Fear not driving enthusiasts: Self-driving cars will not necessarily mean the end of enjoyable driving machines — at least, so far as Cadillac is concerned.

"Autonomous driving and driving passion must co-exist," Cadillac CEO Johan de Nysschen said at the 2015 J.D. Power Roundtable Monday night. He went on to promise that Cadillac will combat the "nightmare scenario" where "a robot transports us from one point to the next" thereby taking "all the fun and joy out of driving."

This pronouncement should come as music to the ears of those that feared self-driving bubble-cars like Google's autonomous prototype would reign supreme on the roadways of the future, sucking all the fun out of personal mobility.

De Nysschen imagines a future in which cars like the 640-hp CTS-V can drive themselves, but allow owners to take over for an exhilarating drive. Image: Cadillac

Funnily enough, de Nysschen seemed to speak directly to the Google bubble-car: "Many of the autonomous solutions being explored today seem to emphasize the pure utility of individual mobility," de Nysschen observed, "essentially reducing the experience — in my opinion — to a mind-numbing journey from A to B ... goodness, you might as well take the bus."

Ignoring the fact that traveling by personal, autonomous bubble-cars would be far less aggravating and smelly than public bus travel, de Nysschen is right; for cars to remain viable, they must not lose the draw of personal expression, freedom and enjoyment.

Thankfully, rather than falling into the trap of making a vehicle that does little more than move people around, Cadillac aims to stay true to its brand values and build cars that are capable of being both autonomous and exhilarating.

Further emphasizing Cadillac's interest in promoting autonomous tech alongside fun-to-drive cars, de Nysschen announced that the 2017 Cadillac CTS could be the first car to offer vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Until then, though, we'll just have to enjoy cars like the not-at-all-autonomous 640-horsepower CTS-V. Lucky us.