Autonomous driving will bring us a number of freedoms. Passengers will be able to watch movies, read newspapers - if they still exist - or play video games while the AI drives.
But BMW thinks being chauffeured by a self-driving car can get a whole lot more exciting than that.
The German carmaker released - and then promptly deleted - an ad called "New Moments of Joy", about a future where people can have sex inside their self-driving BMW Vision iNext autonomous cars.
The racy ad was uploaded to BMW's futuristic sub-brand BMWi's Twitter account on Monday, but has since been taken down.
As described by CNET, the ad featuring an intimate couple "doesn't ever explicitly show the two inside the vehicle, but as a police vehicle motors by, the red and blue lights appear to light the steamy scene."
It's unclear why exactly BMW removed the ad, but here are a couple of hints as to why they might have: encouraging people to drive without wearing seat belts isn't exactly the best idea in 2019, despite a warning in the ad noting that it's "a demonstration only" and that "BMW does not offer self-driving cars".
Companies like Tesla have come under increased scrutiny for advertising self-driving features of their vehicles that might mislead customers about the tech's limitations.
Or was it the raciness of the ad that raised one too many eyebrows? It's a controversial idea that was bound to start a conversation about the future of self-driving vehicles.
And it makes a good point: why stop at reading a book or watching Netflix while inside the car? Perhaps the world just wasn't ready for that vision.
This article was originally published by Futurism. Read the original article.