FCA joins with BMW, Intel and Mobileye to build autonomous vehicles
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has announced it is joining with BMW, Intel and Mobileye to co-develop a shared autonomous vehicle platform.
BMW, INTEL AND MOBILEYE have signed a memorandum of understanding with FCA to become the first automaker to join “them in developing a world leading, state-of-the-art autonomous driving platform for global deployment,” a statement by BMW read.
According to BMW, the aim is for the development partners to make use of their strengths in certain areas of development, to improve efficiency of production and reduce the time to market. “One enabler to achieve this will be the co-location of engineers in Germany as well as other locations. FCA will bring engineering and other technical resources and expertise to the cooperation, as well as its significant sales volumes, geographic reach and long-time experience in North America,” BMW said.
“In order to advance autonomous driving technology, it is vital to form partnerships among automakers, technology providers and suppliers,” said FCA Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne. “Joining this cooperation will enable FCA to directly benefit from the synergies and economies of scale that are possible when companies come together with a common vision and objective.”
Last year, BMW Group, Intel, and Mobileye announced they were joining forces to make self-driving vehicles a reality by collaborating on highly automated driving (Level 3) and fully automated driving (Level 4/5) with an aim to have the technologies in production by 2021. Since then, the partners have been “designing and developing a scalable architecture that can be used by multiple automakers around the world, while at the same time maintaining each automaker’s unique brand identities”.
It’s expected the collaboration will see 40 autonomous test vehicles on the road by 2017 year-end. It also expects to benefit from leveraging data and learnings from the recently announced 100 Level 4 test vehicle fleet of Mobileye, an Intel Company, demonstrating the scale effect of this collaborative approach.
“The two factors that remain key to the success of the cooperation are uncompromising excellence in development, and the scalability of our autonomous driving platform,” said Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG. “With FCA as our new partner, we reinforce our path to successfully create the most relevant state-of-the-art, cross-OEM Level 3-5 solution on a global scale.”
“The future of transportation relies on auto and tech industry leaders working together to develop a scalable architecture that automakers around the globe can adopt and customize,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. “We’re thrilled to welcome FCA’s contribution, bringing us a step closer to delivering the world’s safest autonomous vehicles.”
“We welcome FCA’s contributions and use of the cooperation’s platform, which has made substantial progress over the last year and is rapidly entering the testing and execution phase,” stated Professor Amnon Shashua, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Mobileye, an Intel Company. “The combination of vision-intense perception and mapping, differentiated sensor fusion, and driving policy solutions offers the highest levels of safety and versatility, in a cost-efficient package that will scale across all geographies and road settings.”
FCA’s involvement is not confidence-inspiring. What happens when your autonomous care breaks down? The hype is extreme. I won’t be hopping into a self driving car in a hurry. Like anything software driven, the tester is also the customer. What could possibly go wrong?