BMW, Intel, and Mobileye are joining forces to produce self-driving cars which will possibly hit the streets by 2021
BMW AG, Intel Corp. and Mobileye NV are working to develop self-driving vehicles as future mobility concepts become a reality, the companies announced in Munich on Friday.
The three leaders from the automotive, technology and computer vision and machine learning industries are collaborating to bring solutions for highly and fully automated driving into series production by 2021.
According to a joint statement released by the companies: “The future of automated driving promises to change lives and societies for the better. But the path to get to a fully autonomous world is complex and will require end-to-end solutions that integrate intelligence across the network, from door locks to the data center. Transportation providers of the future must harness rapidly evolving technologies, collaborate with totally new partners, and prepare for disruptive opportunities.”
The BMW Group has developed its framework to remain the driving force behind premium individual mobility. This approach will become driving reality with the BMW iNEXT model in 2021, heralding a new era of mobility.
The company also mentions potential ride-sharing use cases with a technology platform that would let BMW manage a fleet of autonomous vehicles. And this could affect many areas of the transportation industries — truck drivers, construction vehicles, etc.
BMW said the trio would develop computer and sensor systems that gradually reduce the part humans play in driving a car. Ultimately, it said, it hoped to produce vehicles that could operate entirely autonomously without any people onboard.
The driving force behind this partnership and its ambitious goals is not the competition, but rather safety. BMW wants to be able to offer the technologies the partnership develops as a package or a platform that others can integrate into their future models.
And the first step towards that platform will be a new prototype car that can deliver level-3 autonomy (known as eyes-off driving) by 2017. It will then morph into a fleet of autonomous cars by 2021 capable of the next two steps — “mind-off” and then “driver-off” autonomy.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said, “Highly autonomous cars and everything they connect to will require powerful and reliable electronic brains to make them smart enough to navigate traffic and avoid accidents.”
‘Following our investment in high definition live map technology at HERE, the combined expertise of Intel, Mobileye and the BMW Group will deliver the next core building block to bring fully automated driving technology to the street. We have already showcased such groundbreaking solutions in our VISION NEXT 100 vehicle concepts. With this technological leap forward, we are offering our customers a whole new level of sheer driving pleasure whilst pioneering new concepts for premium mobility,’ said Harald Krüger, chairman of the board of BMW AG.
Mobileye’s headquarters and R&D center are located in the capital’s Har Hotzvim Technology Park.