BMW and Daimler team up to develop self-driving vehicles by 2024

BMW and Daimler are teaming up in an effort to build momentum for next-gen technology, showing what autonomous vehicles, as well as smart highways developed to handle these vehicles can do to cut costs for drivers as well as improving the environment on a global scale. The technology in development includes concepts such as driver assist, automatic driving on motorways along with self-parking.

The firms are hoping to have the systems ready for public deployment by 2024 – which means there will be 4 years to complete tests and check the vehicles for any hardware errors or improvements that can be made to the technology. The scheme is taking the effort of more than 1,200 specialists who will be divided into separate teams to best suit their skillset.
Both BMW and Daimler have teamed up for major projects previously. Earlier in the year they announced the joint collaboration which invested more than $1 billion over 5 areas of development for vehicles. Established as the “Now Group”, the plans saw concepts and solutions for navigation, parking services, electrical charging points mapping as well as car-sharing solutions.

 As the technology within our vehicles becomes more and more intelligent and is only built upon further as time goes by, BMW will be one of many manufacturers considering the options to take when developing their car systems in the best way possible that will be of benefit to the consumer and prepare appropriately for the changes in technology.

Despite the budget and abilities of the teams at BMW and Daimler, this is still no easy challenge. With nothing beyond concepts as to how the technology will work in the future, it’ll be difficult to test, develop and understand what the best solutions will be before vehicles such as this ever go public on a global scale.
Other companies such as Volkswagen, Aptiv and Continental have also begun developing plans to update hardware for vehicles in an effort to prepare for the autonomous future that BMW are hoping to set the standard for by 2024.

Manufacturers are now starting to compete in the race to publically release self-driving vehicles and provide the most comforting experience for their consumers in the process, meaning a steady but inviting transition to the future of motors on a global scale. Other partnerships, such as Ford and Volkswagen are sharing their concepts for AI in an effort to develop the best intelligence. All of the manufacturers have significant competition from Google and their Waymo project.

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