This makes me wonder what plan, if any, they have to attract people (like myself, for example) who don't enjoy driving for its own sake but would happily pay luxury prices for a luxury-grade self-driving car.
I think they don't see customers like that as an viable market for them. They seem to be convinced that a person that buys an Audi buys it for the fun of driving.
In reality most Audi in Germany seem to be driven by business people and consultants that need to travel a lot on the Autobahn, and i can imagine some of them wanting to have fun while spending 3+ hours a day driving, but most of them would be glad to do other stuff during that time.
But they probably did some market research, we will see if it works out for them.
Exactly. The thing is, a big advantage of going by train is that you can do some work, the travel time is not completely wasted. Why wouldn't you want to have that in a car, especially as a busy consultant?
I think Audi is over-estimating the 'fun' component - for many people in my generation, driving is a dangerous and annoying necessity. But maybe thats just the IT bubble I'm living in.
In reality most Audi in Germany seem to be driven by business people and consultants that need to travel a lot on the Autobahn, and i can imagine some of them wanting to have fun while spending 3+ hours a day driving, but most of them would be glad to do other stuff during that time.
But they probably did some market research, we will see if it works out for them.