self-Drive?

[phantomfive]

Even if Porsche invested a lot of money in self-driving research, they probably wouldn't get it first, or best. They would end up licensing the technology from Google or others.
So might as well save their money and instead focus on their core competency, and if demand for a self-driving Porsche ever arises, license the technology.

Take care to leave your opinions out of the title!

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because many think self driving cars are a good idea, doesn't mean there are not valid reasons for not wanting to be a part of it.

This just in....

[BenJeremy]

Porsche's photovoltaic pylon discovered to be consuming megawatts of electricity from the grid when nobody is looking, and spewing large amounts of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.

Units

[Irate Engineer]

"capable of generating up to 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year"

This is an average power of 3.42 kW for those who hate people who twist units to create big, impressive sounding metrics.

Re:Units

[Irate Engineer]

And 3.42 kW is 4.58 horsepower, so you won't be doing any meaningful car charging without a lot of these things.

This sounds more like solar power just for the building. Somebody saw "Porsche solar" and "Porsche electric car" and assumed one must be connected to the other without checking the math.

You must construct additional pylons

[spiritplumber]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

luddite? ignorant much?

[sittingnut]

how is choosing one technology over another 'luddite'?
did they threaten to destroy self driving cars? if not, they are not luddites.
another example of typical overpriced 'education' is usa, resulting in careless ignorant exaggerated use of words, from people, journalist and editors, whose job is to use words.

Re:luddite? ignorant much?

[gstoddart]

Haven't you heard? Failure to champion any and all new technologies as being cool and useful makes you a luddite these days.

That or the poster is a childish ass who felt a random need to inject a stupid opinion in the title, and Timothy went along with it.

Tough call.

Up to 30,000 kWh

[jenningsthecat]

...capable of generating up to 30,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year.

Gee - is that in everyday use, or only when it knows it's hooked up to a test station in a garage?

Re:30,000 KWh per year?

[Blaskowicz]

When you plug a fourth kettle in, an ominous voice descends and tells you : YOU NEED TO CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS!