Saving the planet and saving lives is all well and good, but the "future of mobility" has a bit of a sex-appeal problem. And it's a problem to which BMW has excitedly said, "Hold my beer."

Its latest effort at advertising is a ten-second spot posted on BMW i's Twitter page. It includes two people locked in an amorous embrace and seems to suggest that this is all happening in one of its Vision iNext concepts while it drives.

A space where everything can be done with ease.
The BMW Vision iNEXT. #BMWi#VisioniNEXT pic.twitter.com/lqvkLMzj3k

- BMW i (@BMWi) September 23, 2019
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People haven't embraced the ad with quite the same enthusiasm as the protagonists in it. Comments on the post range from the simple "Wtf is this marketing," to the more safety-oriented "'You don't need seatbelts if you're not driving' -BMW 2019. Oh wait, yes, yes you do," to the perhaps a bit over the top "BMW has lost my respect with this ad. Who comes up with this? THIS is how you market perfume... enough said."

The thing is, BMW isn't exactly wrong. While, yes, always wear your seatbelt, nothing is less sexy than a car crash, research arguing that this would be common in the self-driven future was published in the Annals of Tourism Research early this year.

The paper was mainly interested in how that might affect hotels, motels, and the tourism industry in general but notes that 60% of people have already had sex in a car, which is a trope that BMW appears to be playing on here.

https://youtu.be/GTlKRUMIuS8?t=100

As seen in a number of TV shows and movies, BMW uses a cop car to suggest that the couple in the ad will have their windows tapped on as if they're being asked to move along from the parking lot at make-out point.

Instead, the cop drives by and a title card that reads "New moments of joy" comes on screen.

Whether or not you're clutching your pearls at this fresh new assault on the Hays Code, it doesn't appear to be having the intended effect of getting people excited for autonomous vehicles. Although as is often the case with these kinds of ads, it is at least getting some attention.