BMW Partners with Intel, Mobileye to Ready Self-Driving Cars for 2021 - Motor Trend - Car News, Car Reviews, Car Maintenance & Repairs

BMW is working with Intel and Mobileye to develop technology that can help bring self-driving cars to mass production by 2021.

Through the partnership, the companies hope to develop solutions for different stages of autonomy. That means reaching the “eyes off” level 3 stage before moving on to the “mind off” level 4 stage, which allows drivers to engage in leisure activities during the ride. Ultimately, BMW wants to reach level 5, which doesn’t need a human driver inside the vehicle at all.

“We are working systematically to establish the required technological building blocks: a high-definition real-time map, state-of-the-art sensor cluster and high computing power with artificial intelligence to create the real-time environmental model and motion control and system integration,” BMW development boss Klaus Fröhlich said in a statement.

BMW, Intel, and collision avoidance system developer Mobileye will make a common technology platform available to other automakers, although it’s unclear which ones will take part. The technology goes hand-in-hand with BMW’s iNEXT vision for future mobility, and the automaker previously said that by 2021, it’ll bring to market an iNEXT all-electric autonomous car.

The companies will demonstrate an autonomous prototype in the near future. In 2017, we can expect to see fleets with extended autonomous test drives, BMW says.

BMW’s announcement comes amid reports of the first confirmed fatality involving Tesla‘s Autopilot semi-autonomous driving technology. Tesla partnered with Mobileye on the Autopilot system. By 2018, Mobileye will offer Lateral Turn Across Path detection capability for its auto braking systems so the technology can react to the type of situation that reportedly occurred in the fatal Tesla Model S crash.

Source: BMW