LAS VEGAS (dpa-AFX) - BMW CEO Oliver Zipse does not see his company's business threatened by tech groups' push into the auto industry. "We are not afraid of tech players at all because we work with all of them," Zipse said on the sidelines of the CES tech show in Las Vegas. The future of the auto industry, he said, lies in the task of connecting hardware and software. In doing so, manufacturers must maintain sovereignty over data and "have the competence to be a system integrator," Zipse stressed. The complexity of vehicles is a hurdle for tech competitors, he said: "The car is not an iPhone on wheels."

The tech sector has been gaining influence in the auto industry for years. For example, they are offering Google and Apple smartphone users the ability to have their phones take over the cars' infotainment displays. Google is also developing the Android operating system, which automakers are increasingly using as a software base in the cockpit. Google's sister company Waymo is building robotaxi services, and Apple is also working on autonomous driving technology. At CES, Sony showed a prototype of a car developed with Honda that is to be launched in 2026 under the brand name Afeela.

At the same time, the car business is undergoing a profound transformation. The transition to electromobility is bringing new vehicle architectures - and manufacturers additionally want to make more money with digital services beyond car sales. Zipse sees limits to customers' willingness to buy vehicle functions on a subscription basis, for example: If they paid 50,000 euros for a car, "they can't say there's not everything in it yet." And if someone doesn't subscribe to a built-in technology, "then they've installed it for free.

The BMW boss is skeptical about the market prospects of today's autonomous driving systems, where the car can take control in some situations and liability lies with the manufacturer during that time. According to common classification, this is seen as Level 3 of autonomous driving. At Level 4, a car also only drives itself under predefined conditions, but human intervention is no longer supposed to be necessary.

BMW competitor Mercedes has been selling a Level 3 system in some models since last year, which takes over control and liability on highways at speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour until the human takes back control when prompted.

Zipse does not currently see the state of the art as sufficient for a business model: "A Level 3 system, whether at 60, 80 or 120 kilometers per hour, that constantly shuts down in a tunnel, shuts down in the rain, shuts down in the dark, shuts down in fog - what's the point? Doesn't buy a customer." No one also wants to be in the shoes of a manufacturer who misinterprets a traffic situation in the liability phase, for example, when handing control back to the driver, he said. "We don't take that risk."/so/DP/stk