BMW arrives late to ride-sharing business with ‘cool’ autonomous car
Vehicle brand BMW is seeking to carve out a niche for itself in a ride-hailing market dominated by Uber by positioning itself as the ‘coolest’ autonomous vehicle in town.
The German giant will start small with its own autonomous ambitions, letting loose a fleet of 40 vehicles on the streets of Munich before expanding to other cities – although a trained test driver will remain behind the wheel for now.
BMW has been stuck in the slow lane while Uber races ahead and is now playing catch-up with its own move into pay-as-you-go transport by offering consumers a cheaper alternative to purchasing a vehicle outright.
Commenting on the potential riches which await whoever can successfully marry autonomous vehicles with ride-hailing Tony Douglas, head of strategy for BMW's mobility services: "Once you dispense with the driver you have a license to print money."
Acknowledging that it will never be bigger than the likes of Uber, BMW is nonetheless confident of making its mark Douglas continued: “We had 14,000 people sign up in four 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.”
A key advantage BMW holds is its proven ability to manufacture, own and manage fleets of vehicles, similar to Mercedes with its Car2go platform.