BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye will work together with the sole purpose of bringing solutions for highly and fully automated driving into production by the year 2021.
All three companies have agreed to a set of milestones that should help them deliver fully autonomous vehicles based on a common reference architecture. The BMW iNext model will represent the foundation of the automaker’s autonomous strategy, as it will set the basis for multiple types of self-driving scenarios.
BMW believes that as the technology gets perfected, drivers will be able to not only take their hands off the wheel, but also reach the so called “eyes off level” (or level 3) before ultimately taking things a step further to the “mind off” level (4) where you no longer need to do anything in order to reach your destination.
The final stage of autonomous driving is called “driver off” (level 5), which basically means there is no human driver inside of the car, in turn leading to entirely new business models, including automated ride-sharing solutions.
“Today marks an important milestone for the automotive industry as we enter a world of new mobility. Together with BMW Group and Intel, Mobileye is laying the groundwork for the technology of future mobility that enables fully autonomous driving to become a reality within the next few years,” said Mobileye Co-Founder Professor Amnon Shashua.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich stated that “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.” This means relying on Intel’s Atom and Xeon processors, delivering up to a total of 100 teraflops of performance without having to rewrite code.
The three partners were all present at BMW’s headquarters in Munich on July 1st, expressing their commitment for a platform that will address level 3 to level 5 automated driving.
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