BMW Group has announced that it has officially obtained the Shanghai Intelligent Connected Autonomous Driving Test License.

With the BMW iX, the BMW Group is the first premium manufacturer to integrate the 5G mobile radio standard with real ‘Dual-SIM-Dual-Active’ services into a globally available production vehicle. In collaboration with both Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, mobility is entering the 5G era with benefits such as high bandwidth, low latency, and improved telephone quality.

Chinese search engine colossus Baidu and the BMW Group has formally announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), under which the BMW Group will join Apollo, the open autonomous driving platform by Baidu, as a board member.

BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye announced on January 8, 2017, that a fleet of approximately 40 autonomous BMW vehicles will be on the roads by the second half of 2017, demonstrating the significant advancements made by the three companies towards fully autonomous driving. Revealing this at a podium discussion held during a joint press conference at CES, the companies explained that the BMW 7 Series will employ cutting-edge Intel and Mobileye technologies during global trials starting in the US and Europe.