Here's why Porsche and Mazda plan to make autonomous driving an optional feature in future cars

Porsche

According to a recent study by The Boston Consulting Group, 25% of all miles driven in the United States will be covered in self-driving cars by the year 2030. Virtually every major automaker is hard at work creating vehicles that can take you from point A to point B safely without you ever having to do any driving yourself.

Despite this industry-wide effort to make autonomous driving effective and affordable, some automakers are not yet ready to take the steering wheel out of your hands for good.

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In an interview with Bloomberg, the North American CEOs of Mazda and Porsche - Masahiro Moro and Klaus Zellmer, respectively - explained that their ultimate goal is to give their customers the choice to use their cars however they want.

Mazda's CEO said that because the company has a small market share, it is able to focus only on customers who truly enjoy the experience of driving.

"We'll always take a human-centric approach," Moro said. "The driver will have control and we'll try to improve peace of mind. If anything happens to the driver, the system will override immediately to bring the car to a safe place."

Moro explained that Mazda is not planning on rolling out fully autonomous cars, but instead cars that will constantly be correcting driver error to improve safety.

Porsche's Zellmer, on the other hand, likened an autonomous driving mode to features like cruise control and lane-keeping assist, and said that it will eventually be standard in every Porsche.

"You will be able to press that button and the car will take you home, because our customers also experience traffic situations they don't enjoy and they want to do something else," he said. "You have to let the customers choose. We'll deliver customers the possibility of autonomous driving mode."

Read the full interview with Bloomberg here.