Daimler and BMW agree on long-term joint development of autonomous driving techs

4 July 2019, 16:26:29

Add as a preferred source on Google Today Daimler and BMW have signed an agreement for long-term cooperation on joint development of SAE Level 4 technologies including driver assistance systems, automated driving on highways and automated parking plus extending to higher levels of automation in urban areas and city centres. The cooperation is non-exclusive and other OEMs are welcome to participate. The companies expect a market-ready technology to be launched for end-users in 2024. The work will be shared among the teams of three main locations - the Mercedes-Benz Technology Centre (MTC) in Sindelfingen, the Daimler Testing and Technology Centre in Immendingen and the BMW Group Autonomous Driving Campus in Unterschleissheim, near Munich.

Daimler is already working on many related technologies. 2019 will see the launch in San José, Silicon Valley, of its first pilot programme, with Bosch, on self-driving vehicles (Levels 4/5) in urban environments. At the beginning of the next decade, Daimler will bring to the market not only Level 3 vehicles but also Level 4/5 vehicles (fully automated).

BMW has been working on related technologies ever since 2006. Its solution offers a Level 2 to Level 4 scalability for increased flexibility and future viability. Currently, more than 70 test vehicles around the world are testing new Level 2 - 5 functions out on the road and gather data in order to improve machine learning with artificial intelligence. This will go into series production as Level 3 automation in 2021 in the BMW iNEXT where it will also be Level 4 enabled for pilot projects.Source

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