Daimler and BMW are collaborating to develop autonomous driving technology to cut costs and set an industry standard that can help to form future regulation for self-driving cars, senior executives stated on Wednesday.
“It is a chicken and egg situation. Somebody has to standardize the technology and regulation will follow,” Klaus Froehlich, BMW’s board member responsible for
Spiraling development expenses for self-driving vehicles have forced BMW and Daimler to collaborate to share the financial and engineering burden, executives discussed at a press conference in Geneva.
With completely autonomous cars that have no drivers, manufacturers take on potential liability risks arising from collisions, pressuring the industry to clarify technological standards so that regulators can draw up regulations.
“It is to support technology forward and to set standards already in generation two vehicles, and not just in generation four. We do not want to waste resources,” Froehlich stated to decsribe the collaboration between the German automakers.
“We should not invent this complicated wheel twice. On the path to setting these standards, it makes sense to share some of these investments,” Daimler board member Ola Kaellenius stated.
BMW and Daimler are going to form committees to select potential suppliers of advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving technology in four months, executives stated.
“Daimler started earlier working on autonomous driving; they have invested in fields of computer vision where the cooperation will benefit from this experience,” BMW’s Froehlich stated.
Kaellenius stated BMW and Daimler would develop next-generation advanced driver assistance systems for compact and larger vehicles.
The collaboration is designed to establish standards and at a later
“FiatChrysler is already a partner (with BMW). We want this partner in the future,” Froehlich stated.
FiatChrysler Chief Executive Mike Manley
