Ride sharing in mind, BMW eyes selfdriving cars
BMW will test autonomous vehicles in Munich next year as it seeks to keep up with ride-hailing firms like Uber, which have spent billions on pay-per-use personal transport.
The German carmaker will have about 40 vehicles with self-driving functions in Munich’s inner city and then expand the project to other cities, BMW executives said.
“There is a trained test driver behind the wheel of every car,” said Klaus Buettner, BMW’s vice-president in charge of autonomous driving.
Uber’s rapid growth has prompted BMW to consider how autonomous vehicles may help them accelerate their own push into pay-peruse transport.
Software and technology companies, including Lyft, Juno and Uber, have shaken up the traditional auto industry business model of selling cars by offering customers an alternative to vehicle ownership through smartphonebased ride-hailing services.
“Ride hailing is nothing more than manual autonomous driving,” said Tony Douglas, head of strategy for BMW’s mobility services. “Once you dispense with the driver you have a licence to print money.”
BMW has already made significant progress expanding into the market for car-sharing by introducing pay-bythe-minute services, such as ReachNow in Seattle.
“We had 14,000 people sign up in 4 days, in a market already served by Zipcar, Uber, Lyft and Car2go,” Douglas said.
“Someone else spent the money to educate the market and then we came in with a cool product. We will not be the largest, but we can be the coolest.”