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New tech could allow Porsche to turn the Taycan into a high-speed movie theater

Ronan Glon
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2020 porsche taycan electric car will offer integrated apple music interior
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The Taycan scheduled to break cover in less than a month is different than any Porsche released before it, and not just because it’s electric. It’s packed with considerably more tech features than the other cars in the company’s range, letting users access a wider selection of features like video streaming. Internet browsing isn’t one of them, though.

One box on the sedan’s list of extra-cost options corresponds to a 10.9-inch screen embedded into the passenger-side part of the dashboard. It essentially gives the front passenger his or her own infotainment system. The screen can be used to access navigation information, media settings, and connectivity options, among other functions. Porsche revealed it’s considering adding video streaming to the second screen, but it’s looking for a safe, distraction-free way to integrate the feature.

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“We are working on the video use case, but we want to make it safe,” said Oliver Fritz, Porsche’s director of driver experience, in an interview with Automotive News. The publication Porsche is developing a technology that limits the second screen’s viewing angle to help ensure the driver can’t see the program the passenger is looking at. There’s no word yet on when the technology will be available, and whether the company will send it out via an over-the-air software update.

Porsche plans to use the Taycan to lure past, current, and prospective Tesla owners into its showrooms. But while the Model S comes with a web browser that lets the occupants — hopefully not the driver — surf the internet on the go, its German rival won’t allow passengers to read Digital Trends on its touchscreen due to security concerns identified by software engineers. That means the video streaming function would be available via an app, not by logging onto the Netflix site, for example.

“Other OEMs offer web browsers with a lot of security on the back end. We don’t think that’s actually the way we want to go. If someone really wants to browse web pages, doing it on the smartphone is probably a better way,” Fritz told Automotive News in a separate interview.

We’ll learn more about what the Taycan’s Apple Music-enabled infotainment system can and can’t do when the sedan makes its global debut during the 2019 Frankfurt Auto Show. Sales will begin shortly after, likely with a price tag in the vicinity of $75,000, and the first deliveries are tentatively scheduled for early 2020.

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