Photo: BMW
BMW is working on autonomous cars, and the news is not a secret for many months.
The blue-and-white roundel brand is one of the leading automakers from Germany and the world, and it was only natural for it to enter this territory.
BMW has published a press release that describes its plans in detail, and explains what is going to happen with cars that will be able to drive themselves.
The biggest difference between automated driving and the highest level of driver assistance technologies will come in the form of Here HD maps, which will help driverless vehicles find their way around the city and on every paved road available.
Other essential elements include ultrasonic sensors, a front-facing camera, a set of Radar sensors, LiDAR, surround view cameras, and a system to gather all of that data and analyze it. BMW calls the latter “360-degree Environment Perception,” and it is a form of artificial intelligence, if that format is easier to comprehend.
Officials of the automaker have explained that these systems have advanced more in the past decade than they had in the past 30 years combined.
The collaboration with its acquisition partners of HERE Maps has been imagined to provide a set of standards that will be employed across the platform, which will help welcome any new partners into the system at any time.
All of the investments have been made for the future of automated driving, and the first cars from this brand that will allow the driver to safely and legally pass responsibility for the driving of an automobile will be possible on vehicles launched in 2021.
It will only apply to cars that have the appropriate systems, and the human will be able to take his or her eyes off the road, but will still have to be ready to take control for models that have Level 3 autonomy.
The BMW iNext program will also begin offering Level 4 autonomous vehicles in 2021, with certain technical restraints, which will enable the human behind the wheel to sleep in particular traveling conditions. He or she must be on a road that has separated the two directions of travel, and the vehicle will rarely request the human to take over.
After 2020, BMW thinks that a point will come when it sells a car without pedals or even a steering wheel, but it will be a pilot program if it will happen.
For now, the Bavarian brand wants to focus on the projects that are going to be available to regular consumers, while the rest of the ideas from Level 5 autonomy and further are placed in the distance.
BMW has published a press release that describes its plans in detail, and explains what is going to happen with cars that will be able to drive themselves.
The biggest difference between automated driving and the highest level of driver assistance technologies will come in the form of Here HD maps, which will help driverless vehicles find their way around the city and on every paved road available.
Other essential elements include ultrasonic sensors, a front-facing camera, a set of Radar sensors, LiDAR, surround view cameras, and a system to gather all of that data and analyze it. BMW calls the latter “360-degree Environment Perception,” and it is a form of artificial intelligence, if that format is easier to comprehend.
Officials of the automaker have explained that these systems have advanced more in the past decade than they had in the past 30 years combined.
The collaboration with its acquisition partners of HERE Maps has been imagined to provide a set of standards that will be employed across the platform, which will help welcome any new partners into the system at any time.
All of the investments have been made for the future of automated driving, and the first cars from this brand that will allow the driver to safely and legally pass responsibility for the driving of an automobile will be possible on vehicles launched in 2021.
It will only apply to cars that have the appropriate systems, and the human will be able to take his or her eyes off the road, but will still have to be ready to take control for models that have Level 3 autonomy.
The BMW iNext program will also begin offering Level 4 autonomous vehicles in 2021, with certain technical restraints, which will enable the human behind the wheel to sleep in particular traveling conditions. He or she must be on a road that has separated the two directions of travel, and the vehicle will rarely request the human to take over.
After 2020, BMW thinks that a point will come when it sells a car without pedals or even a steering wheel, but it will be a pilot program if it will happen.
For now, the Bavarian brand wants to focus on the projects that are going to be available to regular consumers, while the rest of the ideas from Level 5 autonomy and further are placed in the distance.
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