BMW Group and Daimler AG have signed an agreement for a long term strategic cooperation for the joint development of next generation technologies for driver assistance systems, automated driving on highways, automated parking and higher levels of automation in urban areas.
The goal of the cooperation is to accelerate the launch of automated driving, which is expected to feature in passenger cars by 2024.
As for BMW Group, they’ve been working on highly automated driving since 2006 and at the moment there are more than 70 test vehicles with the next generation automated driving technology on trial.
It is expected that Level 3 automation will be available by as early as 2021 in the BMW iNEXT. As for Daimler AG, Level 4 and Level 5 fully automated vehicles will be introduced into the market early next decade.
Level 3 automation allows a car to manage most aspects of driving while monitoring its surrounding area. When the system detects a situation it can’t manage, the driver will be prompted to resume control of the car. Level 5 merely requires a destination to be keyed in.
Next year, Daimler AG will be launching its first pilot programme, in collaboration with Bosch on self-driving vehicles in urban environments.
