![\"BMW](\"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/driving-joy-bmws-commitment-to-fun-in-the-age-of-automation.jpg\" "\\"BMW")
<\/a><\/p>\nBMW will ensure its cars remain fun and engaging to drive, even if they don\u2019t always need a driver<\/p>\n
BMW has promised the \u201cjoy of driving\u201d will never go away\u00a0and it will continue to invest in dynamic \u201cfun and capability\u201d in future models, in parallel to the development of advanced self-driving technologies.<\/p>\n
The company was at the Shanghai motor show<\/a> in China last\u00a0week to show off its outlandish Vision Driving Experience prototype<\/a> – a\u00a0quad-motor\u00a0super-saloon concept that showcases the capabilities of the new \u2018Heart of Joy\u2019 power management system that will be used in its upcoming electric cars.<\/p>\n The radical demonstrator, evolved from the Vision Neue Klasse concept<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0previews the next 3 Series<\/a>, is described as \u201cthe fastest test bench in the world\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n With a brutal 13,269lb ft of torque and up to 1200kg of downforce, the VDE is designed not just for lightning-fast acceleration times and ultra-quick cornering\u00a0but to challenge “the limits of driving physics” – as demonstrated by a demo run straight up a 55deg ramp at the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s all part of a drive to demonstrate that “driving fun and capability will become more important than in the past”, according to BMW<\/a>\u00a0product boss Bernd K\u00f6rber.<\/p>\n He was speaking to Autocar on the sidelines of the Shanghai show, where a prevailing theme among the manufacturers in attendance was the evolution of self-driving technology\u00a0and the increasing automation of mobility in general.\u00a0<\/p>\n Volkswagen<\/a>, for example, revealed a new driver assistance\u00a0system capable of ‘level-two-plus-plus’ automated functions on motorways and urban streets, while tech giant Huawei showed off a level-three system that it says will be fitted to nearly four million cars this year.<\/p>\n Geely brand\u00a0Zeekr<\/a>, meanwhile, demonstrated that its 007 shooting brake is now capable of driving itself into precisely the right position so that a robotic charger can plug it in and charge, with no human input needed at any stage.<\/p>\n Despite Chinese\u00a0regulators announcing a clampdown on exaggerated and misleading marketing claims about autonomous vehicles, it remains a key battleground for the industry, and the\u00a0Shanghai\u00a0show was evidence that it\u2019s a primary area of investment for most leading manufacturers \u2013 so BMW\u2019s focus on driver engagement provided a stark contrast.<\/p>\n K\u00f6rber concurred: “While everyone is looking towards automation, why do we focus on driving?\u201d But he said it’s important for BMW to demonstrate that it remains committed to its core values\u00a0and its heritage as a maker of engaging driver\u2019s cars – an attribute that he believes the company can continue to lean on.\u00a0\u201cMy prediction is that the relevance of driving will actually increase in parallel to the relevance of higher automated driving.\u201d<\/p>\n This is because, K\u00f6rber<\/span> suggested, as cars become ever more \u2018intelligent\u2019 and the need for human inputs is less critical to the process of travelling from A to B, drivers will have to actively decide when to take the wheel themselves, and that means they need incentivising to do so.<\/p>\n “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\u00a0K\u00f6rber.<\/span>\u00a0“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]\u00a0will become more important.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “My prediction is we will see parallel development: ADAS and automated driving will become more important\u00a0and in parallel driving fun and capability will also become more important than in the past.”<\/p>\n K\u00f6rber cited the increasing popularity in China of riding motorbikes on country roads at the weekend,\u00a0rather than just for city commuting,\u00a0as evidence of the growing appreciation of using vehicles as a recreational activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n “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\u00a0and then you just use it in a passive mode. For me, that doesn’t make any sense.”<\/p>\n He continued: “The joy of driving,\u00a0I don’t see that going away. I see that increasing, and I see that as highly relevant for BMW.<\/p>\n “We don’t address 100% of the market;\u00a0we address a certain target group, and for them\u00a0we would like to stay true to ourselves as BMW.<\/p>\n “The worst that we could do is to say we follow every trend\u00a0and we do every feature. That would not be BMW any more.”<\/p>\n K\u00f6rber\u2019s commitment to driver engagement was backed by BMW Group design boss Adrian van Hooydonk, who told Autocar that even if future models are capable of advanced autonomy, \u201cwe want our customers always to be in control\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want them to decide when they want to drive or when the car should drive autonomously, and in the case of the Neue Klasse, that new intelligence actually has also led to this new control unit [the Heart of Joy] that will improve the handling characteristics of the car.\u201d<\/p>\n The first car to be fitted with this new controller will be the next-generation iX3<\/a>, which will be revealed\u00a0at the Munich motor show<\/a> in September.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"BMW](\"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/driving-joy-bmws-commitment-to-fun-in-the-age-of-automation-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"BMW](\"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/driving-joy-bmws-commitment-to-fun-in-the-age-of-automation-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"BMW](\"https:\/\/www.globalvillagespace.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/driving-joy-bmws-commitment-to-fun-in-the-age-of-automation-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\n