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Porsche Taycan interior details: Driving Modes, Voice control, Multi-Touchscreens, and more

A rendering of the Porsche Taycan in white. (Credit: felixtb/TaycanForums.com)

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Porsche has revealed interior details for its all-electric Taycan, giving the world a first look at the multiple touchscreen displays and 911-inspired cabin layout, but with a modern twist. 

In a press release, Ivo van Hulten, Director Interior Design Style at Porsche AG, explained that the Taycan features a blend of traditional and digital interior accents. “Less is more applies here too. The Taycan interior combines design elements typical for the brand with a new type of user experience, and impresses with its simple elegance,” he said. This is a prominent theme in the Taycan’s interior, with the vehicle’s controls being mostly accessible from a series of displays. 

Here are the Top 5 things you need to know about the Porsche Taycan interior. 

Driving Modes

Porsche Taycan curved digital touchscreen instrument cluster
Porsche Taycan curved digital touchscreen instrument cluster | Credit: Porsche

Its instrument cluster consists of a curved, rounded 16.8″ screen with touch-enabled buttons on the side. The instrument cluster will have four modes:

  • Classic, which shows the car’s power meters;
  • Map Mode, which replaces the center power meter with a map layout;
  • Full Map Mode, which replaces all the gauges with a navigation map across the instrument cluster
  • Pure Mode, which only displays essential information such as speed, traffic signs, and navigation.

 

5 Touchscreens

Apart from the touch display on the curved instrument cluster, a central 10.9″ infotainment display acts as the main control for the vehicle’s onboard controls that also includes Apple Music integration. An identical display carries over to the passenger and available as an option. Additionally, an 8.4″ touch panel with haptic feedback is located directly below the center touchscreen and within the driver’s reach while the arm remains in a resting position. A fifth, 5.9″ display is also available for rear-seat passengers to adjust climate control settings among other comfort functions.

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“The driver can quickly access all apps via a clearly structured and customizable home screen. Apps
include navigation, telephone, media, comfort and Porsche Connect,” notes Porsche in its press release.
 

Vent-less Climate Control

Porsche Taycan interior 5 touchscreens center armrest
Porsche Taycan interior 5 touchscreens center armrest cupholders | Credit: Porsche

Porsche opted to do away with traditional air-conditioning knobs and buttons with the Taycan, with the company opting to have the vehicle’s climate controls exclusively accessible through the 8.4″ touchscreen in the center console. Airflows could be switched from “Focused” for fast, directional cooling, to “Diffused,” for draught-free air conditioning.

 

Voice Control

Porsche noted that it opted to drastically reduce the buttons and knobs of the Taycan with its fully-customizable digital touchscreen displays. Apart from the multiple displays in the interior with 911-inspired digital gauges, Porsche also emphasized the use of a voice assistant to access the vehicle’s functions. Users of the vehicle could access this custom voice assistant by saying “Hey Porsche.”

 

Interior Color Choices

Porsche Taycan center touchscreens armrest cupholders
Porsche Taycan center touchscreens armrest cupholders | Credit: Porsche

Porsche is bringing its trademark customization options for the Taycan. Buyers of the vehicle could opt for classic leather for its interior, though sustainably-tanned Club Leather, which uses olive leaves in the tanning process, will also be available. Leather-free interior options will be offered as well, such as a  “Race-Tex” material that uses microfiber that’s partially made of recycled polyester. Impressively, the Taycan’s floor coverings are made from recycled fishing nets. 

Buyers of the Porsche Taycan could expect a wide range of accents that can be customized for their vehicles. Porsche has so far announced four interior colors that are exclusive to the Taycan: Black-Lime Beige, Blackberry, Atacama Beige, and Meranti Brown. An optional interior accent package also gives customers the choice of having contrasting color schemes in Black-Lime Beige, Blackberry, Atacama Beige, and Meranti Brown. Door accents and the center console could be wood trim, matt carbon, embossed aluminum, or fabric.

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke

Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.

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SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.

Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.

SpaceX comes with a slew of changes for Starship Flight 13

 

The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.

Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.

SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.

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Elon Musk secretly acquires $1B energy company to power the AI future

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Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk flew under the radar with his recent purchase of a $1 billion energy company, according to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) documents.

Transaction number 202612350 listed Tesla and SpaceX frontman Elon Musk as the acquiring party and CF APR Super Holdings LLC as the seller, with New APR Energy, LLC as the acquired entity. The deal, which closed without public announcement, came to light on May 14.

Analysts inferred the deal’s scale from minority stakeholder disclosures, including one report of a 5 percent interest sold for approximately $50.4 million. Fortress Investment Group had purchased APR’s assets in late 2024, rebranded the operation as New APR Energy, and subsequently transferred ownership to Musk.

APR Energy specializes in rapidly deployable power infrastructure. The company maintains one of the world’s largest fleets of mobile gas and diesel turbines, with more than 1.1 gigawatts of generation capacity. Its modular units, which are often trailer-mounted, enable turnkey installations ranging from 20 MW to over 500 MW.

Elon Musk admits he was ‘clearly wrong’ about Anthropic

APR provides full engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance services for behind-the-meter power plants, serving everything from data centers, utilities, and industrial clients.

The firm has expanded aggressively to meet surging demand, recently adding turbines and deploying over 100 MW for a major AI hyperscaler. Its solutions bridge critical gaps where grid interconnections face delays of two to five years, according to Yahoo.

The acquisition means something more for Musk. As he continues to expand projects in artificial intelligence, especially xAI, his AI venture, there is a greater need to supply energy-intensive supercomputing clusters, including the Colossus project, with what they need: reliable and high-capacity power.

Ownership of APR provides immediate access to flexible generation assets that can be deployed adjacent to data centers, reducing dependence on a strained infrastructure. It also complements Tesla’s energy storage business, so Musk will be able to pull from his own entities to address the rapid scaling demands of AI training and compute.

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Tesla has to fix a big problem with its old headlights, NHTSA says

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tesla model 3 first generation headlight
Credit: Tesla Asia/Twitter

Tesla had a petition protesting a recall to fix a potential issue with 2017-2023 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles’ headlights was denied, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disagreed with the company’s opinion of things.

The recall covers approximately 19,917 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles built from 2017 to 2023. Tesla initially submitted a noncompliance report for the headlights on these vehicles on March 15, 2024. Tesla then petitioned for an exemption from the fix, which violated FMVSS No. 108 (40 CFR 571.108), arguing that the “noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety.

The NHTSA disagreed, stating that Tesla’s conclusion that the headlights do not increase any risk was not an opinion it shared. The agency said it disagreed with Tesla’s assumption that glare is not increased to surrounding traffic. This issue could be highlighted even more in certain weather conditions.

Tesla will be required to remedy the issue, the NHTSA ruled:

“In consideration of the foregoing, NHTSA has decided that Tesla has not met its burden of persuasion that the subject FMVSS No. 108 noncompliance is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety. Accordingly, Tesla’s petition is hereby denied, and Tesla is consequently obligated to provide notification of and free remedy for that noncompliance under 49 U.S.C. 30118 and 30120.”

The issue here appears to be the angle of the headlights and the brightness they emit during operation. The NHTSA report states that:

“Tesla’s headlamp supplier, Marelli Automotive Lighting, tested 25 right-hand and 25 left-hand lamps, and for this sample, found the maximum photometric intensity measured in the 10°U to 90°U and 90°L to 90°R zone was between 136.2 cd and 230.1 cd for the right-hand lamps and between 117.5 cd and 160.3 cd for the left-hand lamps. According to Tesla, these tests revealed that the photometric intensity of the right-hand and left-hand headlamp lower beam on the subject vehicles may measure as much as 230.1 cd in the 10°U to 90°U and 90°L to 90°R zone, exceeding the maximum photometric intensity by 105.1 cd. Additionally, Tesla states that a left-hand lamp tested by a Transport Canada recognized laboratory measured a maximum of 171.27 cd in the 10°U to 90°U and 90°L to 90°R zone. Despite these measurements exceeding the allowed photometric maximum of 125 cd, Tesla believes that the subject noncompliance is inconsequential to motor vehicle safety.”

Tesla also argued at some points that the headlights had not been deemed responsible for any complaints, accidents, or injuries related to the noncompliance.

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