(Bloomberg) -- BMW AG, which became the world’s largest maker ofluxury cars by focusing on Autobahn thrills, is shifting gears toautomated driving as urbanization and changing attitudes towardcars redefine transportation.

Upscale vehicles in the future will involve “liberating driversthrough automation,” the company said Monday in a statement issuedas part of the celebration of its 100th anniversary. While theintroduction of vehicles that can drive themselves meansrepositioning the carmaker, the shift also entails “a majoropportunity for revolutionizing mobility.”

“Leadership in the digital age will be different,” ChiefExecutive Officer Harald Kruegersaid at the event in Munich.“The BMW group has always been able to reinvent itself.”

BMW wants to make driving a choice for when the driver wants theexhilaration of being at the wheel. But for mundane A-to-Btransport, the company envisages cars where the steering wheel andcenter console retract, enabling the driver to turn to face thefront passenger. The look into the future comes as the Munich-basedcarmaker teeters on the edge of losing the top spot in theluxury-car market for the first time since 2005.

Interactive windshield

With sales growth lagging behind No. 2 Mercedes-Benz, BMW isunder pressure to show it can still innovate. To that end, thecompany presented a concept called BMW Vision Next 100. The carincludes an interactive windshield that can warn of bicycles,pedestrians or other road obstacles even if they’re blocked fromhuman view.

The future car would interact much more with the outside worldthan the vehicles of today, BMW said, showing a video of how alight on the dashboard might do the equivalent of waving apedestrian forward at a crosswalk by blinking green. The conceptcould be reality within 20 to 30 years, Krueger said.

The concept car is a hint at the new CEO’s priorities. The50-year-old, who has said that he aims to stay ahead of Mercedesand No. 3 Audi, is due to present a strategy review for the companyon March 16. Making the car a personal hub will be a keyelement.

“Future mobility will connect every area of people’s lives,”said the executive, who took the top job at BMW in May. “That’swhere we see new opportunities for premium mobility.”

Artificial intelligence

BMW isn’t alone in grappling with how digital, urban lifestylesare changing what people expect from a car. The industry is set toexperience a “much wider kind of competition” as artificialintelligence makes it possible for vehicles to talk to each other,drive themselves and free up people’s commuting time, DieterZetsche, CEO of Mercedes parent Daimler AG, said last week.Mercedes presented its own concept of future upscale cars asrolling luxury lounges last year.

BMW’s last major strategic shift was in 2007, when then-CEONorbert Reithofer pushed the sporty brand to invest billions toreduce fuel consumption, produce its first electric vehicle andpioneer the mass-production of carbon fiber. The youngest head of amajor carmaker, Krueger is part of a generational shift that’s nowlooking for ways to respond to new challengers such as Apple Inc.and Google, which the BMW CEO on Monday described ascompetitors.

“In the not-too-distant future, most vehicles will probably becompletely self-driving — people will get around in robots onwheels,” BMW said in the statement. “How will we justify theexistence of vehicles by BMW, a brand for whom the individual andsheer driving pleasure are the focus of everything?”

Related: Google sees stranded seniors as big market forself-driving cars

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