BMW Teams Up With Intel And Mobileye To Develop Self-Driving Vehicles

BMW Teams Up With Intel And Mobileye To Develop Self-Driving Vehicles.

BMW Group declared a tie-up with Mobileye and Intel for the development of autonomous cars with the aim to put them on the road by 2021. The companies have decided to a set of landmarks and expectation to demonstrate an autonomous test drive with a highly automated driving (HAD) prototype "near term". The Munich-based automaker's Number ONE > NEXT approach includes the framework for the endeavor to bring autonomous driving technology to the masses. As well, the BMW iNEXT will serve as the foundation for its fleets of fully autonomous vehicles. 

The company said Friday, The technology will be used in the iNext, set to replace the 7-Series sedan as BMW’s flagship model. The iNext will be a basis for “fleets of fully autonomous vehicles” to travel highways and eventually also be available as robot-taxis in cities, BMW said. The platform will be open for other technology and carmakers companies to use. 

“Given the players involved, this will likely become the industry standard,” Arndt Ellinghorst, a London-based analyst for Evercore ISI, wrote in an e-mail. “Today could be transformational for individual mobility. Mark your calendar.”

Compared to current self-driving technology, this new generation of cars is invented to be able to drive themselves from start to finish. This isn’t just about helping us when we’re on the highway — it’s a door-to-door self-driving car platform. BMW and its partners want to change the driver basically.

Everyone knows BMW and Intel, but Mobileye has been a silent but key player in the self-driving car industry. For the past two years, the Israel-based company has been developing camera sensors for cars. It has paved the way to today’s self-driving cars.

In recent years, the company has extended its product line from car sensors to the whole technology stack powering self-driving cars. In fact, Tesla has been using Mobileye’s technology for its Autopilot feature.

The aim of the teamwork was to develop solutions that would allow drivers not only to take their hands off the steering wheel but also reach a stage where they could also take their eyes off the road and finally their mind off driving, the statement continued.The final stage would then be “driver off”, or without a human driver inside.

“This establishes the opportunity for self-driving fleets by 2021 and lays the foundation for entirely new business models in a connected, mobile world,” the partners said.

The iNEXT must reach level 3 to level 5 of automated driving (“eyes off” to “driver off”). The three companies will then share this platform with other car manufacturers. With an open plan, these companies could make a significant profits stream through licensing deals and more.

Mobileye is providing system-on-chip technology for visual analytics, sensor processing and a set of algorithms that will help the iNEXT navigate roads and land. Mobileye has worked with BMW in the past, along with Volkswagen AG, General Motors, Nissan Motors and Tesla Motors Inc.

"Mobileye, BMW, and Intel have taken the most significant step to date in offering a fully autonomous vehicle that's ready for the average consumer," Amnon Shashua, the chairman of Mobile, said in a statement. "In just five years, the driverless experience will be activated by the touch of a button."

As for Intel, the semiconductor manufacturer is providing in-vehicle computing, cloud, and machine-learning technology; a high-bandwidth, memory and FPGA technology; low-latency connectivity system; human-machine interfaces; and safety and security technology.

"Today is an important step in bringing our vision to reinvent the driving experience," said Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. "To make this vision a reality, cars -- and everything they connect to -- will need super-powerful, secure and reliable electronic brains that make them smart enough to act like human drivers."