Porsche Wants To Allow Drivers To Record A Road And Play It Again In A Racing Simulator – CarScoops

Manys the time Ive watched a YouTuber drive a beautiful road and thought, I wish I could drive there but for whatever reason (too great a distance, too tiny a budget, too little time) I havent been able to. Porsche wants to allow me, you, and everyone to drive beautiful roads around the world with a new project called Virtual Roads.

Being made in collaboration with a Swiss start-up called Way Ahead Technologies, the program will someday exist as an app with which user can mount their phone on their dashboard and record a road. At first, users will then be able to drive the roads on their phone but eventually, Porsche wants users to be able to upload that data to a racing sim. Porsche specifically namechecks Assetto Corsa but says others will be compatible, allowing users to drive public roads over and over again.

The app will record a whole 3D environment with trees, crash barriers, and other landmarks, though it is sure not to record any people or parked vehicles. The process takes less than one percent of the time required by big studios to digitalize the race tracks that are now common in racing games because there are no lasers measuring the exact height of the tarmac. Naturally, that will mean a slightly less realistic representation of the road but Porsche says that bumps and topography will be incorporated into the resulting track.

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If you ask people what they think is the most beautiful road, everyone has their own, very personal route in mind. The characteristics of the topography are what make a route particularly attractive, regardless of whether it is a unique Alpine pass or a legendary coastal road, says Robert Ader, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). We want to trigger these great memories with a much simpler digitalization process that allows anyone to drive their favorite route virtually.

The app will use special technology, including AI to record the roads, and uploading them to racing sims wont take a ridiculous amount of time. Roger Rueegg, from Way Ahead Technologies, thinks that the app could even use data from Porsches chassis control system and G meters in the future to make roads more realistic.

After several years of development work, our software is now so advanced that it can digitalize routes for virtual roads of up to eight kilometers (4.9 miles) long in less than an hour, depending on how complex the route is, says Roger Rueegg from Way Ahead Technologies. Were also looking at other options and functions at the moment.

Unfortunately, Porsche hasnt revealed exactly when it plans to roll the app out but well be watching this project closely.

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Porsche Wants To Allow Drivers To Record A Road And Play It Again In A Racing Simulator - CarScoops