“I truly believe that there will be situations and use cases where, even already, it’s not fun to drive: in a city, queues, commuting,” said Körber. “And then people will in other areas and use cases make a conscious decision to actively drive. They will do that consciously. With a conscious decision to drive, [engaging vehicle dynamics] will become more important.”
“My prediction is we will see parallel development: ADAS and automated driving will become more important and in parallel driving fun and capability will also become more important than in the past.”
Körber cited the increasing popularity in China of riding motorbikes on country roads at the weekend, rather than just for city commuting, as evidence of the growing appreciation of using vehicles as a recreational activity.
“So why should everything move towards the car being just a robotaxi in the end? You make a high investment into a highly emotional car and then you just use it in a passive mode. For me, that doesn’t make any sense.”
He continued: “The joy of driving, I don’t see that going away. I see that increasing, and I see that as highly relevant for BMW.
“We don’t address 100% of the market; we address a certain target group, and for them we would like to stay true to ourselves as BMW.
