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Jul 01, 2023

Porsche Driver Experience Dashboard to Debut in 2024 Cayenne SUV

Related Video Meet the Porsche Driver Experience. Despite the weirdly ambiguous name, the new interior vehicle concept has more to do with infotainment than driving. The new dashboard and touchscreen

Related Video

Meet the Porsche Driver Experience. Despite the weirdly ambiguous name, the new interior vehicle concept has more to do with infotainment than driving. The new dashboard and touchscreen concept rearranges the typical Porsche interior—such as the gearshifter, which moves to the dash—and absolutely stuffs it with screens. As you can see in these photos, that includes an (optional) 10.2-inch display in front of the passenger. The new interior arrangement will debut on the upcoming 2024 Porsche Cayenne SUV.

As you can tell, this is more than just a single new feature or element, it's in essence an interior "system" of related components and concepts for a very different ergonomic experience. Starting with the driver's position, there is a new steering wheel that apes the 911's design, and now features a stalk on the left that controls the driver-assistance features. Behind that is a new 12.6-inch, freestanding, curved digital instrument cluster, housed in a nice binnacle. Compare the new interior (up top) with the current Cayenne's interior (just below) and the differences are stark.

Just to the right of the new instrument cluster is a little gearshifter nub. It replaces the more conventional gearshift stalk found in the current Cayenne, and looks a bit more like the 911 PDK's "electric razor" unit (albeit rotated to the vertical orientation). The dash-mounted shifter looks extremely space-efficient, and frees up room in the center console for a mix of hard and capacitive touch buttons to control the HVAC system. It seems like a clean, elegant solution that makes the center console area less cluttered and probably easier to use—and offers more storage space, always appreciated.

Above the HVAC controls and central vents is the 12.3-inch main infotainment display, which does all the things you'd expect. What's new and notable is just to the right of it, that passenger touchscreen mentioned previously. Porsche says it uses an optical filter to prevent the screen from distracting the driver, allowing the passenger to watch a video.

The overall effect, with the passenger screen, certainly conveys the "wow" factor that other dash-spanning screen setups manage. But, since this is a Porsche, there's a clear differentiation between the driver's display and the rest of the screens, almost subconsciously reminding the occupants that the attention should be on driving and less on the IMAX-like spread of displays that crosses the rest of the interior.

The new Cayenne debuts on April 18, 2023, and we'll see if the rest of the vehicle is as eye-popping as its interior then. If the prototype we sampled recently is any indication, that shouldn't be an issue.