German car manufacturer BMW has reiterated its desire to invest in the development and production of self-driving vehicles by agreeing a deal with Mobileye. Mobileye is an organization that develops vision-based advanced driver assistance systems which provide warnings for collision prevention and mitigation.
Mobileye has continued to grow and expand since its inception in 1998. BMW disclosed details of the collaboration and revealed that the two companies reached an agreement which will see BMW install Mobileye's data generation technology in its cars starting with BMW's 2018 models.
In a joint statement , both companies said the deal to use crowdsource real-time data using vehicles equipped with Mobileye's camera-based driver assist technology is ‘absolutely critical' for enabling autonomous driving through HD definition (HD) maps specifically aimed at making driving safer and more efficient.
Earlier this year, BMW outlined its plans to deploy a fleet of 40 self-driving test vehicles on the road in the second half of this year, and its latest deal with Mobileye shows how the German car manufacturing colossus is strategically focusing on the development of autonomous cars and self-driving as the future of the organization.
To support the rapid creation and updating of HD mapping, BMW and Mobileye will transfer data to German digital mapping firm HERE, which will use the data to update its real-time cloud service for automated vehicles. Last week, Volkswagen (VOWG p.DE) said it would cooperate with Mobileye on a road navigation system.
BMW, Mobileye and Intel have previously outlined their hopes to have autonomous vehicles ready for the consumer market by 2021.