Porsche has no interest in driverless car technology

Virtually every automaker is exploring driverless car technology, but that doesn't appear to include Porsche.

Company executive Oliver Blume apparently has no interest in autonomous vehicles, as he has told German newspaper Westfalen-Blatt that they're unlikely to sit well among its customers.

The executive said that "to drive a Porsche by oneself" is the only way to experience the luxury vehicles.

Porsche has no plans to team up with tech firms to explore self-driving cars, but the firm is launching electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the future.

The company's first plug-in hybrid will be based on its 911 model and have a range of 31 miles off a single charge. It could hit the market by 2018.

On the electric car front, Porsche has invested around €1 billion in the Tesla-rivalling Mission E, which is yet to be assigned a release date.

Driverless cars are gradually gaining traction, and the movement could kickstart if the rumours of an imminent partnership between Ford and Google prove to be true.

Porsche boss rejects driverless cars

Porsche has no plans to develop driverless cars, unlike most other carmakers who are embracing the autonomous driving revolution, its chief executive has said.

Oliver Blume told German newspaper Westfalen-Blatt that people wanted "to drive a Porsche by oneself".

He added that Porsche did not need to team up with any tech firms.

Analysts Boston Consulting Group predict that by 2025, 13% of cars will have autonomous features.

Porsche does, however, intend to launch electric vehicles, and a plug-in hybrid of the 911 model with a range of 50 km (31 miles) will hit the market as early as 2018, Mr Blume said.

Porsche also plans to spend about 1bn euros ($1.1bn) on production facilities to build the Mission E, its first-ever all-electric model, a move reflecting parent VW's growing commitment to increase its electric offerings as it struggles to overcome an emissions scandal.

VW, along with most of the big carmakers, has signalled its intention to work on driverless cars and at tech show CES revealed a partnership with Mobileye, which produces real-time image processing cameras. It plans to put the cameras in future cars to create high definition maps of roads and environments as a basis for driverless cars.

Meanwhile rival Ford is expected to announce a tie-up with Google to work on its driverless cars.

Tesla boss Elon Musk predicts that it will have a fully self-driving car by 2018.