Normally whenever we're covering Porsche here at iMore it's because the German luxury sports car maker is going to get in on the latest CarPlay features, but today is a very different day. No, Apple hasn't bought Porsche after finally canning its Apple Car plans, although we've heard of stranger ideas. Instead, this story is all about CEO Tim Cook and the new Apple Vision Pro making an unexpected appearance in a Porsche promo video.
The promo video was made to celebrate the arrival of the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, an upgraded version of the rather lovely Taycan EV that happens to be the most powerful that the company has ever built. It's incredibly fast, and incredibly nice to look at. Porsche was so pleased with its work that it wanted to show it off and try and break some records in the process, so it packed its bags and set off for the Weathertech Raceway in Laguna Seca.
Once there the EV was put through its paces to see how well it fared and after proving to be pretty, pretty quick, it was over to Apple CEO Tim Cook for a celebratory chat — and yes, we got to see the Apple Vision Pro in use as well.
Confused? You will be.
Vroom vroom
So why were Porsche and its fancy car in California anyway? The Turbo GT (as well as another car with the Weissach package included) was put through a lap of the raceway to see how quickly it could be done. The record to beat was the Tesla Model S Plaid's one minute and 30.3 seconds and of course, the Porsche managed to best that with development driver Lars Kern managing a time of one minute and 27.87 seconds. So that's a fast car, to be sure.
But after all that, the promo video cuts to Porsche CEO Oliver Blume waving his hands around supposedly using an Apple Vision Pro to relive the experience. Whether or not he was, we might never know. But Cook seemed pleased for him either way. He congratulated the Porsche team on its work, adding that it's "great to see Apple Vision Pro helping reimagine track experiences." Cook went on to say that he believed "deeply that spatial computing has the potential to revolutionize virtually any industry" and that now seems to include making really very fast cars.
Maybe the Apple Car team could have used a couple.
You can see the exchange in the video below, it'll start right when things start to get all Apple-y.
The Apple Vision Pro is now on sale in the United States having been released on February 2 and has been tipped for a launch in additional countries within months. Rumors suggest that the UK, Canada, and China could be the first to see the headset launch outside the United States.
In the US, the Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499 for the 256GB model with 512GB and 1TB versions also available. Apple is also thought to be working on a new, cheaper version but quite what features and capabilities will be stripped is as-yet unclear, as is a timeframe for such a product.
