Ducati’s CEO Hopes Self-Driving Motorcycles Never Become a Thing

Ducati’s top executive said he hopes he’ll never see the day when motorcycles can drive themselves.

Jason Chinnock, who has been with the Italian luxury motorcycle company for over 20 years and served as its North American CEO for a decade, said being a motorcyclist is a core part of his identity.

He told Business Insider in an interview that a self-driving motorcycle would “take away the entire reason to ride a motorcycle.”

Autonomous cars, he said, are useful for mobility — they transport people in a “safe, smooth, efficient, and carefree way.”

He said Ducati’s motorcycles are less about transportation and more about entertainment and the riding experience.

“We are not building mobility. We’re building motorcycles. We’re building something for joy and for fun,” Chinnock said. “If it takes away the ability to operate it and experience it, then just get in a pod and go from point A to point B.”

There are no commercially available self-driving motorcycles. Some companies, such as Japan’s Yamaha and the Singapore-headquartered Omoway, have started work on self-balancing bikes.

However, Ducati is not entirely dismissing autonomous features, adding them where necessary for safety. For instance, Chinnock said some of Ducati’s models come with electronic cruise control, traction control, and an anti-lock braking system.

Ducati, which was founded in Bologna, Italy, in 1926, is owned by the Volkswagen Group.

Its motorcycles cost more than $10,000 in the US, with some models exceeding $40,000. In 2024, Ducati sold about 55,000 motorcycles worldwide, earning 1 billion euros, or about $1.17 billion, in revenue.

Autonomous cars are gaining traction globally. Tesla’s robotaxis and Alphabet’s Waymo both offer autonomous taxi services in San Francisco and the Bay Area, with Uber set to join the fray this year.