BMW Revamps R&D For New Era Of Self-Driving Cars

BMW’s next fully electric vehicle will not arrive until 2021.

Tesla has already received more than 370,000 orders for its Model 3, although its only fully battery-powered vehicle, the i3, failed to gain traction with the public, with only 25,000 sales previous year. By contrast, Tesla already has more than 370,000 orders for its Model 3.

Instead of focusing on plug-in hybrids and electron-powered rides, BMW i will now be dedicated towards developing self-driving vehicles.

Froehlich is excited at the possibilities, which autonomous driving can provide.

“It is now in ramp-up stage”, BMW’s development chief, Klaus Froehlich, told Reuters in a recent interview. We wouldn’t expect much in the way of new i-brand models beyond the i8 roadster.

Earlier this year, BMW suffered a number of high profile defections. To master the technique, BMW is hiring people with expertise in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Dirk Abendroth, manager of BMW’s “i” powertrain group, Henrik Wenders, vice president product management BMW “i”, and Carsten Breitfeld, vice president engineering, head of the i8 vehicle programme, were poached by a Chinese electric vehicle start-up. It is also integrating the functions of existing computer driven assistance systems like cruise control, emergency braking, lane-keeping support and automatic parking, according to Reuters.

If anything, the ride-hailing/car-sharing space has seen an even greater headlong rush by traditional carmakers-with General Motors (Maven, Lyft), Volkswagen (Gett), and Toyota (Uber) all announcing investments or partnerships within the last few months. This should give BMW an edge over current ride-hailing companies like Uber.

He also believes large-scale implementation of fully autonomous cars will begin in China, the world’s largest auto market.

With a comfortable five-year path toward a new flagship long-range EV, BMW has relaunched its i division to fast-track self-driving technology.

This emphasises the scale of resources BMW might be prepared to shift to this area.