BMW, Intel, and Mobileye have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to develop a state-of-the-art autonomous driving platform for use globally.
The development partner’s intention is to leverage each one’s individual strengths, capabilities, and resources to create the platform’s technology, increase development efficiency and reduce time to market.
FCA will bring engineering, other technical resources and expertise to the cooperation, as well as its significant sales volumes, geographic reach and long-time experience in North America.
“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.”
In July 2016, BMW Group, Intel, and Mobileye announced that they were joining hands to make self-driving vehicles a reality. They would collaborate to bring highly automated driving (Level 3) and fully automated driving (Level 4/5) into production by 2021. Since the announcement, the companies 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 of its unique brand identities.
The cooperation remains on-track to deploy 40 autonomous test vehicles on the road by the end of 2017. The alliance is also expected to benefit by leveraging data 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.