Following the announcement last week that German car giants BMW and Daimler will be joining forces to create technologies and solutions for autonomous vehicles, more detail has been revealed on the deal.
The long-term strategic cooperation will initially focus on advancing the development of next-generation technologies for driver assistance systems, automated driving on highways and parking features up to SAE Level 4.
Joint development will further develop into looking at more advanced levels of autonomy, both on highways and urban areas, and possibly extending the partnership to other automotive manufacturers and technology companies that might be able to help reach a successful end goal of a fully self-driving future.
This cooperation offers the BMW Group and Daimler AG a number of advantages including the shared skills and experience of the individual partners, and a scalable architecture will speed up and streamline the development of future technology generations. Besides the synergies, new technologies will be faster to market, with shorter innovation cycles.
“Autonomous driving is one of the most revolutionary trends for us at the moment, and the entire Daimler Group is working very hard on it. As always at Daimler, our top priority is safety. Instead of individual, standalone solutions, we want to develop a reliable overall system that offers noticeable added-value for customers,” said Ola Källenius, member of the board of management of Daimler AG, responsible for group research and Mercedes-Benz cars development.
“Working with the right partners, we want to make significant advances in enhancing the performance of this technology and bring it safely on the road.”
It was revealed that the next-generation autonomous driving technologies the companies will be developing are planned to be ready for market by 2020.
“As we continue to pursue our strategy, we are combining the expertise of two technology leaders. At the BMW Group, long-term partnerships within a flexible, scalable, non-exclusive platform are fundamental to advancing the industrialization of autonomous driving. Combining the key expertise of our two companies will boost our innovative strength and speed up the spread of this technology,” said Klaus Fröhlich, member of the board of management of BMW AG, development.
Interested in further developments from BMW & Daimler? Mohamed Elgharbawy, a development engineer at Daimler AG, will present ‘Adaptive verification of 360° multi-radar network for autonomous driving’ at the Autonomous Vehicle Test & Development Symposium, which takes place during the Autonomous Vehicle Technology Expo, May 21-23, 2019, Stuttgart, Germany.