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Porsche is creating an app that lets you record and play real world roads on a simulator

The app will allow you to scan any road as you’re driving it in the real world, then upload it to a simulator

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Snapshot

  • Driving simulator app in development with Porsche
  • Allows people to use their smartphone to scan roads they drive and play them in a simulator
  • Release date and final details unconfirmed

There’s nothing worse than being on a great stretch of public road and having the driving experience ruined by wildlife, other motorists or overly conservative speed limit restrictions.

Porsche is looking to solve that issue with its latest creation – an app dubbed Virtual Roads, developed in conjunction with Swiss start-up Way Ahead Technologies.

The basic idea of the software is to allow users to record any road of their choosing that they drive in the real world, which will then gets uploaded to a driving simulator allowing the road to be driven virtually.

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Essentially, if your run on iconic tarmac like the Great Ocean Road is ruined (which it almost always is), you can just go back and have a proper crack in the simulator as many times as you want.

Users with the app will simply mount their smartphone to the dashboard of their car, and it will record the whole 3D environment of the road, including trees, basic landmarks and barriers.

At first the app will only allow for virtual play to take place on smart phones, but Porsche has named popular driving simulation Assetto Corsa as one of the platforms the Virtual Roads app will eventually be compatible with.

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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," said Robert Ader, chief marketing officer at Porsche.

"We want to trigger these great memories with a much simpler digitalisation process that allows anyone to drive their favourite route virtually."

At this stage neither Porsche or Way Ahead Technologies has given a release date for the new app, and it’s also unclear if the product will only be exclusive to Porsche owners or the wider public.

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