Daimler AG and BMW Group have signed a contract for long-term development of automated driving technology. The initial goal is to develop driver assistance tech like automated highway driving assist and automated parking (all SAE Level 4). Along with this plans to extend automated driving tech to urban areas and city centres are also in the works.
The co-operation will be non-exclusive and the results of the cooperation will be open for OEM’s and technology partners to use under license. The technology that is developed courtesy of this merger should feature in passenger cars by 2024. Both companies will also individually implement the technology in their series products respectively and the venture will see more than 1,200 specialists work together..
Efforts will be focused on developing architecture for driver assistance systems. These will include sensors, joint data centres for data storage, administration and processing along with software and function development.
BMW Group and Daimler AG, along with Audi, Aptiv, Baidu, Continental, Fiat Chrysler, HERE, Infineon, Intel and Volkswagen have published a white paper which is called- Safety First for Automated Driving. The paper which was published on July 2, 2019, covers all relevant safety methods for Level 3/4 SAE automated driving. It introduces a traceability system which states how the technology will be safer than the average driver and also what the individual safety objective of various components are.
Both Daimler AG and the BMW Group have been individually working on automated driving technology and this partnership with both companies pooling their resources should help them achieve their goals sooner, more efficiently and comprehensively.
Words by Karan Ramgopal