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BMW Working on Autonomous Cars - ConnectedDrive Connect

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One of the holliest grails for automotive engineers nowadays is the autonomous car and BMW has started its own quest for it.

Dubbed ConnectedDrive Connect (CDC) the system which allows the 5-Series you see in the adjacent images to make the driver obsolete monitors the car and the exterior objects' postion by relying on video cameras, ultra sounds, lidar, radar and GPS. It uses at least two separate measurement pathways for every direction, in order to be worhty of the "safety first" slogan.

Basically, the car uses the GPS, together with the camera and digital masp to figure out its location in its own traffic lane. It is also aware of the number of lanes of a motorway, as well as of the route ahead.

In addition to that, it has a lane departure system that includes a forward-facing camera, an adaptive cruise control system with a stop&go function, as well as a laser scanner. These monitor the objects surround the vhicle, with a field of view of 360 degrees.

The CDC works just like an intelligent cruise control system, but it also steers the car into a free lane, allowing it to pass other cars and then returning it to its original lane, using speeds of up to 81 mph (130 km/h).

So far, the project has clocked around 5,000 km (3,100 miles), with the next step being to allow the car to tackle motorway junctions and road construction sites.
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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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