What is the ROADS by Porsche road trip planner?

Planning a road trip: what is ROADS by Porsche?

Get ready to discover the app that offers spectacular driving roads at your fingertips

January 23, 2023

Aerial shot of winding Grimsel Pass mountain road in Switzerland

ROADS is a free app that’s home to the ultimate online community for those that love road trips. Unite with other passionate drivers as you uncover – and drive – the finest scenic routes in the world

No matter if it’s the one less travelled or the one as recognisable as the back of your hand, driving enthusiasts meet at the same intersection – a love of the open road. And ROADS by Porsche is the app designed to unite them. Whether solo or together with this growing community, anyone who simply loves to drive can make the most of this unique road trip route planner. Generate a stunning journey for an upcoming road trip with a single click, get inspired by people’s stories and images or even enrich the community yourself by sharing your top routes. Together, the ROADS by Porsche community is building the world’s best catalogue of epic routes out there.

Fuelled by his own passion for driving and a vision to allow anyone to easily access the greatest driving routes around the world, ROADS by Porsche was created by Marco Brinkmann. He tells us how to get the most out of the app so that every journey you make is filled with great experiences.

How did you come up with the idea for ROADS by Porsche, Marco?

Being a passionate driver myself, I know that there are basically three things that we need to act on our passion: number one is a car that we love, number two is time and number three is a route we can spend that time on. Most of us can easily tick number one, but our leisure time is usually limited and must be spent wisely. So, the question, “Where do I go next?” needs to be answered swiftly for the passionate driver. The planet is full of beautiful routes to be explored and we need a simple but effective way to find the drive-worthy ones. That’s why I decided to come up with a tool that helps users easily discover and share the best routes. As such, ROADS was created on the back of this thought at the end of 2018.

What exactly is the ROADS by Porsche app?

ROADS is a free generator for scenic routes that’s wrapped in a beautiful and easy-to-use interface. Thanks to our technology, we are able to identify the drive-worthy connections between two or more waypoints and based on the actual characteristics and environments of the road. Our proprietary routing algorithm turns these characteristics into a drivable route. Imagine it as a ‘special recipe’ for beautiful drives. The really cool thing is that this recipe is actually derived from the ROADS community itself, as well as the experience of professional drivers within the Porsche network. During the past year, we have analysed thousands of routes to find the perfect ingredients. What’s more, every route can be navigated directly inside the application thanks to our built-in navigation.

How can I tell if the ROADS by Porsche app is for me?

ROADS is not limited to Porsche drivers. If you believe driving is a lifestyle, a way to experience freedom and a key to exploring new things, then ROADS is the right place for you. If you are faced with the choice between the quickest or the most beautiful way, then you’re the kind of person who’ll choose the latter. If you love to drive or want to experience how the passion for driving feels, then you’ll feel right at home using ROADS.

In 2022, we completely re-designed the entire application and provided it with a new look, a clear focus and enriching possibilities. The result is a visually stunning and uncomplicated guide to your next scenic drive, whether alone or together with like-minded people.

Two mobile phones showing ROADS by Porsche app on screen — Available to everyone that has a passion for driving, the app is your ticket to the best roads across the globe

Ok, I’ve downloaded the ROADS by Porsche app – what do I do next?

Once you have logged in for the first time you’ll be guided through a very short onboarding before ROADS sends you to your personal dashboard. The dashboard will be localised to your current region and you’ll be presented with all available community routes, interesting new destinations to visit, community members in your area and various ways to create a new route with our route generator. As a first step, I would recommend trying out the route generator and experience what it is capable of. The fastest way to do this is via the available presets on the dashboard.

What is the route generator capable of?

This feature can either generate an exciting roundtrip based on your starting point, drive time and preferred direction or a scenic connection between two and 30 waypoints of choice. The route generator will perform both actions in just a couple of seconds. Your new route can be saved just for yourself or shared with the community.

What kind of criteria does ROADS by Porsche app use to determine these routes?

There are various layers of information, but three of the main elements that the app uses to determine the drivability of the route are curvature, speed and slope. But on top of this there are many other elements taken into consideration, such as the route’s environments or landmarks along the way.

What if I don’t like the suggested route?

If you don’t like the initial route, you can have ROADS generate an alternative. As long as there are options physically available that match the recipe, ROADS will offer them to you.

Empty, curvy road in the Swiss Alps — Hunting for curves galore in the Swiss Alps? ROADS by Porsche will find you the ideal route

Are there any possibilities to further personalise routes to your own desires?

Let’s face it, even though we all love to drive, we have different preferences when it comes to the style of driving. For example, some prefer it as curvy as possible, and some want a bit more speed in their routing. That is why you can select your preferred ‘driving characteristics’ in ROADS. Depending on your choice, your routes will be influenced to some extent.

How can I share my own route with the ROADS by Porsche community?

When saving your own route, you can opt to share it with the ROADS community. In doing so, it immediately becomes visible and drivable to all other members on ROADS. If you intend to share your route, I would recommend adding some nice images and a proper description so that the community gets an idea about the speciality of your route.

How do I select a community-generated route on ROADS?

All globally available routes shared by the community can be accessed on the interactive map in the Drive part of the app. Simply define the area where you would like to look for community routes and ROADS will show you all nearby options.

Is there a way to figure out whether a community-generated route is actually drive-worthy for me?

We introduced a so-called ROADS ‘score’. You will find it across the entire app whenever a route comes into play. Look out for a percentage value in a white hexagon shape. This score matches the route characteristics with your selected driving characteristics and indicates how likely you are going to enjoy driving it.

Silver classic Boxster Spyder or winding New York State road — Put a twist on your standard drive and allow ROADS by Porsche to generate your next favourite route | Photo: Andrew Shaylor

How do you access the ROADS by Porsche community?

When you sign up with ROADS, you automatically become part of the ROADS community of passionate drivers. This provides you with the possibility to meet like-minded people from all around the world that share the same passion. The community organises itself in groups. Every user has the option to start a group and invite community members to it. Groups can either be private or public. They can be two friends, or a thousand people that do not know each other yet. They can be about cars and routes, or any other related topic. For starters, I recommend joining the Welcome to ROADS group, where we have conversations about the app, its features and the community.

How does ROADS community itself influence the development of the app?

The beauty of this project is that it gets improved all the time, and several iterations have been influenced by feedback from the community. ROADS members can share ideas, remarks, notes and thoughts either directly in the Welcome to ROADS group or via the feedback feature inside the application. We collect all ideas and discuss each one.

Tell us about the stories you can read on ROADS by Porsche?

We have collected hundreds of interesting places and their stories from all around the world and published them on the app. If you tune your dashboard to a region that has one of these locations nearby, it will be displayed. For convenience, the location can easily be defined as a waypoint in the route generator with a single click.

Empty, straight road in middle of dry, dusty terrain. Mountains in background — Got things straight now? Head off on your next scenic roadtrip and share the results with the ROADS by Porsche community

What’s your ultimate road trip?

I actually have the so-called ‘Franconian Switzerland’ [a region of upper Bavaria, Germany, that is renowned for its beauty] literally in front of my own home. It is full of beautiful nature and is super fun to drive. I have seen many incredible roads all around the world, but honestly, I think the best route to drive is the one that you can easily access the moment you get the urge to drive, when you want to relax and free your mind.

What’s your ultimate road trip?

The ideal car is the one in your garage. I personally used to really enjoy my 718 Cayman which I had for quite some time. However, just recently I bought an incredibly beautiful 944. I really dig that ’80s vibe! Unfortunately, it’s winter in Germany right now, but I can’t wait for the driving season to start.

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